If I'd grown up in Sao Paulo, I'm sure I would've been a great soccer fan. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
All sorts of famous sports people have been suspended for extended periods. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
NPR allowed me to treat sports seriously, as another branch on the tree of culture. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Usually when an athlete gets a reputation it sticks with him, even when he's an old man. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Sport is an art: it has incredible appeal everywhere on this earth, and it fills so many human hearts with passion that… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
The sport [football] is simply more and more identified with violence, both in its inherent nature and in its savage personnel... [The… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I think one of the most immoral things is college football and basketball, where everybody is making money except the players. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I do honestly believe that, in the 21st century, sport is the most significant cultural element in this imperfect world. It calls… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
The only thing we know for sure about superiority in sports in the United States of America in the 20th century is… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Nowadays, of course, flesh peddlers and scouting services identify the best athletes when they are still in junior high. Prospects are not… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
It's almost impossible to explain how little the NBA amounted to when I started covering it in 1963. It wasn't fair to… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
If there ever was an 'America's team,' it would be itty-bitty, little Green Bay, stuck way up there somewhere, owned by the… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
As it happens, Cumberland was on the verge of bankruptcy and had to give up football. But the villainous Heisman made it… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
In the summer of 1963, my second with 'Sports Illustrated,' Jerry Tax, the basketball editor, got the Celtics' Frank Ramsey, the NBA's… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I remember one time I wrote something very, very critical about Wilt Chamberlain. The next time I saw him - and Wilt… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I think we have enough trouble finding community in this country, and sport does provide that. It is a mediocrisy, the greatest… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
The year after Russell retired, in the famous seventh game of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, Willis Reed, the New… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
It was not that long ago when the accepted wisdom in football was that the running game had to be established -… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
The NBA Schedule was made up by one man, Eddie Gottlieb, who had owned the Philadelphia Warriors. Eddie had a Buddha-like body… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
It's interesting too, that the coach of that Georgia Tech team who led his valiant warriors to those 222 points was none… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
It's still the tradition for various football powerhouses to pay guarantees to schools with cream-puff teams to come on over to our… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Before the Colts arrived in 1947, the best athlete in town was a woman duckpin bowler named Toots Barger. Football? The biggest… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
At all levels - with men and women - the 3-point shot has utterly transformed the way the game is played. More… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Several NBA teams got their best gates every season when they scheduled a doubleheader and booked the Globetrotters and their stooges for… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
There were a lot of places, including Los Angeles, that didn't have major league baseball. There were other really large cities that… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I criticize the NFL in many ways, but I think it's made great strides. I think college basketball, great strides. College football… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Does each of us need to suffer agony to understand how brutal our gridiron entertainment is? Surely, seeing is believing enough. So,… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Football teams represent cities and colleges and schools. The people have built great stadiums, and the game is culturally intertwined with our… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
You can stand at a bar and scream all you want about who was the greatest athlete and which was the greatest… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I don't think you can explain why all these other sports and college basketball have a fair representation of African American coaches,… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Because I lost a daughter, eight years old, to cystic fibrosis, I think that anytime that I'm dealing with people who, like Andrea Yeager,… — Frank Deford Copy Share
I never wanted to be an editor. I never wanted to be a boss. I just wanted to write, and it didn't make any… — Frank Deford Copy Share
Dan Rather pulling on a sweater and thereby winning a whole new chunk of the populace: That's television. President Reagan's press conferences: That's television.… — Frank Deford Copy Share
I am something of a ham. Yeah, I'd always been a writer. But in high school, I acted in plays. So it wasn't as… — Frank Deford Copy Share
I think the four major leagues ought to set up a joint commission - say, of retired judges - to rule on athletes who… — Frank Deford Copy Share
The dollar is a winner. The euro is a tie. Get off the dime, Europe, and play to win. — Frank Deford Copy Share
I grew up in Baltimore and that's why I root for the Orioles. I'm very suspicious of people who move and take on a… — Frank Deford Copy Share
I remember one time I wrote something very, very critical about Wilt Chamberlain. The next time I saw him - and Wilt was not… — Frank Deford Copy Share
If the players aren't getting paid, there's something terribly, terribly wrong, and that's true only in the United States. Everywhere else, where money is… — Frank Deford Copy Share
Johnny U was an American original, a piece of work like none other, excepting maybe Paul Bunyan and Horatio Alger. — Frank Deford Copy Share
If there ever was an 'America's team,' it would be itty-bitty, little Green Bay, stuck way up there somewhere, owned by the salt-of-the-Earth citizens… — Frank Deford Copy Share
That's the greatest compliment I can get: when somebody from Key West says, 'Hey, Bubba.' That means I'm in! — Frank Deford Copy Share
To see the glory in sport, where somebody comes from behind and does something, sinks a shot in the last second or throws a… — Frank Deford Copy Share
When Juan Antonio Samaranch said the Olympics are more important than the Catholic Church, I just couldn't believe it. I said to myself, 'Don't… — Frank Deford Copy Share
![“The sport [football] is simply more and more identified with violence, both in its inherent nature and in its savage personnel... [The National Football League] now needs a guardian, not a CEO.” quote by Frank Deford](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/ffd/frank-deford-3856_ceo_the-sport-football-is-simply-more-and-mo_3104775.png)
