Happiness does not come from football awards. It's terrible to correlate happiness with football. Happiness comes from a good job, being able to feed your wife and kids. I don't dream football, I dream the American dream - two cars in a garage, be a happy father.

My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it. I have searched my heart through and through and feel comfortable with this decision.

I'm not better than anyone else. I'm not supposed to be on a pedestal. I've always stayed away from that.

Too often we are scared. Scared of what we might not be able to do. Scared of what people might think if we tried. We let fears stand in the way of our hopes. We say no when we want to say yes. We sit quietly when we want to scream. And we shout with the others, When we should keep our mouths shut. Why? After all, we do only go around once. There's really no time to be afraid. JUST DO IT.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do in school, but I definitely didn't have adequate time to reach my full potential as a student.

Life doesn't stop with football.

I wish my teammates, coaches and the entire Lions organization all the best.