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Motivation Quote by Dave Winfield

"I never had to cheat, I get them with what I got"

About this Quote

There is a particular swagger in this line, but it’s not the cartoon kind. Dave Winfield isn’t flexing about conquest so much as staking a claim: his edge was legitimacy. “I never had to cheat” lands as both moral posture and competitive résumé, a preemptive rebuttal in a sports culture where greatness is perpetually put on trial by rumor, resentment, and the long shadow of performance enhancement. The second clause, “I get them with what I got,” does the real work. It’s plainspoken, almost blunt, and that’s the point: no alibis, no mystique, just tools and results.

Winfield’s era makes the subtext sharper. He played through the decades when training methods professionalized, money ballooned, and the steroid conversation metastasized from clubhouse whisper to public reckoning. Against that backdrop, “cheat” isn’t only about breaking rules; it’s about manufacturing an identity. Winfield frames himself as a natural - not naive, not saintly, but self-contained. The phrase “what I got” is deliberately elastic: talent, size, discipline, charisma, maybe even intimidation. It suggests that advantage is acceptable when it’s owned, earned, and embodied.

There’s also a quieter psychological angle. The line reads like a defense against an accusation that often follows elite athletes: that success must have come from somewhere illegitimate. Winfield answers with a refusal to negotiate his origin story. In a world that loves to puncture heroes, he insists his greatness doesn’t require an asterisk.

Quote Details

TopicHonesty & Integrity
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Winfield, Dave. (2026, January 17). I never had to cheat, I get them with what I got. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-never-had-to-cheat-i-get-them-with-what-i-got-49537/

Chicago Style
Winfield, Dave. "I never had to cheat, I get them with what I got." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-never-had-to-cheat-i-get-them-with-what-i-got-49537/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I never had to cheat, I get them with what I got." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-never-had-to-cheat-i-get-them-with-what-i-got-49537/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Dave Winfield

Dave Winfield (born October 3, 1951) is a Athlete from USA.

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