When you start looking at guys like Brett Favre, for instance, and other great quarterbacks that have played - Peyton Manning - you say, 'Gosh, how will these guys be replaced?'
I played 18 seasons. That's a lot. There is some that played more. Brett Favre I think played a couple more. There is a few. There is a few guys that played more, but not many.
I liked Steve Young, but if I had to name one all-time favorite, it's Brett Favre. I'm a fan of the game, I'm a fan of everybody, but Brett Favre is on top.
The NFL is made up of 1,800 players, guys from different religious backgrounds, different upbringings. I love Peyton Manning. But I don't want 1,800 Peyton Mannings in the NFL.
To be compared to Brett Favre is pretty special, but he was his own player, and so am I. I'm not trying to be Brett Favre, Jr., the second coming. I want to be myself, and I want to be the best to ever play.
If you play against a Peyton Manning, that's a great quarterback, but I'd rather have that quarterback that stays still. You have a better chance of getting to him. The mobile quarterbacks, they do a lot of different stuff.
I like coming home because nobody knows who I am. In Cookville, I'm Rich. I'm not a big deal. People like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, they just can't live a normal life and you do feel sorry for those guys.
Look at guys like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Those guys have great arms, but people talk about them more as a quarterbacks and the intellectual side of the game and how they really dissect defenses - and then the arm is something else that helps them with that.
If I could be like any other quarterback that played in the National Football League, I would have to say Brett Favre is the guy. Besides the injuries and the hits and everything, he had a pretty successful career. He's a Hall of Famer for sure, multiple Super Bowls, and that's something that I look forward to doing.
You watch the great quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees and Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers. They all play so fast, but it's under control because they know what the defense is presenting to them before it happens. It allows them to anticipate things a little quicker, and that makes all the difference in the world.
All of the great quarterbacks have been guys who couldn't run a lick - John Unitas, Joe Namath. Sonny Jurgensen - guys who stayed in the pocket.
I have tremendous respect for both John Elway and Peyton Manning as people and as quarterbacks in the NFL, but I was not concerned one bit with playing in their shadow.
I draw a lot of comparisons with Cam Newton and E.J. Manuel. But for the mental part, I like to view myself as Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and those guys. Because they're so ahead of everyone else when it comes to that part of the game.
When you think about the guys who started Twitter, and the Google guys, and the Facebook guys and the Napster guys, and the Microsoft guys, and the Dell guys and the Instagram guys, it's all guys. The girls, they're being left behind.
Peyton Manning donated, I think, $10 million to start a children's hospital here in Indianapolis. Whenever you see something like that, you go, 'Okay, not only can I be great on the football field, I can also be great off of the field.'
You look at Ray Lewis, you look at Brett Favre. I know it's different positions, but you think about the mental mindset it takes to continue to grind and play at a high level. Those are the guys that I look at that motivate me.
I will confess I am a great wingman. Since I have a girlfriend, I'll start the night with her, but then I'll help out the guys by making them sound like the most incredible guys in the world.