Some people have this impression of me: 'Boy, he's always so serious on the field. Football. Football. Football.
Some people have this impression of me: 'Boy, he's always so serious on the field. Football. Football. Football.'
You can run on a football field but you can't hide out there.
I'm always amazed when a pitcher becomes angry at a hitter for hitting a home run off him. When I strike out, I don't get angry at the pitcher, I get angry at myself. I would think that if a pitcher threw up a home run ball, he should be angry at himself.
I played the game for 20 years, and I think that kept me on the football field, being adjusted. Getting hit so many times, being all out of whack, and going in to see my chiropractor kept me back on the football field.
What's wrong with being angry? There's a lot of stuff to be angry about. If you're angry, anger covers pain. I don't know if you can truly deal with pain.
First of all, we love football. We want to be on the football field as much as we can be. If we can be out there, it may be stupid, it may be dumb, call me dumb and stupid then, because that's what... I want to be on the football field.
For years in football I was angry with the game, angry with pundits and, a lot of the time, angry with the journalists writing about me. All that changed when I got my break in movies.
The part of football you don't see with all the buddies I ever had, we might have gone out and thrown some passes, but we never went out to knock the hell out of each other just to do it. You do that when the time comes to push the ball downfield or keep it from going down the field. That's why I think football has a great place.
Teams that can run the football, stop the run and take care of the football will win in the playoffs.
There is a difference in being in shape and being in football shape. Any one can out on the field and run around , but once you start getting hit and have to get up then you find out the difference between being in shape and football shape.
When we're on the football field, it's me vs. him. Maybe it's me vs. two of them. Maybe it's me vs. three of them. It's a fight. And you have to take that fighter's mentality out there.
Me and Coach Koetter have a great relationship, first and foremost, and we've got the same goal when we go out there on that football field - and that's to win the football game.
It's really hard seeing somebody you love be in pain and be ill and there's nothing you can do. What's interesting is people act in so many different ways. You know, some people run away, some people get angry, some people fall apart. It's like everybody has a different way of dealing with stuff like that.
I think TE is the most unique and diverse position. It's the most fun position because it's the only one on the field where you get to do everything that a football player does. You run block, you pass pro, you get to run routes and catch the football. We do everything!
I think just what my parents instilled in me was hard work and being able to always go out there and focus and be 100%. I took that work ethic into the NFL and everyday I always gave 100% and never wanted anything to be handed to me. I wanted to earn it. And every time I stepped on that football field during practice I wanted to leave that football field with learning something about what the practice was about for me that day...