Tom Landry Quotes

A winner never stops trying.

- Tom Landry

People striving, being knocked down and coming back... this is what builds character in a man.

- Tom Landry

Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it's so incredible, it's unbelievable.

- Tom Landry

My hats did give me an identity. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time someone has seen me bareheaded and said, 'I almost didn't recognize you without a hat on', I could have bought the Cowboys myself.

- Tom Landry

People say you have to know when to retire, which is a dumb thing to say. If you want to go out on top, yeah, it becomes important when you quit. But I wasn't afraid of that. And I wasn't worried about getting fired. I knew the risk. To me, it's not an ego thing. I enjoy coaching. I enjoy helping people achieve something.

- Tom Landry

I learned early in sports that to be effective - for a player to play the best he can play - is a matter of concentration and being unaware of distractions, positive or negative.

- Tom Landry

I try to block out everything that distracts me. Even a big play, I blank it out.

- Tom Landry

Being the best at whatever talent you have, that's what stimulates life.

- Tom Landry

When a big play occurs for our team, I'm concentrating on how the defense is reacting to it. Most of the time, I don't see the great catch or the long run. What I'm looking at is how the other team defended it.

- Tom Landry

If you show emotion in competition, temporarily, you'll be ineffective. If you're disciplined enough, you don't get down when you're behind, and you have a chance to create something positive.

- Tom Landry

Look at Bjorn Borg or Jack Nicklaus. Those guys really concentrate. With the world on their shoulders, they're so absorbed with what they're doing.

- Tom Landry

Generally, achieving goals... which in many cases means winning... is really the ultimate in this life we live in.

- Tom Landry

If you were to see me as a cheerleader, that would mean I was only watching instead of thinking.

- Tom Landry

The greatest thing is to win your first Super Bowl.

- Tom Landry

I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game.

- Tom Landry

Really, coaching is simplicity. It's getting players to play better than they think that they can.

- Tom Landry

You don't have to drink or swear or hit people in the face when they're not looking, but you do have to be tough to win.

- Tom Landry

If you eliminate our way of life, the American way of life, what is the effect... what are the alternatives?

- Tom Landry

I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.

- Tom Landry

There are coaches to whom winning or losing means something close to life or death. If they lose, then their life has somehow been diminished. I'm not that way, and it keeps me steady.

- Tom Landry

As a Christian, I know my life is in God's hands. He has a plan for me. Therefore, I never worry about tomorrow or never worry about winning or losing football games. That knowledge gives me a lot of composure in tough situations.

- Tom Landry

Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.

- Tom Landry

I probably should have gotten out, but I really enjoyed the challenge of bringing a team to that game. In fact, I probably enjoy the challenge of it more than the actual game.

- Tom Landry

If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.

- Tom Landry

I wouldn't think I would coach again, because it would just be hard not being in the Cowboys' blue.

- Tom Landry

Every coach has his own style of play, but when you spend your whole life as a Cowboy, you have to be influenced by what we did.

- Tom Landry

Character is the ability of a person to see a positive end of things. This is the hope that a man of character has.

- Tom Landry

If you don't win a Super Bowl, you're not considered successful in the National Football League. I can remember, when we finally won that first one, feeling so good for the players and fans.

- Tom Landry

I know that life is really finding the right relationship between yourself and God.

- Tom Landry

Confidence comes from knowing what you're doing. If you are prepared for something, you usually do it. If not, you usually fall flat on your face.

- Tom Landry

I just didn't want to leave the Cowboys when they were down. I at least wanted them to get into a respectable position before anyone else took over.

- Tom Landry

The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.

- Tom Landry

I've come to the conclusion that players want to be treated alike.

- Tom Landry

When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.

- Tom Landry

Achievement builds character.

- Tom Landry

People will forget me pretty quick.

- Tom Landry

Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.

- Tom Landry

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.

- Tom Landry

Take away winning, and you take away everything that is strong about America.

- Tom Landry

If you don't believe in winning, you don't believe in free enterprise, capitalism, our way of life.

- Tom Landry

If you are prepared, you will be confident, and will do the job.

- Tom Landry