I found out that changing the perception of myself and the NFL, and reestablishing the notion of being a gentleman was important to me.
I’m living my future as long as you’re living in the present and realize how beautiful life is.
When I’m in the Switzerland backcountry and nobody around looks like me, people were like, ‘Can I touch your hair?’
I mean at the world as a checklist. Once you got to a place, you check them off and if you love the spot, you might check it off twice. You’ll always find your way to go back to those places.
Whether a plane to Singapore, a subway in Manhattan, or the streets of Cincinnati, I search for meaningful conversation wherever I may travel. Without it, I believe we lose the ability to not only understand others, but more importantly, ourselves.
Just because you wear a bow tie doesn’t mean you’re a nerd.
When you wear a bow tie, doors open for you.
People look at you differently if you wear a bow tie, as opposed to a necktie.
I like a basic uniform for guys. Steve Jobs is my fashion icon, because he wears the same outfit every day. If you always wear the same thing, you make a statement. Then put a bow tie on and really stand out.
When it all boils down, its about embracing each others stories and maybe even finding that synergy to collaborate for the common good.
Football is one side of me. Art is another. Travel is another.
Without creation, what are we but stalled in life?
Every country I go to, I learn a little bit more about myself.
I will be the first black James Bond.
There’s four main pillars to the bow tie – self-representation, service, collaboration and critical thought. You have to understand how to represent yourself and critically understand how to collaborate and serve others.
We all have personalities, but in football a lot of times you don’t talk about that because you want to focus more on the grit and grind of the season, instead of people’s personal styles or worldly habits.
Human survival is something that you can’t see in another person; you can see if someone has that will to survive or that will to win; you can’t see that, you can only watch that evolve over time.
I always have a positive reaction to Times Square – you’ve got so many people passing through here, so many cultures, and so many people merging into the central community of New York City. This is the hub of America.
Doing things out of the ordinary – out of the box – like jumping out of airplanes and landing in cities that you’ve never been to before, then finding your way through. That’s the type of trip that excites me.
For my birthday, I would ask for a ticket from my mother. Just buy me a ticket to said country and I’ll just find my way through. And that’s what I always did. I never changed too much of that.