Thomas Jones Quotations

We've seen a greater change in consumer behavior with this tax increase than we expected.

My knee obviously wasn't 100 percent but it was good enough for me to get out there and do what I needed to do.

If they are enrolled at an affected university, that means they've already paid their tuition and fees and probably purchased books, and so what we're simply doing with that proof, we're deferring any tuition and fees.

I am happy it's this one because if anything I get to leave with a laugh.

Cedric Benson has nothing to do with my game whatsoever. I've been in the NFL. This is my sixth year. I've been running the ball ever since I've been playing football, before I knew Cedric Benson.

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.

I don't think a lot of people in this locker room have been in the playoffs, so this was definitely a great feeling coming in here to celebrate knowing you won the division.

He has what it takes to be a great quarterback in this league. I look forward to the rest of the season with him.

He made some good plays, some good throws.

Last year I led the team in rushing and receiving. Definitely, it wasn't a knock to me that they drafted a running back. I didn't take it personally. I'm the kind of guy who needs the ball 22 times a game. Last year I was getting it 20 to 25 carries. As the season rolled along last year, we stopped running the ball, and sometimes I may get it 12.

Statistics are one thing, but at the same time, when the game is on and it's kickoff time, you never know how anyone is gong to react. You have older quarterbacks. Peyton Manning hasn't won a Super Bowl; he's an experienced quarterback. It doesn't really matter, it just depends on how you play that day.

The politics are what is kind of messed up about this league. A guy gets money, and it's obvious he's going to play. That is the way it is in this league. You just have to do the best you can to maintain your poise and composure.

When one guy goes down, another has to be able to step up, and I think Chad would be ready to do that.

You can't blame people for thinking we were going to struggle. But at the same time, last year we were 5-11 and we weren't the worst team. We had a lot of people hurt last year. Our team was kind of dismantled.

We just fought. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We have a great defense. They have a great defense. It was just a matter of who could play for 60 minutes and execute in crunch time. Finally, we were able to break through. This is a huge win for our team.

Sometimes when you're thinking about the game more than your injury, it kind of helps you.

Right now we're having a pause, a stable period, to bed down. In 2005 and 2006 there are no new standards and very few changes.

It's adversity, but I think we'll be able to respond well,

It's a great feeling to have your name mentioned with him, especially. I grew up admiring him my whole life, so as a running back, even to be playing here in Chicago where he played and to see his name all over, obviously to have your name mentioned with him is something special.

It's a great feeling just to have your name mentioned with him. I just wanted to go in for a series to make sure that I had it, so there would be no question about it.

It's very difficult to see a clean decline and that is because, throughout that time, other states around us were raising their (tax) rates and (smokers) came to us to buy the cheaper cigarettes. That seems to have perfectly offset the natural decline in smoking in Kentucky.

It's going to be pretty simple for Kyle. We don't want him to lose the game. If he does that, he's doing a good job.

It's definitely an honor. Anytime you can have your name mentioned with Walter Payton, I don't care what it is. Just playing here for the Bears, this is the team that he played for, somebody I idolized growing up. That definitely would be a great accomplishment.

It will probably give us a little more time to file for extensions.

I play this game to win championships, not for personal statistics. I'm just happy we won.

In the NFL, you have to grow up quick. The teams that win are the teams that have those guys grow up quick. If you don't grow up quick and make mistakes, you're not going to win.

It helped a lot just to be able to finally throw deep balls and a couple corner routes, a couple comebacks, just to back the safeties and corners up. That gives me a lot more room just to do what I need to do once I get past the line of scrimmage.

You definitely can't win with turnovers in the playoffs.

And it comes at that bad time, when you're applying for a mortgage for a home.

You're whatever you think you are. People like to compartmentalize other people. I don't worry about what other people think. I'm not living for them.

As a football player, you're really an actor. I spent all Sunday getting into character. Sunday at 10 a.m., I have to be upset with someone who didn't do anything to me. By 11 a.m. I have to be angry. And by noon, I have to be furious.

I took care of my body. Your body is your business in the NFL.

Football was everything to me. There was the physical aspect, sure. I did pushups and sit-ups every night, even as a kid. But I also just studied the game constantly. It was my life.

I had a great family. My father was in the Air Force, so we were always disciplined, goal oriented.

My father played in high school. My uncles played. From age five or six, I remember watching all the games. And I remember saying to my mom and dad even then that I was going to play in the NFL, and buy them a house and a car.

There are a lot of black men doing really well, taking care of their families, taking care of their wives, being successful, doing the right thing, promoting the right thing. There needs to be an evolution in our portrayal. We have to come together, pool our resources and tell our own stories. People won't respect us unless we make them.

When you see a black guy on TV, he's always a thug or always portrayed as someone that's in trouble. It spreads the message to everyone else that that's who we are. People often don't try to understand black men as a whole. We're creative, strong and influential.

When I'm 75 years old, I want to say that I chased my dream. I didn't let other people's opinions dictate what I have in my book of my life.

Acting has helped me detox in football. Getting lost in a character and a scene, it's awesome.

Everybody dismissed athletes as being purely physical, but when you retire, you go from such an intense brain time - study of defense, audibles, hand signals, plays, adjustments - to a level of mental inactivity that's hard to comprehend. It's a big reason why I stay so active. Creating, evolving.

I look at failure as the fertilizer to success.

I feel like there's no such thing as failure. When something doesn't go the way I want it to, I learn from it, and I accomplish more than I initially expected to.

While I was in the NFL, I would eat five times a day. I only eat twice a day now, and I box and play basketball every day. I'm extremely happy with my body and mind.

I'm a gym rat, I have to admit. I live in the gym, and now that I don't have to get beat up for a living, I can truly enjoy taking care of myself without worrying about breaking my leg or getting paralyzed.

My inspiration is my hometown. I feel that because I'm representing my very overlooked region of Virginia, I have to keep accomplishing my goals to show everyone there that you can truly become whatever you believe with hard work and dedication.

No one had ever made it big from my town until I was able to make it to the NFL and now the big screen. The journey from my town to where I am now has taught me how to be resilient and fearless, and for that I will forever be grateful.

The hardest thing I've had to overcome was being from my small coal-mining town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. My mother was a coal miner for nineteen years, and the expectations of making it out of my town were slim to none.

My inspiration is my hometown.

I feel like there's no such thing as failure.

The common perception is it only happens to people who aren't paying attention.

Many do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.

Friends may come and go, but barbecues accumulate.