"Jack 'Cap' Rooney: Hey, they love you today, but a season is 16 games kid, and its how you live through the bad ones that make you a quarterback, not a punk."

"Jack Rose: It's like my ex-wife. 21 different personalities and 7 of them hated me."

"Fine, stay here and get butt-fucked by 12 Neanderthals."

"I'm going to consult with a player? What are you talking about? I know his answer! And getting killed, what? Maybe, maybe not. One chance in a thousand. They couldn't take a piss in the morning, without the pills. You want to play innocent? Fuck your innocence! You don't want to hear the answer, don't ask the question. I didn't have to ask him, because I knew the answer. These men are football players, they are gladiators. They will not live with shame, like you. And long ago, they made that choice. Not you, not you. Not me. And I'm not going to take responsibility for standing between them... Didn't you ever have a... dream?"

"He's so freaked about Beamen taking his spot, he'd play with a fractured neck."

"He's fucked up; they're all fucked up."

"What's next, stigmata?"

"Football's my life, Coach, my life. [whispers] Its all I know how to do."

"Don't you guys drop me. I'm worth a million dollars."

"[after slicing Beamen's car in half when he insulted the defense] In football, you have the offense and the defense. You can't have one without the other. Respect will be paid."

"[to Willie Beamen] Let me tell you something: For every sucker who makes it, for every Barry Sanders, for every Jerry Rice... there's a hundred niggers you never heard of. Sure, the game's taught you how to strut, how to talk shit, how to hit. But what else? Suddenly, there's no more money. No more women, no more applause. No more dream. This is what I'm trying to say to you. When a man looks back on his life, he should be proud of all of it. Not just the years he spent in pads and cleats. Not just memories of when he was great. You gotta learn that in here. Or if you don't, you ain't a man, you're just another punk."

"And with the time I got left, I'm going to play my way. Get my dollars up. So when you go to waive me, trade, injured reserve me, or whatever the fuck y'all do, I'll be worth ten times what I was worth before I got here."

"If I play my way, I just might win. Then what the fuck was your life about, anyway?"

"Maybe it's not racism, maybe it's placism. A brother has to know his place, right, coach?"

"I look at those pictures on the wall, it just makes me sad. Its like a room full of ghosts. When I'm done with the game, or the game is done with me, I don't wanna be some ghost up on the wall, I wanna be more than that."

"I'm trying to win coach. I ain't trying to disrespect nobody, but winning is the only thing I respect."

"You're a goddamn quarterback! You know what that means? It's the top spot, kid. It's the guy who takes the fall. It's the guy everybody's looking at first - the leader of a team - who will support you when they understand you. Who will break their ribs and their noses and their necks for you, because they believe. 'Cause you make them believe. That's a quarterback."

"On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is - can you win or lose like a man?"

"Four seconds is a lifetime!"

"It's TV, it changed everything, changed the way we think forever. I mean the first time they stopped the game to cut away to some fucking commercial that was the end of it. Because it was our concentration that mattered, not theirs, not some fruitcake selling cereal."

"That's what a leader's about: sacrifice. The times he's gotta sacrifice because he's gotta lead, by example. Not by fear and not by self-pity."

"[to Beamen] You're very, very young... and your very, very stupid."

"Doesn't make sense, my not having a home, a family, a life."

"This game has got to be about more than winning. You're part of something here... along the way, I want you to cherish it, because when it's gone, it's gone forever."

"Samuel Stote: Without me and my crack shootin', you'd be fucking dingo dinner. 30 yards away, I was. And, pchoo! Blew that black bastard's head right off. It was beautiful."

"Ray Winstone – Captain Stanley"

"Mick Roughan – Mad Jack Bradshaw"

"Guy Pearce – Charlie Burns"

"Emily Watson – Martha Stanley"

"John Hurt – Jellon Lamb"

"Danny Huston – Arthur Burns"