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With each game I play, each season I play, everyone would agree with me, I'm running out of chances.
I, most talented players don't always succeed. Some don't even make the team. It's more what's inside.
I really believe this team has a lot of potential - whether it's this year or in years to come, I don't know.
Well family is obviously the most important. There was a time when I thought football was the most important.
I was serious about retiring the first time, but the first week I was home my wife had SO many chores to do I went back.
If you grew up in a household with a football coach who looks like a drill sergeant, you would think you would be tough.
Every game I've ever played, regardless if it was pre-season or Super Bowl, meant the same to me, and I laid it all on the line.
In spite of reports about playing with various teams, I'm enjoying retirement with my family and have no plans to play football.
The party now is having my kids laugh and my wife laugh and my teammates. I want them to see me have fun and put it in a different way.
I can't believe I survived, not only my life, but I am still playing football 'cause half of those eight or nine years I don't even remember.
Every day is not perfect. You have your bad days and good days just like anyone else. You do not want to talk to people sometimes. It is normal.
Sure, sometimes guys pass you up in salary, and maybe it's a lesser player, but it's all based on what a team has as far as value in that person.
In this case, I realize that, unlike when I was 22 years old, I realize now that football will not go on forever, it is a small part of your life.
You're never guaranteed about next year. People ask what you think of next season, you have to seize the opportunities when they're in front of you.
I didn't know what to expect coming into this year. There were a lot of question marks, and I think that's obvious now. Can we overcome it? Time will tell.
In the NFL a lot of times everyone gets caught up in the business side of things. For them it's all about money and it really leaves a sour taste in your mouth.
The town, the team, it's a family. That has helped. For some people who have had to deal with some of the problems I have had to deal with don't have football as an out.
My wife, she still gives me a hard time, and says I hunt too much or I like to play golf too much. And she's probably right, but it sure beats some of the things I used to do.
You have to play with the mentality that you are about to lose your job, and that they're going to talk about 'The Other Guy' first. You have to think, 'I want my name mentioned first.'
I don't worry anymore about where's the big hangout Tuesday night, Friday. Couldn't tell you and no one comes to me for advice anymore in those areas anymore, so real boring I would say.
Well I would say that we're regular people first of all and we're normal and it's obvious by some of the things that have happened just because our name is famous we're not immune to tragedy.
God, he deals you blows that at sometimes you think you can't handle and in the last year there have been things that we thought we couldn't handle but we've dealt with it up until this point.
I don't really care what's going on I just care about getting my job done the best that I can possibly do and deal with the other things in my life that take a lot of time and a lot of thought.
So much of a professional athlete's success depends upon not necessarily the play itself but how he deals with... always saying how you deal with good, is just as important as how you deal with bad.
Well even before she was diagnosed with the cancer, I would have said that she was a lot tougher than me and most guys would probably say that about their wives and it's probably true in most cases.
It's not so much about killing an animal, it's being at peace and you don't have to worry about all the other things that go on. That's a couple of hours a week that you get to escape but it's nice to do that.
With each game I play, with each season I play, I'm running out of chances. You're never guaranteed next year. You're never guaranteed the next game. You have to seize the opportunity when it's there in front of you.
Just, you never know what the next day is going to bring. That goes for football, goes for off the field, and I gave up a long time ago trying to predict the future and trying to deal with things I couldn't deal with.
It's a difficult job to do, but that is why we do it. Only so many people can do it. But it, it enables you to... for a brief period of time to kind of get away. You have to go back and deal with, but it's a good escape.
It's been six years since I have had a drink and I have two girls, and my priorities are a lot different now and I just can't believe I was that guy. And I would not go back, I would not trade the way I am now for anything.
I consider myself more of a loner now and I think when you get older, especially in this game, and just talking with other players who have come and gone, I see what they were saying when I was a young guy in the locker room.
There are those people who are in your corner no matter what, you can't do any wrong, even when you do wrong. And then there are those people that no matter what you do they are going to dislike you and that's not going to change.
Because after my first year I had a lot of success, took everybody by storm, came back the next year thought it was easy and didn't have near the season I had the previous year. It was kind of a wake-up call. And so, life goes on.
As a coach, they would love to sit there and say, 'It's going to be five steps, you're going to hitch up into a perfect pocket, you're going to look at number one - no; you're going to go to number two - no.' It doesn't work that way.
Sometimes you get caught up in what's going on around you. The reality is that you are just a regular person. At some point, the career will be over, the bright lights turn off. That can come back to haunt you if you're not just a regular guy.
Initially, I know that I handled it worse than she did and I think partly because I've always been... every bit of adversity I've faced up until the last year and a half is adversity I brought upon myself - or the opposing teams have given me.
You can lose a game but, I see guys every week including myself, you lose a game, it's a tough loss, you're down, two weeks later you forgot about it. You know it's amazing how down you were, but all of the sudden you're like it never happened.
You have to believe you're great. You have to have an air about you. My success wasn't because I was a great talent, but because I wanted it more than anybody else. Every minute I step on that field, I want to prove I'm the best player in the league.
I'm thankful for all the things that this job has given me and my family. But probably the thing that I am most proud of throughout my career is that, not only myself, but my family and the people around me have just been regular people, which we are.
But when you lose a family member or something tragic happens, that stays with you forever. You never get over it. Knowing that you have to deal with that for the rest of your life... Football is important, but not as important as you once thought it was.
And having a strong family, you know we've lost some members of our family and had some setbacks, but I think a good family and kids all those things I thought at one time... you got to be kidding me... Those things are so important they enable you to go on.
I'd like to think, eight years ago, I was pretty humble and modest. But I think, with each year, you get more modest, more humble, more appreciative. The off the field tragedies put things in better perspective, but life happens to everybody, and I think we all just try to do the best we can.
In my situation, unlike some players who retire because they have no choice - either teams don't want them or injuries have caused them to retire, and they just can't do it - for me, I really had never thought I would give out mentally before I gave out physically, but I think that was the case.
If I were to make a list, I would include the interceptions, the sacks, the really painful losses. Those times when I've been down, when I've been kicked around, I hold on to those. In a way those are the best times I've ever had, because that's when I've found out who I am. And what I want to be.
I never thought I would see it. I’m not saying it’s not possible. I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I don’t know. There’s a lot of guys getting picked on (in the locker room). Some handle it well, some don’t handle it as well. I’m not saying it’s right, and from a locker room sense or from a team sense, I’m not saying it’s wrong. It’s just the way it is.