Ive worked outside football. I knew every day what I had. I loved going into football grounds, smelling it, seeing it, hearing it. Thats what grabbed me. Thats what I miss.
Since I finished in football Ive had no sport in my life, no football. Ive always been geared towards something for the weekend, always had competition.
We are a religious family. My mum still goes to church every Sunday. There was a time when I was younger when I started getting games on a Sunday, so it came down to a choice between going to church and playing football. I think my mum knew what I really loved, and she did not stop me from going to football.
I don't miss playing football, but I do miss going into the dressing room every day and having a laugh.
I'm glad that I just played baseball, because I'm sure I had a much longer baseball career than I would've had a football career. I did miss football, but I didn't miss some of the injuries from football.
Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It's the greatest strength I've had. It's helped me get through the hard times. You're not going to win every one of your football games. I've always said I'm not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.
Football was a wonderful experience for me. It was a means of, oh, I don't know, sustaining for much of my youth. In times of trouble, I've always had football. I always knew I was a football player. And that was a comfort on many occasions.
I think if you're not strong, in life or in football, not every day is going to be going up and seeing the sunshine.
Nelson Mandela is my hero outside of football. I was fortunate enough to meet him a couple of times. He was really clued up on his football and he knew me, so that was just unbelievable. It really stuck with me.
I think before the kids, this was different - when I came home it was football, football, football all the time, every day. Now I have another balance in my life.
Football is a fickle game - if I do get the jeers and the boos I'm just going to take it as them missing me playing down there because I miss Southampton. I miss the fans and I miss the good times we had down there. Of course I do.
I led the NFL in attempts the past two years and they really didn’t go out and get a quarterback to help me so I knew it’s going to be all on me again. I could see my mortality as a football player, that I’m not going to be able to do this much longer. It just became obvious to me that playing football for me is not going to be fun, not something I’m going to enjoy and it’s time for me to do something different.
All the pain I had, it was not worth it. My ankle created so many problems, it affected my day-to-day living. But at that time football was my whole life. Now I am older, I have had a life without football. You can still have a good life - there is more than football.
We knew what was going on with Spygate. We were in football mode, and it didn't impact our day-to-day. There's so much noise on the outside - 'You're cheaters, you're this, you're that' - but the easiest way to settle that is to go 18-0 and go to the Super Bowl.
I knew I loved football before I even played it. Uh, but the first time I stepped out on the field playing for the Lakeshore Redskins, I knew that I loved this game. I knew that this was something I wanted to do. And I was only 6 years old, but I loved it.
It's football all day on Sunday. I wish we had football every day; that would make me way happier. Why can't we have that? You've got all these teams! Why can't we just play a Monday game, a Tuesday game, a Wednesday game?
I had a basketball net that my dad had put up outside. I went out there and dribbled all day long. I wanted to play basketball. Then I'd go baseball, and then I'd go to football. I remember playing football in a plowed field. I grew up going from one thing to the next wanting to play something.