Top 40 Mark Schlereth Quotes

And dreams are not granted or given – they come with a price. No matter what your goal, you’re bound to face adversity, and it’s during that adversity, when you find out what your made of.

I played a sport for most of my adult life that required me to work on two of the biggest holidays in America, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Everybody is blessed with different talents. You have to recognize those talents and treat those people right so they can come through when called upon.

Like any offensive lineman worth his shoulder pads, I’m a mudder. Football’s just not football without a healthy dose of slipping, sliding, snow, or rain.

In any business, a manager wants to surround himself with guys he knows he can trust. Guys who share his work ethic and philosophy. Guys he can count on to execute his plan.

I’m not a fan of the spread offense where you’ll go up and down the field, You’ll put up a lot of points but there are a lot of things missing that are imperative to winning championships.

When you’re streaking to the top yourself, it’s important to remember who helped you get there untouched.

Proving naysayers wrong is a powerful tool, and it can keep the fire burning for preparation that will keep you in the game of your choice for a long time.

Besides my work doing NFL analysis and commentary for ESPN, I’m also involved in trying to get new products launched, and I have relationships with other companies to try to get things off the ground.

The ability to overcome pain can be a testament to the human spirit, and it’s oftentimes what sets NFL players apart from armchair quarterbacks.

Part of fitness is eliminating as much stress as you can.

I love to see a guy who keeps plugging away make the most of his chance. You look at any successful team, and there’s always a player or two who seems to come out of nowhere to help lift that team to new heights.

Guys are missing rewards and opportunities right now because they’re feeling that pressure not to fail. And they’re not learning about themselves because they’re not failing – you’re too busy patting yourself on the back to learn anything when stuff’s going well.

I’m a pretty accommodating person, and I want to be the best I can at my job. So if someone asked me to do an interview or something that didn’t fit into my schedule, I’d basically say yes to everybody.

I don’t know all the inner workings of the Miami Dolphins locker room, but I do know the pain of being different, the sadness that accompanies not fitting in and the hopeless feeling of having no one to turn to, because it’s part of my story as well.

For me, I spend an hour sitting down, sending off e-mails and text messages to everyone in my contacts list – guys I played with, guys I work with, friends, relatives, and neighbors. I just fire off something quick that says I love you, I’m thinking about you, and if you need anything, you call me.

Among the many things that I loved about playing football was sitting around the locker room with teammates and poking fun at each other with sophomoric slams, each one more ridiculous than the next.

I played on three Super Bowl winners as an NFL player. In two of them, my team was a favorite to win.

I was a needy person. I think most pro athletes are. We’re all used to a lot of attention.

When I played, the offensive line was at the stadium 4 hours before kickoff. Most of the other guys got there about 3 hours before.

We get so enamored by speed, size, vertical jumps, and all these other measurables and tangibles. But what makes a great football player isn’t size or speed. Great football players know how to play the game, and they push harder than guys twice their size.

I know I have a gigantic sweet tooth. I love candy, I love ice cream, I love anything sweet.

For anyone who wants to tell me time of possession doesn’t matter, you’re a moron. It matters.

Anybody can play football if they’re healthy – that’s easy. But at the professional level, injuries are part of the game. Aches and pains are bound to happen when you use your body like a battering ram for a living.

I pride myself on having been a productive player in the NFL for 12 seasons.

My parents lovingly passed down the lessons of their lives so that my sister, Jana, and I may also teach our children the foundational principles of a life well lived. There was something else my father passed on, quite unintentionally, I’m sure: learning disabilities. My father is dyslexic, and so am I.

When I was a player, I would always go out of my way to make my older daughter’s lunches before I left in the morning.

I’ve always admired guys who can go hard from the opening series, right through crunch time. It tells me they probably work hard all year long, building strength and endurance.

But I was always able to articulate a point and I’ve always been able to get up in front of a crowd and speak.

You’re training to be fit, not to make a squad, and introducing new exercises and routines that are tailored towards your goals will help you win the game you’re playing now: life.

But when an offensive sputters and looks out of synch, you can bet one of the defensive linemen is responsible.

We’ve seen safeties, especially middle of the field safeties, we’ve seen those guys get paid. Like every one of those guys has gone out on the market and gotten a heap of money.

In my playing days, I had to gorge myself – painfully – just to maintain my playing weight.

Being bitter about the success or draft status of someone else is like swallowing Drano and hoping the other guy gets sick. You don’t have time to fret and worry about the other guys vying for what you want.

Football is a game of zone blitzes, West Coast offenses and check-offs, sure, but it’s really a game of field position: Even without a touchdown, a solid return game can quietly be the difference between an offense that’s pinned against its own goal line and one that’s in the driver’s seat to score.

Football players are constantly talking about their workouts, trading secrets, helping each other become the best players they can be. Now that I’m retired, it’s no different.

I’m a pretentious coffee snob, and I love Starbucks. Gotta have my skim latte.

I’ve had a lifelong love affair with football. I was fortunate to be able to live out my childhood dreams. To play a game for a living and now cover the game I love and support my family, it’s a dream come true.

NFL players are pros, and they’re proud of the work they do.

I think you’ll be surprised at how much more production you can get out of employees if you respect them, befriend them, let them know they’re crucial to the company – and then show by example how important it is to put their nose to the grindstone.