Your eyes are as big as a tennis ball when you realize that there’s no offensive lineman that’s holding onto you and you just see the quarterback standing open and you’re coming from the blind side and he’s waiting for a receiver to come open and you just nail him in the small of the back or the middle of the back. That jars the ball loose, and you have the opportunity for getting a sack, a forced fumble, and if you’re lucky, you can get a trifecta, which is a sack, a forced fumble and a recovery.
Or a touchdown.
You have to have an ego. It’s extremely important to have an ego. I’m not saying an ego in a bad sense. I’m saying an ego in confidence.
They lost it(1) when I was supposed to go out there and get it in Seattle. But just recently it was returned to me when I was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
I gave the check to my mother when I signed. But I got it back when I got home. We rode on the plane together. She just wanted to hold it. As most parents are, they’ve never held that kind of money in their life, and neither did I. I thought I’d be seeing a lot more of it, so I let her hold it on the way home.
That was something that happened so quickly in my life(2) that I did not know that people viewed me as being that good until that day of the draft. It was a phenomenal feeling, and it didn’t hit me until my first year in the league of what people expected of me: greatness. I don’t think my first year I was quite prepared. I didn’t know the system. I didn’t know how to train. I didn’t know how to eat properly.
I got up to 310 after my first year in the league. I wanted to take my game to the next level. That’s what happened. And being 310 pounds wouldn’t allow me to do it. I made adjustments in my diet. I came up with the motto that it’s a lot easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape.
I wouldn’t say it’s a bad town.(3) I’d say it’s a town that has bad weather.
The pessimist looks at the cup as half-empty and says we lost four Super Bowls. The optimist says, “Wow, what an accomplishment. You guys went to four straight Super Bowls, something that no one has ever done in the history of the game.” Do you realize the commitment, the dedication, overcoming adversity, perseverance that has to come into play to accomplish something like that?
I don’t know a tremendous amount about him.(4) I thought he was on the right track in Chicago for a year or two. Maybe it’ll be a good change for the Bills.
That’s one of the movies that I watched at a very young age and just fell in love with.(5)
I’m a big nature guy. I love the outdoors. I went to Africa about seven years ago. I went on a mission with Operation Smile, an organization that flies all around and donates their time and their medical skills to operate on children and adults with cleft palates. A wonderful organization. When I had the opportunity to go on this mission, I decided to take the family with me and we stayed over 10 days and viewed parts of Africa and went on a safari. It was the most fulfilling trip I’d ever taken. It’s something that will forever be imprinted in my mind. That’s where my ancestors came from. Just to see that open land, animals grazing around with freedom and no boundaries, it’s a phenomenal place to visit and spend time. Take your family. You’ll walk away with some of the same thoughts I have.
If it hadn’t been for my parents being disciplinarians, their being very conscious of me being a good person first –thinking of education first and judging people by the content of their character — I don’t think I’d be the person I am today.
I wanted to do something great with my life. I wanted to represent my parents’ name and leave a legacy of not only their name, but my children and my wife.
Try and make a difference in the world. Try and touch someone’s life to make it better.
1-The actual Outland Trophy that he won in college.
2-Being the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
3-Buffalo.
4-New Bills coach Dick Jauron, formerly of the Bears.
5-“Born Free.”
