As the National Football League and other pro sports increasingly reckon with the early dementia mental health issues suicides and even criminal behavior of former players the risk of what's known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is becoming clear.

The only real happiness a ballplayer has is when he is playing a ball game and accomplishes something he didn't think he could do.

Mistakes are part of the game. It's how well you recover from them that's the mark of a great player.

And that is the reason why this victory is great because different players have made contributions to the win.

The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat.

Rugby is great. The players don't wear helmets or padding they just beat the living daylights out of each other and then go for a beer. I love that.

I have the loving support of my girlfriend who still attends Wake Forest and is nearing graduation. She helps me cope with the everyday rigors of being an NBA player.

Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.

I talked to the players and tried to make them aware of what was good and bad but I didn't try to run their lives.

A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.

Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs. That's baseball as it should be played - in God's own sunshine. And that's really living.

I got a poster from Columbia Records and there's Miles Davis Charlie Mingus Ellington Count Basie - everybody in that poster has died I'm the only one left. And great players like Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan it's hard to believe they're gone because we were all so close. But I believe in the future and the tradition will go on.

I think in the future we need to look at our youth department to provide more players for the first team think it is important for a club to have a good amount of players that have roots with the club and region.

People don't realize that I'm really funny and I'm an excellent bridge player.

That's free enterprise friends: freedom to gamble freedom to lose. And the great thing - the truly democratic thing about it - is that you don't even have to be a player to lose.

At least for soccer players it comes down to a blend of two types of fitness - your base endurance which comes from longer distance running and your speed which comes from sprint-based workouts.

I've had one very bad ankle injury but otherwise I've been incredibly lucky with my fitness. I've worked hard at it and I've always been fit even compared to other players. That sustains you through various parts of your career but I am 36.

I don't think I'll ever feel as famous or as popular as I felt when I was a 17-year-old soccer player in Modle. Only about 20 000 people live there and 12 000 of them come to every game. Running onto the pitch each week was just the most fantastic feeling. Nothing can beat that.

I'm very excited about my new agreement with the Heat. This contract allows me to address all of my family's long-term financial goals while allowing the Heat the ability to acquire those players that we need to win a championship.

A ball player has to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That's why no boy from a rich family has ever made the big leagues.

I wanted the players to feel like they were part of a family to be conscious of that controlled togetherness as they made that slow entrance onto the field. It had a great psychological effect on the opposing team too. They'd never seen anything like it.

The Rooneys are very classy. They're very deliberate with their decision-making. Once you're part of that family Steeler nation they treat you with respect. You don't have a lot of rambunctious players running around.

I believe that today's players who are Christians feel that it's important and their responsibility to acknowledge their faith.

As a younger player you always kind of play with that fear of failure.