I never met him. But just growing up where Deacon Jones did, he motivated me to be great, showing the NFL was possible.

My guy growing up was Deacon Jones from Eatonville, Florida, where I'm from.

Me, coming from a low-income background, I really didn't take my studies serious as a young kid.

Growing up where I'm from, some people are afraid of cops. They don't really like cops. And what a lot of people don't realize is, they're really not the bad guys. They're really on our side, they're really trying to help us out. And sometimes, we don't understand that.

You know that I played football because of the fun and to enjoy it.

I've seen kids turn their lives around. It's usually a kid who's outside of the team-sport world, or maybe has a darker personality or doesn't fit in. Skateboarding ends up being something they latch onto. It sounds hokey, but finding a focus on something - whether it's skateboard or playing your guitar - can be life changing.

Everywhere I've gone, basketball-wise, I've been the underdog and underrated guy.

It's very hard because the sport evolves so fast, changes so fast. So, you have to be there to see the changes that are happening in the moment. That's why I keep training every day. I try to mix myself in all of the academies.