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I was 0-11 as a starter, and there were times when I walked off the field wondering if I'd ever win a game in the NFL.
When I work a Cowboys game, my social media will blow up with, 'Hey, don't forget who you played for,' or, 'You traitor.'
The thing I've always liked about the playoffs is the finality of it and knowing there's so much importance on every play.
No matter what happens for the rest of my career, at least I can say I took my team to a Super Bowl, and I was able to win.
I've lived in Texas now longer than anywhere and then California and then Oklahoma, but yet Oklahoma is what I consider home.
I think having won a Super Bowl puts you on a different level. I know, for me, it's extremely important to win this ballgame.
A lot of coaches and players get so tunnel-visioned that when they do have some time off, they spend it concentrating on the game.
I have been playing this game since I was 7 years old, and to all of a sudden recognize that you're not going to do it anymore is hard.
I didn't know anybody who went to Rangers games. Then, when they started winning and going to World Series, everybody's wearing Rangers hats.
I believe success is achieved by acquiring and developing talented, respected, and credible individuals, none of which applies to Skip Bayless.
As a former player, I have a real appreciation for a guy like Aaron Rodgers and how much time he puts into his craft and how good he is doing it.
I don't want to be the poster boy for head injury. I shouldn't be the poster boy for head injury. I have really tried to distance myself from that.
To say, 'I don't worry about perception,' you better worry about perception because it's a big part of making it through some very difficult times.
I sometimes get frustrated with how important Dallas Cowboys' football is to people. It's extremely important to me, too, but football is what I do.
I'm happy to do some endorsements if I believe in the product. You're only in this game a short time, and you want to collect the money while you can.
When you stand and talk about player safety, and then, at the same time, you want to extend the season two more games, there's a contradiction in there.
They portray me as a hick just because I enjoy some of the things people in Oklahoma like. I think people expect me to come out wearing my boots and spurs.
I probably would have played baseball if I had stayed in California... But I like Oklahoma better now. Football is bigger here. It's more exciting, anyway.
As long as we're wearing helmets and shoulder pads - there's collisions between these big, physical, fast guys - head injuries are going to be a part of it.
I don't think I can fully explain what happens when you take on the role of quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Sometimes, I can't even explain it to myself.
It's one thing if you're a part of teams that won five championships. But it's an extremely different argument if you're a big reason for those championships.
I do not have a son; if I had a son, I wouldn't necessarily discourage him from playing football, but I don't know that I would encourage him to play, either.
If you're healthy and you're told that you're capable of playing and the medical staff signs off on it, to me, you play because that's what you are paid to do.
As the equipment has gotten better - and it's gotten better in an attempt to try to protect the player more - then the equipment becomes used more as a weapon.
You get down on yourself. You get disappointed in yourself. I expect more out of myself. As far as losing confidence as far as what I can do, that won't ever happen.
I always have been comfortable with my opinions and how I feel about the play on the field, and how it should be done and how teams should go about playing the game.
I am not too open of a person. I don't really understand why someone holding a notepad and pen thinks he can ask me anything and then is offended when I don't answer.
Look, the only way for me to enjoy the game is to be consumed by it, to compete at a level where I know, at the end of that game, that my teammates and I did our absolute best.
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 always play every game in my mind before it begins. A lot of times in a game, a play will happen, and it will feel like deja vu, like I've seen the play happen before in my mind.
I had two concussions that were of major concern, what I would term very significant. As far as head injury goes, I would say all of the others were pretty minor and inconsequential.
It doesn't matter how tough you are. It doesn't matter how smart you are or what a great leader you are. None of that stuff matters if you can't put the ball where you have to put it.
A lot of people believe that I retired from the game of football because of concussions - that is not accurate. I really retired primarily because of a degenerative back condition that I had.
I wish there was a switch that I could flip, where no one knows me. And then, when I'm ready to make a splash, I'd flip the switch and say, 'Hey, I'm ready now.' Unfortunately, that doesn't happen.
Because the hash marks are narrower in the pros, the ball's always closer to the middle of the field. So if you're a defensive back, you can wait a lot longer before committing to a certain part of the field.
I've said for many, many years, as long as I can ever remember, when I'm asked, 'Hey, what do you look for first in a quarterback?' The first thing I look for is accuracy, because the rest of it doesn't matter.
I would bet you that even though people think I absorbed an inordinate number of head injuries, I'd say relative to the number of guys who have played this game, I would say that my head injuries were relatively small.
As a quarterback, I appreciated the passer rating whether you threw the ball a majority of the time or if you didn't throw it as much. You were judged on a level playing field, and I thought teams should be ranked similarly.
I believe - and this is my opinion - that at some point, football is not going to be the No. 1 sport. You talk about the ebbs and flows of what's popular and what's not. At some point, the TV ratings are not going to be there.
The only way you're gonna eliminate helmet-to-helmet contact is to take the helmets off. Go back to leather helmets. I mean, I think a defensive player would be much less inclined to lead with his head if he had no protection.
I'm not here to propel myself into the limelight. I'm here to win a football game. If I am propelled into the limelight, I want it to be because of what I do on the football field, not because of some grand marketing strategy.
The one thing about being an athlete, say you are struggling with throwing a comeback route, well, then you go out and practice it. You throw it 100 times a day, and you get better at it, and you see those improvements pretty rapidly.
The year we went to our first Super Bowl in 1992, we were the youngest team in football. We played in the Super Bowl against a team that had a wealth of playoff experience and Super Bowl experience, and we dominated that football game.
As long as we're having contact and as long as there are collisions, there's going to be head injuries. What the long-term consequences are of that, we're beginning to learn, and that definitely will have an impact on the game as we know it.
I'll never forget when I was 12 years old. I couldn't wait until the day I was 16 and could drive a car. I thought that'd be the end of life's problems. I mean, you can drive! What is there left? And then I turned 16 and realized there were still problems.
If you do anything with the Cowboys, there's an interest in it. And there are people who constantly want to write books about our teams in the '90s. They want to interview me. I say, 'Look, I've done it a million times. I'm just not interested. What's left to tell?'
Not long ago, every time I did a picture shoot for a magazine, the photographer would ask me to show up wearing jeans and cowboy boots. They seemed to think I was a hillbilly. Now it's different. Now they're not quite sure what to make of me. And I show up wearing whatever I want.
We go in with eyes wide open and recognize there will be a lot of hard work involved. But we anticipate having success. We feel like we have assembled a great group of people. If we were going to do it any other way, we would have made an announcement a long time ago. We were very diligent.
It is relatively easy... to determine whether or not a blow to a quarterback was deemed excessive or incidental. So I'm discouraged that there have been a number of games that are influenced - not that the outcomes are in question - but a number of games influenced based on the protection of the quarterback.