My inspiration is my hometown.

I had a great family. My father was in the Air Force, so we were always disciplined, goal oriented.

I feel like there's no such thing as failure.

When you see a black guy on TV, he's always a thug or always portrayed as someone that's in trouble. It spreads the message to everyone else that that's who we are. People often don't try to understand black men as a whole. We're creative, strong and influential.

As a football player, you're really an actor. I spent all Sunday getting into character. Sunday at 10 a.m., I have to be upset with someone who didn't do anything to me. By 11 a.m. I have to be angry. And by noon, I have to be furious.

You're whatever you think you are. People like to compartmentalize other people. I don't worry about what other people think. I'm not living for them.

The hardest thing I've had to overcome was being from my small coal-mining town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. My mother was a coal miner for nineteen years, and the expectations of making it out of my town were slim to none.