Leigh Steinberg Quotes

When it comes to holdouts, there's a presupposition that the player is some angry rebel who's defying authority and only cares about the money.

When it came to football there was a certain age where I realized that my future in football was being a grease spot on the side of some bigger player.

In reality, we can prove that the incidents of drug, alcohol abuse and violence have dropped dramatically among professional athletes - but the problem is it would be impossible to convince than fans, because of what they read on the AP wire.

I try to live in the moment, every moment.

Now we're getting a whole generation of kids who have never had a football team in L.A., so they don't miss it and don't ask for it. It becomes self-perpetuating. They don't know what they're missing.

Challenge yourself, its fine not to be a totally finished person.

As for football in L.A., it's going to take a loooong time before another team comes here.

I ran track, and basically played every sport.

School gives you the freedom to explore different philosophies, religions, aspects of yourself, and subjects.

I just knew that economics had never been my big motivation.

It's learning how to negotiate to keep both sides happy - whether it's for a multi-million dollar contract or just which show to watch on TV, that determines the quality and enjoyment of our lives.

Be open to the amazing changes which are occurring in the field that interest you.

As I write in my book, there is a misnomer that destroying another person's position is an effective and practical way to negotiate.

The whole concept of negotiating is intimidating to many people.

Cameron was able to get an inside look at professional football from the standpoint of athletes and agents and general managers that few people have ever seen.

We can always find creative ways to do things.

Very narrow areas of expertise can be very productive. Develop your own profile. Develop your own niche.

Work needs to be a reflection of your social values. You are how you work!

A player cannot be part of the training camp experience as a rookie unless he is signed to a contract.

Hey, our Founding Fathers wore long hair and powdered wigs - I don't see anybody trying to look like them today, either... But we do look to them as role models.

I love the values football can teach. It gives young people a sense of how to defer present gratification for future success, it teaches self-discipline, it teaches teamwork, it gives them a bonding experience that can be hard to find somewhere else, it teaches the ability to process large amounts of information and apply it in real time.

Whatever fighting words you hear from the bargaining table, the reality is that with the new TV contract about to take effect and the incredibly lucrative ancillary revenue streams, both sides know we are on the verge of ushering in the most lucrative payday in the history of professional sports. The history of professional football is that nothing happens until the very last moment.

But the equipment to protect the players hasn't developed along with that, so now you have more players out with worse injuries, for longer periods of time.

It is soooooo necessary to get the basic skills, because by the time you graduate, undergraduate or graduate, that field would have totally changed from your first day of school.

The NFL today has bigger, stronger, bodies than ever, moving faster than ever, hitting a stationary object harder than ever before - so the physics of the hit have changed.

The Super Bowl is like a movie, and the quarterback is the leading man.

Well, when you've had Tom Cruise play you, anything else is a comedown.

People who have addictive problems usually have some subset of emotional difficulties that causes them to abuse substances.

I have to say that it was a very strange experience when, later in life, I represented Byron Scott and was negotiating with West - whose picture I used to have over my bed! That took some getting used to.

Never underestimate the capacity of another human being to have exactly the same shortcomings you have.

Forty years ago the chances of journalists reporting - or the authorities even prosecuting - a pro athlete were practically nil.

We live in a niche world.

Well, my favorite sport as a kid was clearly baseball.

So George Burns and my grandpa took me to my first baseball game.

You know, we don't look much alike, but Denzel Washington would make a great sports agent.

But the truth is, growing up in California, we knew nothing about hockey.

Then I went to UCLA - so of course I became a huge Bruin basketball fan... and later came to football.

My grandfather was running Hillcrest Country Club, and that's where a whole group of Hollywood comedians hung out.

Now some alien force seems to have come and captured the Dodgers. I don't know what happened to my Dodgers.

I'd like to add that negotiating is not something to be avoided or feared - it's an everyday part of life.

For a generation that gets most of its information off a computer screen (be it Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or what have you), an athlete has to be very careful about the public/private aspect of that. Be careful not to be overly critical, be careful with use of language, and understand the whole world is watching.

Then the Angels came in 1961, and I fell in love with them.

There's never a benefit to bragging too much about a deal because the only sure thing is that I'm probably going to be dealing with that same general manager or that same person over and over again.