58 Tom Landry Quotes on Life & Winning (LEADERSHIP)

Top 10 Most Famous Tom Landry Quotes (BEST)

“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

I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat. — I’ve **learned** that something constructive comes from every defeat.

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

“There’s a misconception about teamwork. Teamwork is the ability to have different thoughts about things; it’s the ability to argue and stand up and say loud and strong what you feel. But in the end, it’s also the ability to adjust to what is the best for the team.”
Tom Landry

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

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. — **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.

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

A champion is simply someone who did not give up when he wanted to. — A **champion** is simply someone who did not give up when he wanted to.

6 Motivational Tom Landry Quotes That Will Build Your Character

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

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

The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence. — The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his **commitment** to **excellence**.

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

In my opinion, character is the most important determinant of a person's success, achievement and ability to handle adversity. — In my opinion, character is the most important determinant of a person’s **success**, achievement and ability to handle **adversity**.

8 Thought-Provoking Tom Landry Quotes

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

There is only a half step difference between the champions and those who finish on the bottom. And much of that half step is mental.

“A vital team characteristic is the ability to overcome adversity. Any team acquires experience and endurance as it learns to fight back. This in turn builds the kind of character which seldom crumbles at a time of crisis or testing.”
Tom Landry

The more successful you become, the longer the yardstick people use to measure you by.

A team that has character doesn’t need stimulation.

“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

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.

2 Tom Landry Quotes on Leadership

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. — **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.

Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do but to achieve what they want to achieve. — Leadership is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do but to achieve what they want to achieve.

10 Tom Landry Quotes on Winning

“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

The secret to winning is constant, consistent management. — The secret to **winning** is constant, consistent management.

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

“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

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

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. — 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.

The greatest thing is to win your first Super Bowl.

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

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

First become a winner in life. Then it's easier to become a winner on the field. — First become a winner in life. Then it’s easier to become a winner on the field.

11 Tom Landry Quotes on Coaching

“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

A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.

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

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

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

“Perhaps the toughest call for a coach is weighing what is best for an individual against what is best for the team. Keeping a player on the roster just because I liked him personally, or even because of his great contributions to the team in the past, when I felt some one else could do more for the team would be a disservice to the team’s goals.”
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.

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

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

Coaching is making men do what they don't want, so they can become what they want to be. — Coaching is making men do what they don’t want, so they can become what they want to be.

4 Tom Landry Quotes that Inspires Spirituality

“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

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

To live a disciplined life, and to accept the result of that discipline as the will of God - that is the mark of a man. — To live a disciplined life, and to accept the result of that discipline as the will of God – that is the mark of a man.

Football is to Texas what religion is to a priest.

7 Tom Landry Quotes That Will Make You Think

“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

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. — 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.

Right after the game, say as little as possible.

“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