"I'm a football guy at heart; maybe I should have played football for a living instead, because I play a lot of football videogames, I'm really into them"
About this Quote
The phrase “maybe I should have played football for a living instead” works as a safe counterfactual fantasy. It flatters football without actually challenging the fact of his NBA career, and it invites the listener into a familiar pastime: imagining the alternate life. Coming from Kidd, it also signals something athletes rarely say plainly - that their athletic selves are bigger than the lane they’re assigned. It’s the grown-up version of the kid who plays everything at recess, only now the “everything” includes media, gaming, and modern fandom.
Then he swerves to the punchline: “because I play a lot of football videogames.” That’s not just a quirky detail; it’s a cultural timestamp. For athletes of Kidd’s era, sports video games became a parallel arena where loyalty, obsession, and competition could be indulged without the physical toll. The subtext is that “at heart” can live in a controller as much as on a field - and that even elite competitors need low-stakes spaces to keep the thrill of the sport close, especially when their real job comes with relentless pressure and permanent judgment.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Kidd, Jason. (2026, January 16). I'm a football guy at heart; maybe I should have played football for a living instead, because I play a lot of football videogames, I'm really into them. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-football-guy-at-heart-maybe-i-should-have-100378/
Chicago Style
Kidd, Jason. "I'm a football guy at heart; maybe I should have played football for a living instead, because I play a lot of football videogames, I'm really into them." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-football-guy-at-heart-maybe-i-should-have-100378/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm a football guy at heart; maybe I should have played football for a living instead, because I play a lot of football videogames, I'm really into them." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-football-guy-at-heart-maybe-i-should-have-100378/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.








