Punishment for doing your job well is an unparalleled professional pressure.

My breadth of football experience, my injury history, and my all-or-nothing goal to become one of the best linebackers in the NFL, combined with all I'd been learning about the game's neurological effects on the brain, convinced me I'd be wise in choosing another career.

If I was a marginal guy or a practice squad player or a career-long special teamer, you take a hell of a lot less hits in those roles.

I couldn't really justify playing for money, and I think what I wanted to achieve put me at too great a risk, so I just decided on another profession.

We do a thing here at Arkansas that we teach Football IQ and call it 'Hogonese.' They are classes year-round where we get our guys better at the language and culture we want in our program.

I was a wrestler. I played football, lacrosse. After high school, I got into jujitsu. I boxed my whole adult life.

I don't think I'm conscious of most of the things I've drawn from football, because they're so ingrained in me now... understanding that the discipline and the routine and the regimentation to be successful.

I quite enjoy sport, and I'm now an Olympic champion. It's a bit weird, isn't it?