Pass the Ball

The last few days have been a whirlwind as my piece for CNN about Trump's "shitholes" comment took flight, and heartwrenching stories about deportation took hold of America's headlines. And it kept reminding me of something that the members of the Blue Devils always said about their venerable coach, Mike McGraw. So I went back into the book to find the sentence, knowing I'd written it somewhere, and this is what I found:

"McGraw, the players still joke, doesn’t care where they’re from as long as they pass the ball."

How better to say it?