mysterious placement of 'only'

[peteryoung]

There's this extract from Simon & Schuster's Handbook for Writers:


..
2) Professional coaches only say that high salaries motivate players. [The coaches probably do not mean what they say.]
3) Professional coaches say only that high salaries motivate players. [The coaches say nothing else]
..


The 2) sentence really confuses me. What does it mean? Does it mean that those coaches are kidding?
Thx!

[mykwyner]

In sentence 2 the word "say" is stressed so that the implication is that coaches "only say" something, but "actually mean" something else.

[peteryoung]

Thanks! I get it