What I would tell young players is that as you get older, the best thing you can do is try to have other interests and have opportunities.

I realized a while back that I have an innate ability to be compassionate, and I saw that the strength of compassion is something that healers have and healers use.'

I want to thank all my fans, teammates, coaches and supporters for the strength they've given me to overcome so much.

I've let a lot of things go, and obviously football is one of them. I think the hardest thing to let go is your self-image. That's what I'm working on now.

I've followed freedom for a long time and I finally feel I've got more of it. People talk about the money that I've given up and the money that I've lost. But the knowledge and the wisdom that I've gotten from this experience is priceless.

I'm closer to being happy. I'm doing things that make me happy. In football I loved to practice and I loved to play, but I hated to be in meetings, hated to talk to the media, hated to have cameras in my face, hated to sign autographs. I hated to do all those things.

I've gotten to a point, where I realize that happiness doesn't come from the outside.