Words of Wisdom

Rarely showing emotion over his three-decade reign as the first head coach for the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry become known as one of the best innovators in the game of football. Landry helped implement the 4-3 defense, the multiple shift offense and is one of the first coaches to use a computer. Under Landryís direction, the Cowboys had 20 straight winning seasons and 19 playoff appearances. Landry lead his teams to the Super Bowl five times, winning two in 1972 and 1978. From 1960 to 1988, Landry won 270 games, the third highest total for a head coach in league history. Tom Landry was elected to the pro football Hall of Fame in 1990.

The insecurity of this business makes you feel like you must fight so hard, give up so much.

Football is still primarily emotion. Hitting comes first. Thinking comes second.

During exciting games, it's easy to get carried away, to let emotions grab you. But I believe in being in control.

The reason I don't do a song and dance during games is that I'm concentrating so intensely. That's how you can get two or three plays ahead of the team itself. That's how you win.

If you win a football game, you teach. If you lose, you learn.

Teamwork is the ability to have different thoughts about things. It's the ability to argue and stand up and say loud and strong what you feel. But in the end it's also the ability to adjust to what is best for the team.

Achievement builds character. People striving, being knocked down and coming back... that's what builds character in a man.

I have to make decisions affecting players' lives. I can't avoid situations where players may dislike me for a decision I had to make. They may dislike me even though that decision might have been a right one.

Perhaps if there has been one failing within our organization over the years, it is that we haven't tried to dispel the notion that our success comes out of a computer. It doesn't. If comes out of the sweat glands of our coaches and players.

Quotes from press clips and Football Coach Quotes: The Wit, Wisdom and Winning Words of Leagers on the Gridiron, by Larry Adler