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Motivation Quote by Lawrence Taylor

"If I'm going to break them, I'm going to break them both"

About this Quote

It’s the kind of line that sounds like a joke until you remember who’s speaking: Lawrence Taylor, the defender who turned NFL violence into both spectacle and strategy. "If I'm going to break them, I'm going to break them both" isn’t poetry, but it’s pure LT - blunt, darkly funny, and built to intimidate. The phrasing is almost casual, like he’s talking about splitting firewood, which is exactly the point. It drains the moment of moral hesitation and replaces it with a workmanlike certainty: damage isn’t an accident, it’s the job.

The intent reads as escalation. Not just “I hit hard,” but “I commit.” The symmetry of "both" turns harm into a kind of completeness, a twisted version of doing things the right way. It’s also a preemptive strike on his opponent’s psychology. You don’t just fear the hit; you fear the decision behind it, the sense that he’s already accepted the consequences and is comfortable living there.

Context matters: Taylor played in an era when the league’s brand was toughness and the rulebook hadn’t yet caught up to the long-term costs of head trauma. The quote captures that old NFL bargain - entertainment in exchange for bodies - without dressing it up in nostalgia. Today, it lands differently: less as swagger and more as a timestamp from football’s pre-safety period, when menace could be marketed as leadership and brutality could pass for professionalism.

Quote Details

TopicSports
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Taylor, Lawrence. (2026, January 16). If I'm going to break them, I'm going to break them both. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-im-going-to-break-them-im-going-to-break-them-102123/

Chicago Style
Taylor, Lawrence. "If I'm going to break them, I'm going to break them both." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-im-going-to-break-them-im-going-to-break-them-102123/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If I'm going to break them, I'm going to break them both." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-im-going-to-break-them-im-going-to-break-them-102123/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Lawrence Taylor

Lawrence Taylor (born February 4, 1959) is a Athlete from USA.

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