Athlete

I've just been playing football for a long time. I've been playing football since I was a little kid, so it's just some natural blessings that God has blessed me with to get to the ball and understand what I've been doing over the years.

Everyone has their own greatness. Whether you reach your own greatness depends on your environment, your structure, the company you keep and your attitude.

I never came out of a game unless I was truly hurt.

There's a reason why, outside of me dropping a few, people don't throw my way, man.

My philosophy was simple. I was trying to score when I got the football in my hand. There was no question about that.

I've been treated with the utmost respect by the whitest of white guys, and I've been treated bad by the whitest of white persons. I've been treated bad by the blackest of black persons and treated good by the blackest of black persons. So at the end of the day, I know it's about humanity - do you have a good heart or a bad heart?

I was a two-star athlete. I got looked over.

Everybody in the world knows that plans tend to change.

Yeah, some people don't know anything about football.

Football was easy.

I don't want to be like these guys having neck surgery, then you got to go have another surgery just to continue to play this game. I love this game but I love myself more.

Encourage those around you. Encourage yourself.

I don't want to play till I'm 40.

The football fans loved the way I played the game.

The relationships I have in Baltimore will never change.

We had church and sports, and that's how we stuck together. We were so hungry sometimes, but if somebody's playing football, you can completely forget about eating until later on that night.

Baltimore, I love that city.

I look at the quarterback and the receivers. You look at the quarterback, the formation. I focus on the passing game and react on the running game. You look at it over and over, then sooner or later, it becomes like a movie. You ever notice how you quote movies? That's all film watching is.

When you've been playing the game for so long and sports for so long, it can take a toll on your body, and that's what we're putting on the line, and that's what our argument is as players when we're doing negotiations and stuff like that.

Just being from Louisiana, being from the southern part of Louisiana, Metairie, close to New Orleans and growing up in St. Rose. There are a lot of things to overcome.