I love the sport but it’s definitely taken a toll on me. The first two years after I retired I was in pain and couldn’t even sit in a chair for 2 years. 2 years! You want a sport that takes care of you the way you take care of the sport.
I don’t love football the way I once loved the game. I don’t look at it as fun anymore, and it definitely used to be fun. A lot of the fun has been taken away from it, I guess, because you go through so much on the field and off the field.
I love golf. But do you know how I got good at golf? Because of Charles Barkley. I was playing with Charles, Michael Jordan and Roy Green, and Charles was talking so much trash. On every shot, he was talking trash. So I left the tournament, and I went and practiced for a year and half.
I’ve stayed buddies with my old buddy Jackie Slater. I talk to Jackie Slater. I play golf with Marcus Allen a lot. I play golf with Marshall Faulk a lot. My buddy Craig Young, he lives up in New Mexico. I still talk to a lot of the guys.
In the NFL they talk about ‘contracts,’ but it’s not really a contract, it’s a one year agreement. If you have a 10 year contract, it means nothing. If you get cut in the NFL, you get nothing. People don’t talk about that.
I’m just not the outgoing bubble of energy. But if I know you, it’s different. Practical jokes. Have fun. I’m not looking for any new friends. I got my friends.
Football isn’t who we are, it doesn’t necessarily define us. It’s part of our life and it always will be, but football won’t define us. Excellence does.
Most of the hits I take come on top of the shoulder pads.
I don’t give players a chance to hit me.
Running is so natural to me. When I was running track, people used to ask me, “When are you gonna start running hard?” The wind hits me in the face, and I feel so smooth – Man, I love to run!
I believe if I stay tall and run up high, I can see better.
I run upright mostly when I see daylight, so if you watch film you’ll see I don’t get hit in the chest much.
I’d love to be in the Hall of Fame one day and win Super Bowl rings, or even one – and stay healthy.
I’ll tell you one thing about me: I’m very private. I always have been private. People think I’m callous, arrogant. I didn’t like the media attention.
When I loved it, I loved it. It was nothing better.
I hated the goggles, don’t get me wrong, but I felt naked without them. Almost like playing without a helmet.
I heard that all the time. ‘He makes it look too easy, he doesn’t run hard.’ It was always a slight on me.
When they have their hands on their knees, that’s when they’re tired.
When you look at guys who get recruited, most of the best athletes, they come from poor families. I don’t forget. I was a junior looking through my mother’s stuff and looked at her bank statement, and we had $30 in the bank.
She told me I wasn’t playing for the coach, I was playing for myself.