Usually when an athlete gets a reputation it sticks with him, even when he's an old man. — 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
All sorts of famous sports people have been suspended for extended periods. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
While swimming was always a spotlight sport, I was, if you will, sort of present at the creation when gymnastics became the… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
ESPN is all meat and potatoes. It's pretty much scouting reports. There isn't a great deal of humor, and when there is,… — 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 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
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
It's fascinating, isn't it, that whereas so many of our statues have been of military leaders, now it may well be sports… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I was a much better writer than I was an athlete. My college coach told me flat out, he said, "Deford, you… — 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
Quickness and momentum. You take the whole last generation of sports, listening to them, even reading about them, watching the games, analyzing… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I get very envious of my general news colleagues who are always being handed sexy new stuff like global warming, China, and… — 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
I remember, when I was growing up in Baltimore, we'd get on a streetcar and go down to see the Orioles, and… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
The wonderful thing about delivering sports commentary on NPR was that because it has such a broad audience, I was able to… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
To compare writing an article for 'Sports Illustrated' to doing a piece for 'Real Sports', the article, it was all me. You… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
By coincidence, this particular tiny show on earth that consists entirely of me talking about sports on NPR is also folding its… — 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
I'm a writer. I'm moonlighting on television. I never made any pretensions to that. As much as I like being on 'Real… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
Every now and then, I get a free ticket from someone, and I look at the price, and it says $800, and… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
I can remember going to see the minor league Orioles. Until I was 15 years old, we'd go down with 3,000 people… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
First and foremost, Howard Cosell is sports. There are all these people, these fans, who claim that when Cosell does a game… — 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
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… — 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
So much about big-time college sports is criticized. But the worst scandal is almost never mentioned: the academic fraud wherein the student-athletes,… — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
To see the glory in sport, where somebody comes from behind and does something, sinks a shot in the last second or… — 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
We exalted that Michael Phelps-consecrated water. Rose petals were strewn in Peyton Manning's path when he retired. But hey, that's natural. As… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
If I'd grown up in Sao Paulo, I'm sure I would've been a great soccer fan. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
The dollar is a winner. The euro is a tie. Get off the dime, Europe, and play to win. — Frank Deford Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Johnny U was an American original, a piece of work like none other, excepting maybe Paul Bunyan and Horatio Alger. — 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 salt-of-the-Earth citizens… — 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 National Football League] now needs a guardian, not a CEO.” quote by Frank Deford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ffd/frank-deford-3856_ceo_the-sport-football-is-simply-more-and-mo_3104775.jpg)
