Growing up on a farm, I saw that if I didn't go to the military or go to school, and I knew my mom and my family wasn't going to be able to send me to school out of their pocket, so it basically came down to athletics. I knew I didn't want to work on a farm. I knew I didn't want to do manual labor the rest of my life.

I've said numerous times the hardest job in America isn't being a professional athlete. It's not being a matador or having some job that puts your life at risk. The hardest job in America is being black, because it's the one thing you can't outrun.

Colin Kaepernick had a... maybe he had an epiphany. Maybe he had a realization that 'I have a higher calling the playing quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.'

When I went to the Pro Bowl, I went as a tight end. When I made the All Pro team, I made it as a tight end. When they introduced us and I ran out of the tunnel, they introduced me as a tight end. So how is that possible that now that my career is over, they say, 'Well, he put up stats like a wide receiver?' It's not my fault I was ahead of my time.

I don't like sports. I'm not interested in sports. I hate sports.

It is difficult to give time to develop projects in football. You buy the club, and you want the title after three months.

The emails and the tweets and the Facebook posts and the fan mail that we get from young people all over America that are on the football team or on the hockey team are so touching. They tell me, 'Hey, this is me. I still have to remain in the closet, but your role in '90210' makes me feel better the way being gay is being portrayed.'

I think I do a pretty good job of not letting things distract me from what I want to do and what I want to accomplish as a football player.