My dad served 21 years and my mom did 13, so through that process, they taught me that I always have to give back.

One thing my dad always told me, was he would make sure I always had what he didn't have. He couldn't play basketball because he didn't have tennis shoes - so I had five pairs of tennis shoes.

I don't play too much into the color game, because I don't want to be the best African American quarterback, I want to be the best quarterback.

I just try to make sure every day that I'm blessed to live on this earth that I seize that day. I'm 25 and, you know, I know with each passing second, I'm getting older. So, I might well seize every single one of those seconds and make sure I'm doing as much as I possibly can in the community to know we worked hard for this and to instill that into everybody around me is truly my goal.

It's not about talent once you get to the NFL because everyone's got it. It's about being willing to go that extra mile to be the best and that's something that I've always done.

There's something about football that's exciting. The defense is trying to shut you down and you're trying to blow people up.

Sometimes people think it's what you say when you're in a huge group that makes you a leader. But sometimes it's the one-on-one conversations you have with guys individually, just getting to know them. I think I've done that a lot. Not intentionally - it just happens.