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Coming in, you're so concerned about learning your job and the things you need to do to be successful individually. Once that's good, you can start to focus on learning guys around you and learning defenses and what they're trying to do to you.
I honestly thought that since I didn't associate myself with any people or groups who were outwardly racist, and I didn't act in a way that struck me as racist, that this meant that I myself was not a racist, and that racism wasn't a huge issue.
Playing in front of the greatest fans in the NFL is easily the greatest honor that I've had in my 11-year career. I hope I was able to make you guys proud in the way that I was always proud when I told people boldly that 'I am a Cleveland Brown.'
I think offensive linemen generally took the weight room and the workouts much more seriously, because we saw that it was a vital part of our training. We needed to be big and strong, and our muscles needed to be in good shape to handle the beatings.
Imagine if you grew up in a place and the team was bad for a long time and there's almost like a pride in being able to stay here and stick it out, knowing that you're going to get to where you promised yourself and you've been promised at some point.
Towards the end of my career, I had a lot of wear and tear, a lot of arthritis that was building up. Being 300 pounds for over 15 years was starting to take its toll. I was constantly on all sorts of anti-inflammatories and medicines to deal with the pain.
The idea of going to New York for five days and kinda being paraded around by the NFL as they make money off your every step, and the whole purpose is just for publicity for me to stand there in a suit and go, 'Look at me everybody!'... That sounds horrible.
You look at guys with significant Alzheimer's and dementia and the mood swings and the suicides that unfortunately NFL players have been faced with. And depression. Lou Gehrig's disease. These are all things that have kind of been linked to the brain damage from football.
In order to spur progress, we all need to be people who point out and shine a spotlight on racism wherever we see it. It doesn't always have to be confrontational, but it does need to become the societal norm that racism is identified and not tolerated in any form or fashion.
And I could always count on that day because, those who love good Jet's Pizza understand that one slice of Jet's Pizza is like 400 calories. So I knew if I ate 8-10 slices, I would be able to maintain my weight for that week and basically kind of boost it for our weigh-in on Friday.
I was religious with the way I stretched, the way I would do my soft-tissue work, whether it be massages or foam rollers. I was very good about getting in the hot tub and cold tub, and getting in the training room. I also love to do yoga, and I give yoga a lot of credit for my longevity in the NFL.
I didn't want to miss that opportunity to be able to enjoy an afternoon fishing with my dad which is something we had done growing up a ton of times on Lake Michigan and it was funny that it kind of turned into an attention thing than I expected and even more than if I would have gone to the draft.
Even though you wouldn't want to line a D-lineman and running back up across from each other to block, when you get help initially from the guard, and then the defensive tackle gets picked up by the running back, it's not as bad as a lot of people would think versus if you're just putting that matchup on paper.
The more space you have there, the better it is for the quarterback, because he's got room to move around there to avoid a rush. And also, after the point of contact, if the rusher does beat me, he still has to go another four yards before he makes a sack. Versus if you drop straight back, he only has to go two more yards.