Deacon Jones Quotes

When I see guys huddling up after the game, to pray, that’s what scares me about the game. I’m a Baptist, but I’m also a quarterback killer, and I ain’t praying with you. But I will give you 30 seconds to ask your Lord and master to keep me from killing you.

You're sacking them, you're bagging them. And that's what you're doing with a quarterback.

Be patient with the negative people of the world. Take a moment to think how they are helping you clarify your own thinking and firming your own resolve. Then, headslap them out of your way.

It took me a long time to figure out that real big-time success comes from taking lots of small, ordinary steps in the right direction. And you can't ever take the next step until you take the first.

Anytime you go upside a man's head - or a woman - then they have a tendency to blink they eyes. Or close they eyes.

You take all the offensive linemen and put them in a burlap bag, and then you take a baseball bat and beat on the bag. You’re sacking them. You’re bagging them. And that’s what you’re doing with a quarterback.

You are one of a kind, one in a billion, an incredible unique individual. The problem is, so is everybody else.

When I flew from Orlando to Los Angeles in 1960, I sat next to a guy from Disney who was paying 75¢ an acre for land. I thought he was some special kind of fool - and since they built the park, history has proven there was a fool sitting in one of our seats.

All men are created equal. After that, it's up to you.

And so now you think society is to blame for the mess you made of yourself?

I developed a term that is used in the game right now called sacking a quarterback. Sacking a quarterback is just like you devastate a city or you cream a multitude of people. I mean it’s just like you put all the offensive players in one bag and I just take a baseball bat and beat on the bag.

I was the originator of smack. Some guys rattle with smack; with other guys it rolls right off their shoulders like nothing.

You'll find your life greatly simplified if you only worry about stuff you can fix.

I did come up with the term "sack" to describe the devastation I was bringing on the poor, cringing quarterbacks in the NFL. "Sack the quarterback." That was nice. I thought it was lots better than saying, "Jones tackles the QB behind the line for another loss of yardage ..." It had a ring to it, and it caught on with the sports writers. But I tell you, doing it was a lot more fun than talking about it.

The only thing Native Americans ever did better than the rest of us is spirituality. Of course, that's everything, isn't it?

I believe that if you die trying to be your best, the world is still a better place.

Memory is what you did. Life is what you're doing.

When I was a teenager, I was so dumb my mamma knocked me off the porch with a broom. You wish you had so good a mamma.

Know the difference between famous and great.

Somebody told me when Abe Lincoln was a young man, studying by firelight, he said, "I will work hard. I will prepare myself. And my time will come." And you know, that's exactly what I said about myself and football - What do you think? Were Abe and I both just lucky ducks?

How are you going to do great things if you are not committed to your work.

You hear all this stuff about inner peace. Hey, there's nothing wrong with it, but I say, hit that line hard. Crack that book - Do your very best all the time and inner peace will take care of itself. The Deacon guarantees it.

How can you possibly be sympathetic to every fool on the planet? Just the other day, I heard a man whining about his hopeless love of cross-dressing. Call me unenlightened, but I started to laugh.

The only rules not meant to be broken are those of love and virtue.

I never was very big on praying for victory. For God to give a big win to the Denver Broncos, wouldn't He have to take it away from somebody else, say, the Green Bay Packers?

There are all kinds of smiles. On the football field I mostly used the one where the hawk spots the dove.

I reserve the right to change my mind. But once I decide on something, I'm going to need a good reason to switch.

The problem a guy who lies all the time faces is he never can tell when anybody else is telling the truth.

I'm probably the toughest (expletive) here. Ain't no question about that with me. I'm the toughest guy here... I'm clean. I mean, I ain't got no marks on me. I don't know nobody else who can say that who came out of any sport. I ain't got no marks on me, so I've got to be the baddest dude I know of.

If you feel like you want to die, it's time to sit down and make a list of all the things you haven't done yet.

When it comes to your life's work, you can't take yourself too seriously. Even Jesus had an occasional joke with the boys, take walking on water, for instance - but there's a time and place for fun. Jesus never faltered when it came time to tip over the money stalls or to take his hard walk up the mountain.

First, you've got to get the job. "Yeah, I can do it," I would say. When I was a kid, I could do anything. Lucky nobody ever asked me if I could fly a jet plane.

A nation that spends billions to fix international problems will not have much left over for the victims of tornadoes in Oklahoma.