“When stuck years ago in a job I hated, my only friend was the public b...” — Tom Hodgkinson Quote

When stuck years ago in a job I hated, my only friend was the public bench. As the tedious mornings dragged on, how I would long for the lunch hour, when I would be able to escape the torture of the office and stroll over to the churchyard and into the comforting wooden embrace of one of its benches.

Laziness works. And the simple way to incorporate its health benefits into your life is simply to take a nap.

Beauty, pleasure, freedom and plenty of sleep: these are the hallmarks of a successful idler's break. Travel should not be hard work.

I could happily lean on a gate all the livelong day, chatting to passers-by about the wind and the rain. I do a lot of gate-leaning while I am supposed to be gardening; instead of hoeing, I lean on the gate, stare at the vegetable beds and ponder.

It would be worse if I have players who are happy if they sit on the bench, because that doesn't mean that we develop our game.

There's no doubt that having some guys on the bench that have been through things, and that are older and experienced, understand not just the highs but the lows of losing a game. Winning and keeping a steadiness throughout a game, their voice in timeouts, it's really valuable.

I've carried my chip with me my entire career. I've had to fight and claw for every position I've had. I sat on the bench as a junior in high school, I had to compete my senior year in high school to get the job. I competed again at Vanderbilt before having success.

When I was in high school, my high school coach told me if I ran he was going to bench me. So I didn't run in high school. Then in college, if you look at my statistics, I had negative yards rushing because they took the sacks off of your rushing yards.