Top 18 Linebackers Quotes & Sayings

My breadth of football experience, my injury history, and my all-or-nothing goal to become one of the best linebackers in the NFL, combined with all I'd been learning about the game's neurological effects on the brain, convinced me I'd be wise in choosing another career.

I don't want to inspire the next generation of tight ends or linebackers to play the game. If I could inspire the next generation of architects and technology leaders and writers and illustrators and film directors, then I feel like I have fulfilled my life purpose.

I'm always looking at film, studying myself, comparing and contrasting with film of the great linebackers to see what I need to work on.

I feel like when the secondary plays well, I feel it kind of trickles down to the linebackers, the D line.

I'm doing the exact same thing and adding a little bit more flexibility. I'm going to bench here. I'm not a kicker who's just going to hang out at practice. I'm going to be in the weight room pushing linebackers, defensive ends, tight ends. I'm going to push everyone. whatever I'm doing, I'm putting up numbers that someone else would do. Not only do I love working out, but at the same time it's able for others to maximize their potential.

I almost never watch TV, except for '60 Minutes' and pro football. I love Drew Brees, the Manning brothers and the Steelers' linebackers.

Criticizing lawyers for lawsuits is like criticizing linebackers for knocking people down.

Getting to the linebackers is difficult. Blocking them is another challenge.

I see more now. As far as concepts, I know where teammates are going, linemen are going. I can read defensive fronts. I can read the body language of linebackers. I study film to see who's a bull rusher and who's a finesse rusher. I think I've learned.

I like linebackers. I collect 'em. You can't have too many good ones.

In Detroit, the quarterbacks lift with all the linebackers and running backs and everybody else, so I'm doing that whole thing.

The reality is that it's just the nature of the game. It's the nature of playing offensive line, defensive line, and linebackers, where your responsibilities as a player involve those little hits that are going to accumulate. You can't take that out of the game.

I always say we got 700 pounds of pork up front. They're going to hold guys down and allow us linebackers to make a lot of plays. Even in practice. I'm loving it, man.

In college, practice is draggin'. Coach goes, 'Oh, hey, go on over there and start a fight with one of the linebackers.' Okay. So I'll go and start a fight with one of the linebackers... It's just an attitude that really developed in me, and now we just amplify it times 100 and make sure everybody understands what I do and what I'm about.

Corner is probably different from safeties and linebackers, but I think the important part is coming out each and every day competing, not only trying to get yourself better but also for us on defense pushing the offense as much as we possibly can so we can just improve totally as a team.

I think you have to have a bit of an anger-management issue, to be honest with you. Usually, slot guys are a lot smaller and quicker, but at the same time, you have to go in there and block linebackers and safeties, and so you have to be aggressive.

We felt responsible for each other. The D-line's got to take care of that line of scrimmage, (the linebackers) have got to clean up, and the safeties and DBs take care of that back end. We felt we're a brotherhood and we just had to get it done.

Defensive lineman in the 3-4 isn't a glory position. He is supposed to tie up as many linemen as possible in order to free the linebackers.