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Alexander McCall Smith

It was 84-0 at the end. Actually, they stopped it early for some reason.

“It was 84-0 at the end. Actually, they stopped it early for some reason.”
Stuart suppressed a smile. “Bad luck, Bertie. But I’m sure that they’ll do better next time.” He paused. “What do you think went wrong, Bertie?”
Bertie thought for a moment. “I think it’s because our team was told that they should share the ball, Daddy. So they did. They shared.”

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Modern Family

Tightrope walking shoes. Got them on sale, only used once. / That’s not a ringing endorsement.

Claire: Are those jazz dancing shoes?
Phil: Tightrope walking shoes. Got them on sale, only used once.
Claire: That’s not a ringing endorsement.

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The Office (U.S.)

I will use your talents come baseball season, my friend. Or if we box.

Oscar: I can play basketball if you need any help.
Michael: I will use your talents come baseball season, my friend. Or if we box.

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The Odd Life of Timothy Green

I can only get better!

Soccer coach: Why are you smiling?
Timothy: I can only get better!

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Bill Dudley

Yesterday’s sports hero is a lot like yesterday’s newspaper

I was tremendously honored to make the All-American team but I don’t feel that I have to strain to live up to some mythical something. Yesterday’s sports hero is a lot like yesterday’s newspaper–you always know there’s a fresh one coming tomorrow.

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Vince Lombardi

We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.

We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.

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Friday Night Lights

Start Saracen? I cannot start Matt Saracen.

Tami: Can I help you make the decision?
Coach Taylor: Sure, go ahead. Make the decision. What’s your decision? Make the call.
Tami: Start Saracen.
Coach Taylor: Start Saracen? I cannot start Matt Saracen.
Tami: Start Voodoo.
Coach Taylor: I don’t want to start Voodoo.
Tami: Start me.
Coach Taylor: I would love to start you.

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Bruce Jenner

You have to train your mind like you train your body.

You have to train your mind like you train your body.

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Carl Lewis

It’s all about the journey, not the outcome.

It’s all about the journey, not the outcome.

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Mark Spitz

I’m trying to do the best I can. I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.

I’m trying to do the best I can. I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.

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Peggy Fleming

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

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Mia Hamm

I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.

I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.

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Michael Phelps

He came out every single night on the court and did what he had to do to get his job done.

It didn’t matter what he had going on off the court or if he was sick or this or that, he never used an excuse. He came out every single night on the court and did what he had to do to get his job done. That’s what champions do: It doesn’t matter what else is going on. When you walk in to your arena, whatever you excel at, you’re there to take care of the job that you have to do.

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Sports Night

They walked up a wall of ice, and are preparing to knock on the door of Heaven itself.

Natalie: Two guys have ascended five miles into the sky. They walked up a wall of ice, and are preparing to knock on the door of Heaven itself. There’s really no end to what we can do. You know what the trick is?
Dan: What?
Natalie: Get in the game.

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Sports Night

I just happen to think it’s a mind-numbing bore

Dan: I’ll tell you what else. I’m starting to get a little cheesed at people telling me the reason I don’t like soccer is that I don’t understand it. I think I do understand it. I think I understand it just fine. I just happen to think it’s a mind-numbing bore, and that any reasonable person would rather be playing it than watching it.
Casey: Well, I know it doesn’t match the pulse-pounding excitement of a good sailboat race.

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Sports Night

I’ve been thinking a lot about soccer lately.

Dan: I’ve been thinking a lot about soccer lately.
Casey: And?
Dan: I’m pretty much through with that.
Casey: Yeah?
Dan: Ya know, to save my life I couldn’t name five teams that play in the MLS? I know there’s Luxembourg.
Casey: The MLS is an American soccer league.
Dan: Luxembourg doesn’t play in this league?
Casey: No.
Dan: So I don’t even know Luxembourg.

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Sports Night

What we did wasn’t food and it wasn’t shelter and it sure wasn’t sports.

Jeremy: Look, I know these are animals, and they don’t play bridge and go to the prom, but you can’t tell me that the little one didn’t know who his mother was. That’s gotta mean something. And later, at the hospital, Bob Shoemaker was telling me about the nobility and tradition of hunting and how it related to the native American Indians. And I nodded and I said that was interesting while I was thinking about what a load of crap it was. Hunting was part of Indian culture. It was food and it was clothes and it was shelter. They sang and danced and offered prayers to the gods for a successful hunt so that they could survive just one more unimaginably brutal winter. The things they had to kill held the highest place of respect for them, and to kill for fun was a sin. And they knew the gods wouldn’t be so generous next time. What we did wasn’t food and it wasn’t shelter and it sure wasn’t sports. It was just mean.

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Lewis Gordon Pugh

You must not dither – swim like you’re running through a minefield.

You must not dither – swim like you’re running through a minefield.

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Lewis Gordon Pugh

I wanted to push every boundary.

I resolved to follow my dream. I wanted to push every boundary. I wanted to swim further than anyone else. I wanted to cross seas and round capes that no one had dreamed of swimming before. And I wanted to swim in waters that were so cold no one thought it was possible to survive in them. And though it promised to make me poor and would take away the security provided by a career in law, that didn’t worry me.

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Annette Kellerman

If you are going to swim, wear a water bathing suit.

There are two kinds of bathing suits, those that are adapted for use in the water, and those that are unfit for use except on dry land. If you are going to swim, wear a water bathing suit. But if you are merely going to play on the beach and pose for your camera friends, you may safely wear the dry land variety.

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Mark Twain

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.

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Mark Twain

take a grip on one villainy of it at a time, and learn it

The steps of one’s progress are distinctly marked. At the end of each lesson he knows he has acquired something, and he also knows what that something is, and likewise that it will stay with him. It is not like studying German, where you mull along, in a groping, uncertain way, for thirty years; and at last, just as you think you’ve got it, they spring the subjunctive on you, and there you are. No — and I see now, plainly enough, that the great pity about the German language is, that you can’t fall off it and hurt yourself. There is nothing like that feature to make you attend strictly to business. But I also see, by what I have learned of bicycling, that the right and only sure way to learn German is by the bicycling method. That is to say, take a grip on one villainy of it at a time, and learn it — not ease up and shirk to the next, leaving that one half learned.

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Ernest Hemingway

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and can coast down them…. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motorcar only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

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Friday Night Lights

You should feel real proud.

Coach Taylor: I’ll tell you something. I know you didn’t want me to step foot in your house tonight. I’ll tell you something else and don’t you ever forget this. You should feel proud. You should feel real proud.
Matt: Yes, sir.
Coach Taylor: This is all yours for the taking. Depends on how much you want it. It’s yours for the taking. The other night you played for a few minutes. Tomorrow, four quarters. You can’t be distracted by anything. You’re gonna have a lot of distractions. You’re gonna have our fans, their fans. You got the band. You got the cheerleaders with their pretty young-shaped legs bouncing up and down. You got a job to do. Nothing else.

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Friday Night Lights

Turn on the radio, sit down, and shut up ’cause it is game time, people!

Radio: Feed the dogs, spit the fire, lock up your daughters. Turn on the radio, sit down, and shut up ’cause it is game time, people!