I grew up a Saints fan, an hour from the Superdome.

Every day is not perfect. You have your bad days and good days just like anyone else. You do not want to talk to people sometimes. It is normal.

God, he deals you blows that at sometimes you think you can't handle and in the last year there have been things that we thought we couldn't handle but we've dealt with it up until this point.

I'm thankful for all the things that this job has given me and my family. But probably the thing that I am most proud of throughout my career is that, not only myself, but my family and the people around me have just been regular people, which we are.

Even in past years, when I wasn't in the Super Bowl, I wished I was.

Obviously talent gets you to a certain point, but it's what you do with it, how you handle.

But when you lose a family member or something tragic happens, that stays with you forever. You never get over it. Knowing that you have to deal with that for the rest of your life... Football is important, but not as important as you once thought it was.