Marvin Levy is a retired American football coach who led the Buffalo Bills for most of his 17-season NFL career including four straight Super Bowl appearances in the early 90s.
He started his head coaching career winning two Grey Cups with the Montreal Alouettes.
Before coaching Levy served in World War II attended college at Coe and earned a master’s from Harvard.
He valued education and inspired his teams without harsh words. Post-coaching he became the Bills’ general manager and remained active in football and writing also celebrating his lifelong support of the Chicago Cubs.
Now the oldest living Pro Football Hall of Famer Levy continues to be involved with football events and honors veterans.
Top 10 Marv Levy Quotes
What it takes to win is simple, it’s not easy. ~ Marv Levy.
Age is inevitable. Aging isn’t. ~ Marv Levy.
Adversity is an opportunity for heroism. ~ Marv Levy.
Sure education is valuable in any respect regardless of what field you are in. ~ Marv Levy.
World War II was a must win. ~ Marv Levy.
Systems don’t win, players do. ~ Marv Levy.
A good education prepares you well for anything. ~ Marv Levy.
There will be many failures sprinkled among the successes you enjoy. ~ Marv Levy.
If you believe you are doing a good job in which you enjoy and like, then don’t resign regardless of the pressures. ~ Marv Levy.
When it’s too hard for them, it’s just right for us. ~ Marv Levy.
Popular Marv Levy Quotes
If there’s age discrimination – and there may be – I’ve always felt that the person who discriminates is hurt more than the person being discriminated against, if the second person shucks it off and moves forward. ~ Marv Levy.
You adhere to a philosophy, but part of the philosophy I have is that I don’t want to be too doggone inflexible that I miss a good player. ~ Marv Levy.
I consider myself a Chicagoan, and if anybody else does, that gratifies me. ~ Marv Levy.
I don’t know exactly what are you supposed to do when you retire. Lie on the couch and do nothing? I didn’t want to do that. ~ Marv Levy.
If I had coached in high school for 60 years, I would have loved it. Getting to the top was not a goal. I welcomed the opportunities, but I just believed do the best doggone job you can, and good things will happen. ~ Marv Levy.
A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you. ~ Marv Levy.
As coaches, we learn to accept criticism for our decisions. If a writer says you shouldn’t have gone for it on fourth-and-one, we understand that’s part of the job. We expect it. ~ Marv Levy.
The age factor means nothing to me. I’m old enough to know my limitations and I’m young enough to exceed them. ~ Marv Levy.
Best Marv Levy Quotes
I did a lot of studying of great writers. I read that Hemingway rewrote ‘The Sun Also Rises’ 39 times. ~ Marv Levy.
If you start thinking of the Super Bowl championship as your motivation, you are going to miss the trees for the forest or the forest for the trees. I never could understand that one. ~ Marv Levy.
I exercise, walk a lot, and break into the occasional trot. I also lift weights three days a week, and I like to read about what makes a good diet. Overall, I do follow a healthy lifestyle. ~ Marv Levy.
If you don’t change with the times, the times are going to change you. ~ Marv Levy.
Every profession has changed. Journalism has changed. Medicine has changed. Technology has changed and it evolves. The same is true of football. Free agency has now allowed teams to be a dynasty as they have been before. It is not a great thing for the fans, but it is a good thing for the players. ~ Marv Levy.
Three, maybe four times a week, I run for 30 minutes. If I don’t run, I’m out for a brisk walk at least an hour every day. ~ Marv Levy.
Famous Marv Levy Quotes
There’s three parts to football: offense, defense, and special teams. You’d no more ignore special teams than you would offense or defense. ~ Marv Levy.
I have stayed active. I do keep moving. But I should start swimming more. Great exercise. ~ Marv Levy.
Did I ever think at the time, when I was with the Alouettes and the Chicago Blitz, that I would be head-coaching a team in the Super Bowl? It would be hard to believe. Is it a dream come true? Yes. ~ Marv Levy.
My father was an athlete, a great athlete, fought in the Marines in World War I. He was all sports and activity. My mother was all academics. I still have the complete works of Shakespeare that she had. ~ Marv Levy.
If you have everything prepared, the rest will take care of itself. ~ Marv Levy.
If you say you plan to retire in two or three years, you’ve already retired. ~ Marv Levy.
I don’t remember Bill Walsh being old. I remember young Bill Walsh. He wasn’t gray-haired, and neither was I when we first met. His legacy will live on. Bill Walsh’s name and his accomplishments will be remembered and revered so long as the great game of football is played. ~ Marv Levy.
My father Sam, by his lifelong example, displayed for me the virtues of an honest day’s work and of great personal courage. ~ Marv Levy.
What you do should speak so loudly that no one will hear what you say. ~ Marv Levy.
Inspiring Marv Levy Quotes
Actually, I’m working on a book of poetry. ~ Marv Levy.
People sometimes ask me to name the greatest coach in NFL history. George Halas may have set the standard, but Don Shula has won more games than anyone, and he has done it in the most competitive era. He had an incomparable ability to evaluate players, to motivate them, and to teach them the game of football. ~ Marv Levy.
Chronological age is only an approximation of your functional age. ~ Marv Levy.
I was enamored with Charles Dickens as a kid, and his names blew me away. ~ Marv Levy.
Great football coaches have the vision to see, the faith to believe, the courage to do – and 25 great players. ~ Marv Levy.
When I first started reading poetry, all the poets I read – Edgar Allan Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier – were rhyme poets. That’s what captured me. ~ Marv Levy.
Motivational Marv Levy Quotes
Our goal is to develop our team, to earn what we get, to learn, to develop unselfish attitudes. If we achieve that, the results is that we’ll win. ~ Marv Levy.
Where else would you rather be than right here, right now? ~ Marv Levy.
Experience should be a plus as long as it doesn’t become complacency. If you say, ‘We’re not going to change; we didn’t do it that way before,’ then you’ve become too old. ~ Marv Levy.
I’ve always been entranced by writing. ~ Marv Levy.
In Buffalo, you can’t imagine how much people revere Fred Jackson because of his high character, his community involvement, coming from a Division III school. ~ Marv Levy.
All the buildup and hype, everything else, is foam. The game is the beer. ~ Marv Levy.
As a collegiate, I think you spend 50 percent of your time recruiting. It is a distasteful process. ~ Marv Levy.
I took all the courses you would need to be able to go to law school. But my experience in college with football made me want to go into coaching. ~ Marv Levy.
Expect rejection, but expect even more strongly to overcome it. ~ Marv Levy.
Whenever I think of baseball, the first name that comes to mind is Babe Ruth. What the Babe was to baseball, Shula is to football coaching. There are certain figures in sports who are larger than the games they play or coach, and Don Shula is one of those. ~ Marv Levy.
I don’t know if there ever has been anyone in the NFL who plays his position as well as Steve Tasker. ~ Marv Levy.
Inspirational Marv Levy Quotes
I’m hoping to get started on a new novel. ~ Marv Levy.
Plan your work and work your plan. ~ Marv Levy.
I am going to miss Don Shula. I like him, and I admire him. I’m going to miss looking those 53 yards across the field and thinking, ‘There is a coaching legend.’ ~ Marv Levy.
I never have suspected or sensed a whiff of cheating in any of our Super Bowls. ~ Marv Levy.
Security comes from earning it-not seeking it. ~ Marv Levy.
I got some very good advice once. That was: You’re not talking to a reporter, you’re talking to the public. We didn’t hide things. They are a little more guarded now. ~ Marv Levy.
So these were 57 top Marv Levy quotes and sayings for motivation and inspiration.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Cesare Pavese quotes and Ava DuVernay quotes.
