A Quote by Rakim

I was an athlete in college - a quarterback, a leader - so people telling me what to do doesn't work. — © Rakim
I was an athlete in college - a quarterback, a leader - so people telling me what to do doesn't work.
Russell Wilson knows who he is. He’s not a running quarterback, he’s not a throwing quarterback – he’s an athlete back there playing the quarterback position. He knows that, he understands it and his team allows him to be who he is.
I said, 'If the quarterback is a runner, it'll work.' But if your quarterback's not a runner, in my judgment and in the judgment of most of the people, it wouldn't work without the quarterback running the ball.
The quarterback is the leader of the team and the quarterback is the one that has the ball in his hands every single play.
I was never on a mission to be an NFL quarterback. I wanted to be a good high school player, and I worked hard at that. That made me good enough to play in college and then I wanted to be a good college quarterback. During college I played well enough to make it into the NFL. I never took it for granted and really wanted to play hard at each level and I have always had a lot of fun doing what I wanted to do.
There are a lot of guys who play in pro-style offenses who are not prepared when they come out of college. Either you're coaching the quarterback to be a quarterback, or you're not.
One of the reasons I wanted to write a memoir was because I'm tired of telling my story. [Laughs] So I can say, here, read it, this is everything that happened. There are a bunch of cool stories of the transition of me becoming a receiver from a quarterback in college to being a special teams guy, a role player, to working my way to the role I've earned now.
Whenever I'm at a party, people are always telling me either to get a new quarterback or make the Taurus back seat bigger.
I think for me, or for anyone who plays the quarterback position, it's almost an unspoken word when you think about leadership. Some guys can be a leader and be a running back or a lineman, or wide receiver, strong safety, or linebacker. But when you speak of quarterbacks, it's automatically a default that you're supposed to be a leader.
Its a touchy subject, 'cause I never want to take it there, where it seems like it's all about race. But I feel like that's something that comes along with the territory of being a black quarterback. When you have success - 'Oh, you're a freak athlete.' Not, 'Oh, you're a good quarterback.'
I'm telling you what I'm telling you. I will go wherever I have to go, listen to whoever I have to listen to. Whether it's a player or it's a coach. Whether it's a corporate leader, a political leader or it's the guy sitting on the corner. It doesn't matter to me; I'm on, I'll go wherever.
There's far more that goes into being a professional athlete than being a college athlete. So many differences that people don't realize. It's not just about playing football and getting paid to do it. There's a lot of things that you have to deal with.
Everybody had to go to some college or other. A business college, a junior college, a state college, a secretarial college, an Ivy League college, a pig farmer's college. The book first, then the work.
I tell you, it was kind of two-fold. I fortunately had a lot of support. My coach was amazing - he told me to focus on being prepared and that is what I did. Every athlete is nervous - any athlete who tells you they're not nervous isn't telling you the truth. I was as prepared as I could be.
I think I might not be the best vertical athlete, but I think I'm quicker than people give me credit for. That was the biggest knock on me coming out of college.
I think, as a quarterback and a leader, it's not necessarily what you do in the limelight. Obviously, you want guys handling themselves in an appropriate manner for the organization and the team, but you need to be who you are. If you're a guy who does that and can be a leader, and naturally that's what you want to do, awesome.
That's why you went to school, because you realize that, being a professional athlete, there's a good chance you're not going to make it. You need an education, that's why for me, it was such an important decision to go to college and further my education to provide me a safety net in case this didn't work out.
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