Picture it: You’ve reached the pinnacle of your career and are leading a ferociously hungry group of elite athletes to do the same, with millions of people watching you. Millions more will continue to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of your performance for years to come. Millions of dollars and an eternal legacy are on the line for everyone involved.
For most of us, this pressure may be too much to bear. But for football coaches who lead their team to the Super Bowl, it’s just part of the job.
Super Bowl coaches know a thing or two about how to excel under pressure — and how to guide others in the same endeavor. And since we’ll rarely, if ever, find ourselves on the receiving end of a rousing locker room pep talk, we’ve gathered some of the most motivational and inspiring quotes from Super Bowl-winning coaches to make you feel energized and ready to tackle the fields of life, love, work, or whatever other goals await you in your personal end zone.
I’ve always believed that luck is when preparation meets opportunity.Tom Coughlin
Tom Coughlin led the New York Giants to victory against the New England Patriots in 2008 and 2012.
One of the reasons I’ve been able to keep level through the good times and the bad times [is] knowing that, hey, tough times don’t last, tough people do, and you just gotta keep on persevering and working. If you do that, good things usually happen.Mike Shanahan
Mike Shanahan led the Denver Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl victories in 1998 and 1999.
The culture precedes positive results. It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.Bill Walsh
Bill Walsh won three Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers in 1982, 1985, and 1989.
I can’t tell you how much you can gain, progress you can make by working together as a team by helping one another. You can get much more done that way.Chuck Noll
Chuck Noll, longtime Pittsburgh Steelers coach, led his team to Super Bowl victories in 1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980.
I trust my players, I trust the coaches, and I trust my instincts. I trust everything that I’m doing, and I want to maintain that aggressiveness.Doug Pederson
Doug Pedersen achieved his first Super Bowl coaching win with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018.
If you made a triangle, you put confidence in one corner. That’s where it starts. Then we’ve got to develop the trust in ourselves and those around us so that we can focus, which is really at the top of the triangle in my mind.Pete Carroll
Pete Carroll led the Seattle Seahawks to their first Super Bowl victory in 2014 using this triangle method of player- and team-building.
Sometimes in life, maybe some of the best things happen to you after you have been kind of crushed.Joe Gibbs
Joe Gibbs served as the Washington Commanders’ coach from 1981 to 1992 and again from 2004 to 2007, during which the team won three Super Bowls in 1983, 1988, and 1992.
There’s a level of expectation — all it is is your best. You ain’t got to be the guy you replace. [It’s] your best and nothing less.Bruce Arians
Bruce “No Risk It, No Biscuit” Arians became the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl after leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to victory in 2021.
There was a real love for each other, and those things, you know, they carry you through. You know, love is the only thing that’s really stronger than that fear that we talk about all the time.Sean McVay
In this quote, Sean McVay, the youngest NFL head coach in modern history, speaks on leading the Los Angeles Rams to their first Super Bowl win since 2000 in 2022.
I never really dreamed. I wasn’t a dreamer. Dreaming is hoping. I believed. I really believed.Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson led the Dallas Cowboys to two consecutive Super Bowl wins in 1993 and 1994.
It’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey.Bill Cowher
Bill Cowher led the Pittsburgh Steelers to their first Super Bowl win in more than two decades in 2006.
It always gets down to winning and being successful, and that’s all we care about week in and week out, regardless of what’s going on. Another disappointment yesterday, but another opportunity this week.Gary Kubiak
Gary Kubiak won his first Super Bowl as head coach with the Denver Broncos in 2016.
Things will go wrong at times. You can’t always control circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude.Tony Dungy
As leader of the Indianapolis Colts in 2007, Tony Dungy became the first Black head coach to win the Super Bowl.
To the winner, there is 100% laughter; there is 100% fun; there is 100% elation. To the loser, no reason, really, is adequate enough for having lost. The only thing left is determination and resolution.Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls ever played in 1967 and 1968.
Featured image credit: Focus On Sport via Getty Images
