A Quote by Jason McCourty
When I first came into the league, I was in Tennessee and I had guys like Courtland Finnegan, Chris Hope, Michael Griffin - a ton of guys that were willing to pour into me and help me figure out how to be a pro, whether it was the defense, whether it was life off the field.
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I try to be an example for guys who first come into the league of how you can have a huge impact off the field and on the field. For me, I'm going to continue to try to do that.
Im just trying to be positive. I like the guys (Im) around. Even though were not at the record Id like to be, even after a loss, guys are mad, but then we have fun and you move on. They look up to me. Ive been around eight years. A lot of these guys were in junior high or high school when I came into the NBA. I see how much of an influence I am off the court. I try to be careful how I approach things on and off the court, because I know these guys are watching.
You put yourself out there in the truest way you can and hope others do the same. You'll connect or you won't, but you did what you could. It's like playing ball in some way. There are guys on the team, like Cody, I'd give my life for. But you have to be willing to lay down your life for all of them if you want to put the best you on the field. Every guy on that field has to believe you'll bring nothing back off the field with you.
I try and be very vocal. You know, talking to people and getting on guys. I try to help guys get in the right position whether it be on offense or defense.
I love preseason games. They are fun to me because you get to go out there with guys that are on the NFL field for the first time and playing against guys who are going to be on the field for the first time.
Growing up, I was a typical high school kid when YouTube first came out, and I was just watching a whole lot of videos of guys in the league I'm playing with now, guys that aren't in the league, and guys that came before me, just watching the moves that they do, and going out in my backyard and trying them. I did it almost every single day. And I didn't do any crazy dribbling drills or any two-ball dribbling drills. I'm really not good at two-ball dribbling. Nah, never did that. I just went out and tried the moves that I saw.
When I came to the league, back in Europe I was so much faster than the other guys, I was always penetrating. I didn't use my jump shot. When I came to the league it was tough to get to the basket. All those guys, they went under the pick-and-roll. It was long threes, especially for me coming from Europe.
I took a lot of pride, honestly, in hiring these young guys, that not only to become future head coaches, but I wanted young guys that could help me - guys that can coach, guys that could study, guys that loved it, that would do it for nothing. That's how I got into coaching with the 49ers when John McVay hired me.
When I grew up Carl Lewis was still running, Maurice Greene was running - he was that figure I see, like Michael Johnson. I really wanted to look up to the fast guys - so those two guys were some of the guys I looked up to.
The group of guys I came up with in the 1990s were very innovative. I remember some of the older guys were complaining about how the music had changed, and they were being left behind. I didn't want to be one of those guys who sat around and complained because they weren't growing and evolving.
On my block, I had all these guys coming in and out of jail. When I was 13, I was playing outside my house, and one of those guys came across the street and started cussing me out, wanting to fight me. People knew I trained kickboxing and would put the gloves on with my friends, so that made me a target.
I always kind of divided the gay guys I met up into two groups when I first started coming out. There were the guys who thought there was something fundamentally wrong with them and hated themselves and were so burdened with shame and internalized homophobia. It just really paralyzed and shredded them. And then there were guys like me who thought, "I'm fine, everybody else is crazy. My church is sick and the family's crazy, but me? I'm fine."
A generation of men really built the NFL and gave guys like me a shot, and a lot of these guys are left out in the cold by the league and forgotten.
What you realize is when you have an environment and an atmosphere like we had at Marist, where guys cared about each other, the coaches were great teachers and communicators, whether it's high school, college or pro, I think coaching is coaching.
Once we played at the Fillmore opposite The Cream. Eric Clapton was there and he played his ass off that night ... backstage Michael Bloomfield introduced me to Eric, and Eric was so nice. He came up to me, put his arms around me and said "Barry, it's such a pleasure to meet you" ... I couldn't figure it out... then Michael told me that he had told Eric I had cancer and two months to live...
I was one of those guys that really had to fight to make it in this league. Early on, I really had to do whatever it took, whether it be fight, rough people up, to make the team. I looked at it as it's either me or them - and it was going to be me.
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