86 Defensive Backs Quotes
Following is our list of defensive backs quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about defensive basketball.
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Famous Defensive Backs Quotes
Defensive and offensive lineman control the game and true sports fans know that. — Dante Hall
If I was going to play offense, I'd love to play running back. In high school I played quarterback and wide receiver, but I wouldn't mind running over some folks. — Ronnie Lott
It takes brains. It's not like a forward, where you can get away with scoring and not play defense. On defense you have to be thinking. — Chris Chelios
Good defensive play is as much a matter of hustle, desire and pride as it is anything else. — Tex Winter
If you're not talking, you're not playing defense — Doc Rivers
Your defense will save you on the nights that your offense isn't working. — Adolph Rupp
Now that I'm retired, I want to say that all defensive linemen are sissies. — Dan Fouts
The toughest opponents for me are the defenders who are tough in the way they play - where you can't see a way through. — Ronaldinho
The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb. — Knute Rockne
Defense is what matters. Scoring doesn't interest me. — David Robinson
I'm the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that is the result you are going to get. Don't you ever talk about me. — Richard Sherman
A great defensive effort. The one thing we have to do is make it hard for people to beat us. We're not worried about winning and losing, we just have to make the game hard — John Calipari
The best defense is a good offense. — Jack Dempsey
A guy like Malcolm who makes that type of quick, instinctive plays, that's one of his strong suits. I don't think it surprised any of us players because that's what his skill set is. — Tom Brady
Criticize on defense and encourage on offense. — John Brady
Short Defensive Backs Quotes
- The quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard — Al Davis
- Best defense, thorough analysis, margin for error — Howard Marks
- A helluva athlete, the best ever to play his position in the history of the game. — Al Davis
- I call them the Sons of Anarchy Muhammad WilkerSON, Damon HarriSON, Sheldon RichardSON — Jon Gruden
- There is no such thing as a successful defense. — George S. Patton
- To be a great player, you have to affect the entire unit. — Nick Saban
Defensive Back Quotes
It is true that a victim who fights back may suffer for it, but one who does not almost certainly will suffer for it. — Jeff Cooper
You are most powerful when you are most silent. People never expect silence. They expect words, motion, defense, offense, back and forth. They expect to leap into the fray. They are ready, fists up, words hanging leaping from their mouths. Silence? No. — Alison McGhee
You have to make shots to win basketball games and we didn't do that. You also have to get back on defense, so it was a double-whammy. — Gregg Popovich
Only in time of fear is government thrown back to its primitive and sole function of self-defense and the many interests of which it is the guardian become subordinate to that. — Jane Addams
The one who fights back retains his dignity and his self-respect. — Jeff Cooper
The strategies of offense and defense are very similar between chess and football. Chess really brought closeness to the team back in those days. — Rubin Carter
The Berlin Defence suited my strategy for the match. I had a defensive strategy - Actually, I had in my pocket some other sharper stuff to fall back on - but first I wanted to try the defensive strategy with Black and it worked so well. — Vladimir Kramnik
The victims of social injustice, since time eternal, have always been without the resources and the ability to fight back. They are defenseless and voiceless. Thee sad aspect of social injustice is that the defenseless and voiceless are the ones who most need a defense and a strong, vibrant voice. — Tommy Makem
I am disappointed, but I am realistic too. When you put your defense back on the field repeatedly, the offense needs to do its job and the defense needs to get itself off the field. — Les Miles
The criminal does not expect his prey to fight back. May he never choose you, but, if he does, surprise him. — Jeff Cooper
Defensive Basketball Quotes
I asked them if it wasn't too much trouble, if I wasn't being too pushy, if they could execute what we were trying to do. And if it didn't make them too angry, if they also wanted to play some defense on the other end, that would be great. — Gregg Popovich
I thought we were aggressive across the board defensively, and you could just see it grow. As the game went along, you could see the confidence grow. It showed in the fourth quarter. — Bill Laimbeer
Once the Hack-a-Shaq works once, you know I'm going to see it again. The only thing worse for basketball than that defense is the Lack-a-Shaq offense, where I have to go to the bench because of foul trouble. There is no fun in that. — Shaquille O'Neal
If one of our players gets his second foul in the first half, then he must come out of the game and not re-enter until the second half. To play defense and not foul is an art that must be mastered if you are going to be successful. — Chuck Daly
When we're playing a good scoring center, we tell our team that it is not our defensive man's job to stop the center. It's the responsibility of our perimeter people to stop the ball from going inside. — Bobby Knight
Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up. — Red Auerbach
Defense doesn't break down on the help, it breaks down on the recovery. — Chuck Daly
If you are a good team, your offense is born on the defensive end. — Don Meyer
If you want team play, you must stress defense. Defense makes players unselfish. — John Brady
Basketball also helps you learn to move your feet by playing defense and guarding guys, and that all carries over to playing football with staying square and having good footwork. — Calvin Pryor
People Writing About Defensive Backs
More Defensive Backs Quotes
Take Away Their Stick If the other's reaction to our No is to hurt or threaten us, our first instinct may be to hurt them back. A more effective strategy, however, is to neutralize the impact of their behavior. If they are threatening to hit you with a stick, don't hit them back; just take away the stick. In other words, don't attack the other, but simply remove their ability to attack you. — William Ury
Our military, our national guard, our national police, our territory defense, special service, nationals of Ukraine, please carry on. We will win. Glory to Ukraine. We are successfully holding back the enemy’s attacks. We know we are defending our land and the future of our children. Kyiv and the key areas are controlled by our army. The occupiers wanted to set up their puppet in our capital. They didn’t succeed. On our streets, there was a proper fight going on. — Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Korea has few major natural defensive lines so the Mongols came and went, as did the Chinese Ming dynasty, the Manchurians, and the Japanese several times. So for a while the country preferred not to engage with the outside world, cutting many of its trade links in the hope that it would be left alone. It was not successful. In the 20th century, the Japanese were back, annexing the whole country in 1910, and later set about destroying its culture. The Korean language was banned, as was the teaching of Korean history, and worship at Shinto shrines became compulsory. — Tim Marshall
It's well known that the greatest defence against an intruder is the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back. — Vince Vaughn
When we express our needs indirectly through the use of evaluations, interpretations, and images, others are likely to hear criticism. When people hear anything that sounds like criticism, they tend to invest their energy in self-defense or counterattack. It's important that when we address somebody that we're clear what we want back. — Marshall B. Rosenberg
Probably the most important aspect of individual defensive play is the 'close-out.' This approach to the ball should be made in a 'step-drag action' with advanced foot moving forward first and then the back foot in a boxer's type shuffling of the feet. — Tex Winter
You have to use your mind n the NFL. Every player is smarter. Defensive backs bluff and disguise coverages to try to fool you. — Chad Ochocinco
As far as I was concerned, the Panthers were 'baaaaaad.' The Party was more than bad; it was bodacious. The sheer audacity of walking onto the California Senate floor with rifles, demanding that Black people have the right to bear arms and the right to self-defense, made me sit back and take a long look at them. — Assata Shakur
You want bold? Ask the hundreds of defensive backs I ran over during my career if they think I'm bold. — Jerome Bettis
Go back through football, and you will see that the team with the best defense wins. — Vince Lombardi
A good coach is interested in how tough you are, how you react to adversity, how quickly you get back on defense. — Dick Devenzio
Defensive backs are always trying to kill me, so I'm trying to get them first. — Hines Ward
We should've been better, more disciplined. We made untimely mistakes defensively, as a group. This is really humbling for us. After winning the Stanley Cup, we got brought back down to earth, hard. Maybe the humbling is good for us in the long run. — Steve Yzerman
Let your attacker worry about his life. Don't hold back. Strike no more after he is incapable of further action, but see that he is stopped. — Jeff Cooper
Being a running back helped me tremendously. It taught me judgement in the defense and how to judge the football. — Tommy McDonald
For us to be successful on defense, we must get back and stop the basketball, eliminate easy baskets, keep the ball out of the lane, and bother the shooters. — Dick Bennett
We ought to deploy a missile defense shield to the Czech Republic and Poland, which Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama pulled back on out of not wanting to offend the Russians back in 2009. — Mike Pence
I've never had a quarterback run-driven offense. We don't run designed plays where we snap the ball directly to the quarterback and he's just running it. If the defense is cheating and overcompensating for your running back, then the quarterback needs to keep (it) honest. — Chip Kelly
It was fun, having speed and being able to jump. Especially playing football. I played wide receiver and defensive back. — Jacoby Ellsbury
Have we become a cupcake league? We already have better helmets and gear. Wonder how the old school players feel about this. Not in the back of minds when talking about 18 game season so let's play football please... Even guys using shoulders to hit are getting flagged for helmet-to-helmet. Defense is getting sloppy because guys are avoiding fines and will get worse if suspending comes into play. — Phillip Daniels
I think Barcelona and the Spanish national team have been good for soccer because there are a lot of teams that come up playing from the back : with the goalie, the defense, moving up a defender to midfield, playing attacking soccer. I think fans want to see that. They want to see beautiful soccer, a spectacle, and Barcelona does that. — Xavi
Defensive backs are the best players on the field. But when you get an exceptional player like a Deion Sanders or a Darrell Green - these guys are fast and they have very good technique. You have to work a little harder. — Jerry Rice
Dogmatism is by far the best fall-back defense, the most impregnable castle, that ignorance can find. It's also a dead give-away that the person doesn't know why he believes what he believes. — Bob Altemeyer
I grinned at him. 'Jealous?' He grinned right back. 'That's a trick question. If I say yes you'll accuse me of being paranoid and unreasonable, and if I say no you'll make some defensive crack about how I don't think you're worth getting jealous over.' This is what I got for hooking up with a lawyer. — Carrie Vaughn
I will not back down from defending America. I got elected on defense of our country. I keep my campaign promises, and our citizens will be very happy when they see the result. — Donald Trump
Where I stand at is on the Second Amendment where the right to bear arms is not just for hunting and fishing and things like that. But it's the right of the American people to have a means of defense against a tyrannical government. So, sometimes you got to have that back-up plan. — Big Boi
I want to go get a stop on defense so James can do it again. It was a big spurt for him. That made then get out of their game plan and play him closer. But when he does that, we want to make sure we capitalize and get timely stops. And that's what got us right back in the game. — Chris Bosh
When my wife and I met, I couldn't talk to her - and my defense mechanism is sarcasm. I belittle someone with verbal pokes and prods. I did it to her out of complete awe. When friends introduced us, I said 'Hi' - and turned my back. Later, I called my mom and best friend and said, 'I think I just met my wife.' — Mike Vogel
The positions I played in football, being a quarterback and a defensive back, you had to kind of have a little independent thinking. — Hale Irwin
An Atlas, whose back is bowed and whose hands are busy holding up the world, has no arms to lift to deal with his own defense. Increase his burdens and you will crush him...This is our present posture...This suggestions I make...would...conserve American lives for American ends. — Murray Rothbard
It actually took me a year to learn how to play running back - to understand what they were doing defensively and then what our guys were doing every single play. — Marcus Allen
Defense spending as a share of the economy dropped significantly during the early 1990s, and that was one of the things, along with other policy changes, that put us back on the path to a balanced budget. — Peter Orszag
If we turn our back on the people of this country who need to work for a living, we shouldn't be here, to be honest, because that has to be an essential part of what we do to protect the country, from the standpoint of defense, protect workers and make sure they have jobs. — Barbara Boxer
Of course there are regrets. I shall regret always that I found my own authentic voice in politics. I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive. Later, too often on the back foot. — John Major
The last time I spoke with Robert was back in May. When his wife was murdered, I talked to several radio stations in defense of him because I know how Bobby Blake really is, and as far as I'm concerned, there's no murder in his heart. — Tommy Bond
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