Quote, Unquote: Kevin Schohl

 

"It's not interesting to me and it's not interesting to Gabe (Hoffman-Johnson, the club founder) to just sort of pay our way up. I think with the visibility of pro-rel (promotion and relegation) we love the charm of winning to move up."

- Portland Hearts of Pine president Kevin Schohl on whether his club will be looking to be promoted to the USL Championship without earning it through sporting merit.

Quote, Unquote: Ray Saari

   

"We want to be the standard in the USL and reward the supporters for what they put into this club."

- Newly-hired Portland Hearts of Pine sporting director Ray Saari

Quote, Unquote: Arrigo Sacchi

  

"I never realized that in order to become a jockey you needed to be a horse first."

- Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi on whether professional playing experience is required for professional coaches.

Quote, Unquote: Juanma Lillo

 

"The objective is the journey...[t]he result is a piece of data. The birth rate goes up. Is that enriching? No. But the process that led to that? Now that's enriching."

- Spanish coach Juanma Lillo in the first edition of The Blizzard on the debate of process vs. results.

Quote, Unquote: Jason Beem

 

 

 

 

 

"It's not [customers'] job to show up and save our jobs and our tracks. It's our jobs to make the product so good that people want to show up."

- Jason Beem in the August 4 episode of his Jason Beem Horse Racing Podcast.

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Quote, Unquote: UEFA

 

 

 

 

"There are moments when institutions are judged not by what they are prepared to accept, but by what they refuse to compromise. This is one of those moments.

- A formal statement by the fifty-five member associations of UEFA announcing their opposition to Gianni Infantino's plans to sell a portion of ownership of the World Cup to private equity partners.

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Quote, Unquote: Daniel Alarćon

 

 

 

"[Lionel Messi] walks at the pace with which I walk my dog in the morning before my coffee...then the ball arrives at his feet and suddenly he's ten years younger."

- Novelist Daniel Alarćon on The Away End podcast he co-hosts with novelist John Green

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Quote, Unquote: Eleanor Morgan

 

 

"Say 'yes,' not for the final outcome, but for the experience that will help you grow."

- 2026 Gorham High School salutatorian Eleanor Morgan in her graduation speech.

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Quote, Unquote: Mesut Özil

 

"I am a German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose."

- Former German national team midfielder Mesut Özil of Turkish descent in an Instagram post announcing his retirement from international soccer in 2018.

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Quote, Unquote: Michael Lewis

"The people everywhere charged not just with enforcing rules, but with preserving a sense of fairness. On Wall Street, in the news, in courts of law, in the many little disputes that pock mark everyday life. There are many different kinds of refs, and most of them are under some kind of attack."

- The author Michael Lewis in the opening episode of his podcast Against the Rules

Quote Unquote: Bob Neumeier

"Horse racing is a mirror of life. It's beautiful. It's brutal. It's pure. It's real."

- Longtime NBC horse racing broadcast Bob Neumeier

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Quote Unquote: Mauricio Pochettino

"If you start in MLS and you haven’t won a game in three months and you’re at the bottom, what’s the consequence if there’s no promotion or relegation, no international competition? American sports reward losers!"

- U.S. Men's National Team head coach Mauricio Pochettino in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País last week.

Quote, Unquote: Tim Sample

"In Maine, there's a deeply ingrained sense that you can always get a little more use out of something."

- Tim Sample

Quote, Unquote: Bill McPherson

 

 

"[I]f the beekeeper is an asshole, the bees are going to be assholes."

- Truck driver Bill McPherson on his experiences driving honeybees back-and-forth from Florida to Maine to support Maine's wild blueberry industry.

Quote, Unquote: Sam Shaw

 

"We're all rich in September and poor in March."

- Maine artist Sam Shaw, describing the ebbs and flows of incomes in Maine's tourist havens.

Quote Unquote: Cara Stadler

"I think maybe in 10 years when I have nothing else to do, I’m going to try to find a way to make (wild) venison legalized in this state. Why can’t we use a product here that is delicious and that is overpopulated, and turn it into a means of income for people?"

- Maine chef and inaugural America's Culinary Cup winner Cara Stadler in a 2015 Portland Press Herald interview.

Quote, Unquote: The John R. Braden March Song

The first verse of "The John R. Braden March Song," one of multiple songs dedicated to the legendary Maine pacer John R. Braden: 

There’s a song of triumph rising clear with a chorus full and strong,
You can hear it ring to the very skies with an echo loud and long,
There’s a mighty band from "Aroostook land" with heart and hand so true
They are with you to stay and they’re backing you today--
John R. Braden! Aroostook is with you!

Quote, Unquote: Andrea Pirlo

 

"Football is played with your head. Your feet are just the tools."

- Italian standout deep-lying midfielder and coach Andrea Pirlo

Quote, Unquote: Hunter S. Thompson

"[W]e didn't give a hoot in hell what was happening on the track. We had come there to watch the real beasts perform."

- Hunter S. Thompson in his story "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved."

Quote, Unquote: Gordon Taylor

"Footballers are kept in such a bubble that horse racing is a release."

- Longtime soccer player and union official Gordon Taylor