What I meant by that is, any time you have adversity, now you've got a chance to see all of these guys play every game the rest of the way like it's a playoff game. What you want guys to do when there's adversity is to play harder and play better, and that's when you see what kind of guys you have in your locker room.
Some guys play with their heads. That's okay. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body.
The success I had as a player, or the career I had as a player, is often based on the guys you play beside, the guys you play with. Playing on the offensive line, you're only as good as your weakest guy up front. I was blessed to play with a lot of guys for a long time.
You've got to play to your players' talents.
Every time a player goes out to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be Number One in any business. But more important, you've got to play with you heart - with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.
We can't control how the other guys play and we've got to worry about us, and we've got to play to the best of our ability every week.
You play with guys who are big-name guys, and you grow up watching them and it's fun to play with those guys.
You've got to trust your steps, trust your guys that are on the field with you, and when the ball is on the ground, you've got to do that every single time.
I don't play bad guys. I think that's why I keep getting cast as bad guys: because I don't want to play bad guys. I want to play human beings that struggle with life.
When you get minutes and you have the trust of the coaches and guys just letting you play your game and be yourself, it definitely helps.
Obviously, talent speaks for itself, so, yeah, you got to go in there, and you got to play well. You got to play your game, but that's kind of the easy part in some ways.
It's the way you play that makes it . . . Play like you play. Play like you think, and then you got it, if you're going to get it. And whatever you get, that's you, so that's your story.
You don't play extra guys just to play them. You play 'em because they can help you in some way.
So, I didn't say we are going to win a lot, but we are going to play like winners, and we've got a plan in place to teach our guys how to play like winners and play like a champion.
I did a play once where a reviewer said, 'Martin Freeman's too nice to play a bad guy.' And I thought: 'Well, bad guys aren't always bad guys, you know?' When I see someone play the obvious villain, I know it's false.
It can be hard to keep that mentality but I know that to play your best you can't be worrying about getting dropped, because then you just go into your shell even more and play safe. I've just got to come out and play how I know I can play - that's the way that you get the best out of yourself.