Famous quotes by John Riggins:
"And, ... I was a little bit pensive, not unlike Ricky Williams. I understand, I think, some of what he was sensing. Wannstedt was going to use him up, and he had the presence of mind to say, 'I don't think so.' They weren't going anywhere last year, and perhaps he sensed that, too. Look, Ricky's got his problems -- don't we all? But when I watched him [Monday], he was thoughtful. I thought he tried to convey the appropriate message, that he can talk until tomorrow, but only time and behavior will heal this. I like that he said he had no big message. I do applaud Ricky Williams. . . . Do not confuse Ricky Williams and Terrell Owens. I'm not impressed with T.O. and what he's doing."
"[But something else bothers Riggins more than any of that.] T.O., ... flip-flops every other weekend. At some point, you ought to stand for something. Once you take a stand in something like this, you ought to maintain it. He doesn't seem to stand for anything. And remember, I've backed T.O. every inch of the way until now. When a guy risks his career to play like he did [in the Super Bowl on a badly injured ankle], you've got to say, 'That's a different cat, right there. He's the horse of a different color.'"
"He said he believed in the golden rule,"
"[Riggins, you can tell, is rooting for Williams. After all, the Redskins wanted to trade Riggins when he got back -- and he ended up as a Super Bowl MVP and went to the Hall of Fame. Maybe Williams will reclaim his spot and lead the Dolphins to something glorious.] I don't know what it is that T.O. believes in, ... but I take my hat off to Ricky Williams. I want to believe Ricky. I really do."
"[Williams, it seems, is being tolerated by his teammates. There's no sense he's going to disrupt anything. But T.O.? Goodness knows what he'll do next. So I asked Riggins how he thought this T.O. matter could best be handled.] I think T.O. likes somebody to hold his hand, ... It might have taken nothing more than for [Eagles Coach] Andy Reid and [team president] Joe Banner to go hold his hand. The Eagles could have called everybody in, sat T.O. down and told him, 'T.O., we will never forget what you did for us last year, especially putting your career on the line like that to play in the Super Bowl coming back from such a severe injury.' And for that matter, they could have worked out a little deal the rest of us would never have known about. But the Eagles were immutable on the matter . . . totally intractable."
"Come on, Sandy, baby, loosen up. You're too tight."
"Of course it was very difficult to read the book. We read it through many tears, even knowing the story, ... But we feel he was certainly fair, and the story just keeps going on and on and on."
"It was interesting to read Joel's take on the Davis I grew up in, and his reflections on how it's all changed, ... I think for a lot of people who knew my brother and Sabrina and wonder what happened, the book did a great job of putting it all together."
"The story really is, in a way, Joel -- doing what he did while dealing with this illness,"
"That's the part of the game I always hated, ... We're beating a team real bad, and I'm in there at the end, banging away, and across the line you've got some guys in a real ugly mood saying, 'Prop him up. I want the last shot.' That's when you really risk injury --for no reason at all."
Baltimore Sun
06 Mar 2025
Baltimore Sun
06 Mar 2025