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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
