Top 126 Playoff Quotes & Sayings - Page 2

We don't tell the officials to change the standard for the playoffs, but as we all know, time and space tends to evaporate very quickly in a playoff game; there tends to be a lot more physicality and a lot more adjustments in the course of a series.

And now we're in a world where players are skipping some of these bowl games, people are talking about the only bowl games that matter are the playoff, and I just happen to disagree with that wholeheartedly.

You go through playoff series and people forget about them. Nobody forgets about a Rangers-Devils series. It's demanding.

When I first got drafted, I've really grown. Coming in, I was kind of nervous but honestly I've been really blessed going to two playoff series, one against Miami and the next year against Chicago and the Celtics. I've progressed easier.

That's playoff basketball. Can you not get too happy after a win? Can you understand how determined the team is going to be after a loss and bring the energy you need to bring?

I'm not going to fight because I mean too much to our team, and I can't afford to be suspended for a game or do something stupid to get me kicked out of a playoff game.

When I look back at the tapes, your first everything, your first All-Star Game, your first playoff experience, it just seems like it went by really fast.

I had to do something special coming in. I didn't do it, so I had to do it in the playoff. Winning the Mercedes is awesome. Winning three times is a dream come true.

I think they need to expand the playoff system. I think the minimum should be 16 teams, but they could easily go with more than that... in other words, I want to see more football. Everybody from rec league softball on down can figure out how to put together a tournament and yet Division I can't.

Obviously I bet on games I officiated. I passed on information based on the meetings that the referees were having, and based on what the league office wanted us to call in playoff games. With that being said, I was able to win at a high percentage when we were betting on NBA games.

Playoff hockey is the best way to market your team. It's the best way to grow your fan base and give hope to your players and for them to develop.

When it comes to playoff time, the game slows down, the offense slows down and you've got to be able to get stops.

On our way to the Super Bowl XV Championship, the Oakland Raiders played a frigid 1981 AFC playoff game in Cleveland, in which the temperatures plunged to -35 degrees. I remember looking up in the stands to see a dedicated Cleveland Brown fan celebrating topless.

Sports exact too harsh a toll on our beautiful women. Like engendered species, they should be protected, and instead, we exploit them and demand they fly too close to the sun for our amusement. We send them into the arena for an exhausting three-setter, an 18-hole playoff, a 200th lap. The burnout factor is insurmountable.

It did not matter whether it was preseason, regular season, my first playoff game, or the Super Bowl, I was nervous. And all that meant was that it always mattered to me. Anytime I was putting myself on a line, it didn't matter what it was, it was okay to be nervous because it was important to me. It was important to do my job well.

When you logically think about it, what the BCS people have done, which obviously we're all part of it, I think it was great for a while. I think it took an imperfect system and did the best you can without a playoff.

Every game is its own thing in the playoffs. When you're in them long enough, you understand. If a playoff series goes six or seven games, it's like a rollercoaster. Your emotions are so up, then they're so down. 'You can't do anything right! Then everything's going your way!'

I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. And I'll tell you a real quick thing: we didn't have a pro hockey team when I was growing up, so I adopted the Red Wings as my hockey team just so I could, you know, be amused and enjoy playoff hockey every single year. I really get into it. Detroit is my team.

The year we went to our first Super Bowl in 1992, we were the youngest team in football. We played in the Super Bowl against a team that had a wealth of playoff experience and Super Bowl experience, and we dominated that football game.

I mean, that's playoff hockey. You're not going to dominate every game, you're not going to score every goal.

Every game, we're going to go for it, so when we get into playoff time, it's not like, 'You've really got to ratchet it up. You've really got to do something different.' Then what have I been doing the whole time?

What I meant by that is, any time you have adversity, now you've got a chance to see all of these guys play every game the rest of the way like it's a playoff game. What you want guys to do when there's adversity is to play harder and play better, and that's when you see what kind of guys you have in your locker room.

Our goal is to win the conference championship and go to the playoff and win the national championship and we recruit with that attitude.

Hard fouls are a part of playoff basketball, and I think that's how basketball should be. I don't take those fouls personally.

If you go to a team that's fighting for a playoff spot, you just want to fit in. That's all you want to do. Go in with an open mind and let yourself take it in.

Any competitor would be frustrated in that moment... but it certainly made sense what Coach Kubiak did for the playoff run. I got replaced by Peyton Manning... I think we all know who is going to play in the game.

There were a lot of big games. But I think one of the biggest was one that will go down as one of the biggest upsets in playoff history. We were 15-point underdogs going into Miami and upset them. That was a big one.

I just felt like if I just kept making birdie - I think the 18th hole is a weird hole as a playoff, especially when you're trying to beat daylight.

When you watch Chris Paul on the playoff stage, you often sense he is fighting two battles, one against his nature and one against his opponent.

Hopefully my time in Nashville has helped me. We've had a lot of different things happen to our hockey club, seen a lot of different situations and different types of clubs from an expansion team to a Stanley Cup playoff threat. I think any coach that's gone through those things, you become a better coach.

We literally had all 10 teams alive for a playoff position in the final week of the season. That outstanding balance and those close races created a major surge in attendance in the last month of the season.

Even if it's just two shots, I just want to see the ball go in the hole. That gives me the confidence to know I can make shots when I'm called upon in a playoff type of situation.

Hed been to the playoffs before. I was asked last week what I thought this season has felt like for Coach Gibbs. I would think it must seem very familiar to a man with all those playoff wins. Hes a great coach who understands how to get his team to play.

I think when they put together this College Football Playoff, I think you... do you play a light schedule and put everything into your conference championship? That's not what I'm feeling across the country. They want to make every game important, which they have.

I'm not superstitious about anything in my life - except for playoff hockey. I get really kind of sketchy and weird about it. I don't like talking about it. I don't like making predictions.

Now you've been in the playoffs once, you know what it tastes like, you know what it feels like. You know, going through the season when Coach is preaching physicality, how hard you gotta play, how you gotta take care of the ball, why he's saying that. Because all that comes into play in playoff basketball.

Vijay Singh won a playoff in 2004 at Whistling Straits after a final-round 76, which was the highest last round by the winner of any major since 1938, when Reg Whitcombe won the British Open with a 78 in a storm that blew down the exhibition tent at Sandwich.

So you wake up this morning and find you're president of the United States. Pretty cool, no? Helicopters and a 747 at your disposal; courtside seats at any NBA playoff game of your choice; everyone stands up and the band plays when you come into the room.

My durability is just something I took a lot of pride in, that I was able to play 70 games over and over and over and they add up to 1,200-and-something games, plus the playoff games, plus whatever.

Your superstars are going to do what they do, but most teams win playoff games by what role players step up. That usually determines how far you're going to go and how much you're going to win.

Whenever we're all getting ready for a playoff game, you know how serious those games are, and you try to motivate your guys. There's a lot of emotion that goes into those games, and when I play, it's all about winning, and it's all about doing whatever it takes to fire guys up and to get that emotion running.

I have done a lot of NFL games, a season-opening home games, playoff games, championship games, and of course Stanley Cup games, World Series, NBA championship games. But I have never done a Superbowl. It's probably the only major sporting event I've never done and I would like to.

It’s not a playoff game, it’s like the Super Bowl. … This is going to be a blood bath out there. I know they’re going to be ready to play. This is going to be a physical game. I’m sure that I’m going to be ready and I know my boys are going to be ready to back it up.

I remember my second year, in the playoff game in Dallas, I remember every play that happened. I remembered giving up a back-shoulder fade in the end zone, scoring.

In many college classes, laptops depict split screens - notes from a class, and then a range of parallel stimulants: NBA playoff statistics on ESPN.com, a flight home on Expedia, a new flirtation on Facebook.

I feel like, when I get a certain amount of minutes, and when the coaches allow me to be me on the court, I'm Rondo. There's no 'Playoff Rondo.'

There's going to be different kinds of challenges on a yearly basis. You're going to have to overcome injuries, or you overcome a playoff loss or what have you. So there's always challenges in this business.

We played in a number of these neutral site games, I would call them, whether it's a playoff game, a bowl game, or one of these kickoff classic type things, which I think is helpful to, you know, our players in terms of playing some place that's not really a home game for them.

We're just a fragile team right now. It seems like when we have a little bit of adversity, when something goes wrong, you can feel it on the bench, it kind of sinks. Unless we get a goal or something really positive happens, it's tough. I think falling out of the playoff race takes the wind out of your sails for sure.

Every game is a playoff game.

I live for the Red Sox. I thoroughly enjoy them. For whatever reason, baseball has been a lot more fun for me in recent years. I loosely follow the Patriots and I root for them. I loosely follow the Celtics and then it gets to playoff time and I don't miss a game. Same with the Bruins. I'm not the diehard fan anymore.

I show up in a playoff game, I have my sideline sheet. I can't even spit plays out, I get so excited. I mean, you get nervous. These are critical, do-or-die situations. Third down and 1, Red Zone, what do I call? Two minute drill? Are we going to go no huddle? These are decisions that you wrestle with.

[Spike Lee ] went to a game six playoff game at Indiana which was a hostile environment believing we could bring it back to New York for a game seven. That's just the kind of person he is. Also his commitment to the team and our friendship.

Playoff basketball isn't about who scores, stats or putting numbers up on the board. It's just about winning at the end of the day. When you play a game in a series, it becomes chess. It becomes who can outsmart the other team.

As an organization, would we like to be in a better spot Everybody would like to know they're in the playoffs. But that's not a reality, year after year being in a playoff spot with 10, 12, 15 games left. We don't have that this year, so our playoffs have started.

If we think a playoff spot's not in the cards, there will be no concern for appearances or cosmetics whatsoever. We'll continue to address our future and trade off some pieces that would keep us respectable.

I played in Joe Louis in a playoff game. I played there when the roof caved in for half a season. The facility is great for basketball because it goes straight up, so you feel like the fans are on top of you.

I think any time you bring those guys in, one with a lot of playoff experience, with rings - those guys won - guys in the locker room gravitate towards those guys. Those guys have been there, so there's a lot that they can teach the guys.

Everything we talk about is about beating the Packers, the Bears and the Vikings. Obviously there are other teams in the league, but if you can dominate and be on top of your division you are always in the playoff hunt. It's time for us to win that thing.

People tell me all the time you have to be mentally tough to win the championship, and I feel like enough people hype it up to where you have to act different come playoff time. But I'm not a tough guy. So I don't know how to be tough. I don't know what I'm 'supposed' to be doing.