You have to train hard and be strong while staying flexible and limber, so I'm trying to find that balance.

I have great respect for the men and women that have fought for this country. I have family, I have friends that have gone and fought for this country. And they fight for freedom, they fight for the people, they fight for liberty and justice, for everyone.

People are dying in vain because this country isn't holding their end of the bargain up as far as, you know, giving freedom and justice and liberty to everybody.

We have a presidential candidate who's deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate. That doesn't make sense to me, because if that was any other person, you'd be in prison. So what is this country really standing for?

Sometimes, when things are going really well, I feel like I've already seen things - it's the flashback feeling in a good way. Like I'm watching a rerun, because I've studied this defense and know what comes next. Now, that is a good feeling, when your mind is working fast because you've studied, and you realize, 'I've seen this before.'

I've had times where one of my roommates was moving out of the house in college, and because we were the only black people in that neighborhood, the cops got called, and we had guns drawn on us. Came in the house, without knocking, guns drawn on my teammates and roommates. So I have experienced this.

I do want to be a representative of the African community, and I want to hold myself and dress myself in a way that reflects that. I want black kids to see me and think, 'Okay, he's carrying himself as a black man, and that's how a black man should carry himself.'

I have great teammates around me who make plays.

I have great respect for people's right to believe what they want to believe. And I don't think anybody should be prosecuted or judged based on what their beliefs are.

I'll never take the easy way out.

The SFPD has had a lot of issues, and I think one of the issues that needs to be addressed is the racist text messages that have been passed back and forth between PD members, not only talking about the community, but also talking about colleagues that work in the same department as them.

I'm still trying to improve. Everything I can do to improve every part of my game - I'm going to do it.

I think, between the tattoos, the way I dress, the way I talk, people don't think it should go together with a franchise quarterback or someone that's leading the team or representing the organization.

The support I've gotten from my teammates has been great.

Its a touchy subject, 'cause I never want to take it there, where it seems like it's all about race. But I feel like that's something that comes along with the territory of being a black quarterback. When you have success - 'Oh, you're a freak athlete.' Not, 'Oh, you're a good quarterback.'

I never weighed myself when I was at my lightest because I didn't want to know.

Mental health, for me, is doing everything I can to help this team win. Sitting around not doing anything isn't something I've been too big on since I was young.

You're going to hurt, yes. You're going to have tweaks and problems. But you're a football player; you can play through those.

A lot of them have families to feed, and I think it's a tragic situation where players aren't comfortable speaking what's on their mind or what's right because they're afraid of consequences that come along with it. That's not an ideal environment for anybody.

To me, when people say, 'Oh, you're a freak athlete,' it's bittersweet. It's a huge compliment to say, 'O.K., you have physical abilities that are kind of above and beyond.' But at the same time, I feel like it diminishes the mental side of the game.

All my tattoos, they've been thought out, thought over, been a work in progress for at least a year before I've got them. So I'm not walking into a tattoo shop, picking tattoos off a wall. It's something that means something to me. It's something that I believe in.

I'm going out to play, and to play to win.

Nobody cares if you're black, white, straight, gay, Christian, Jewish, whatever it may be. When you step on that field, you're a member, in my case, the 49ers. That's your job, your occupation.

To me, I'm going out there focusing on competing, not worrying about cardio or anything like that.

I haven't seen a quarterback play a perfect game yet.

I don't look like my high school self anymore. I feel like I look more like an adult now.

Whatever the offense dictates to allow me doing what I or this offense needs to do to win games, I'm going to do it.

You have to take care of the ball to win football games.

The NFL is a performance-based business, so you should have to perform to earn some of your money. At the same time, I realize that my success isn't just because of what I do out there.

You have to be able to do everything as a quarterback, and that's not necessarily taking care of your job but making sure you're preparing everyone else to go out and play well. And make sure you have them in the right mindset when they step on the field.

I love America.

To me, I've played full seasons and had success. Mentally, I've been through it before. I'm not incapable of going through this.

People can talk all they want; that doesn't affect how I go about my business.

Jim Tomsula is going to be great coach for us. Players' coach. Always around the guys. Someone that's willing to listen to what the players say and has their intake.

In the heat of the battle, it's always different than when you go back and look at it on film.

I think being shy or a little bit more mild-mannered is more how you treat people and how you go about your business, not necessarily how you dress or things of that nature.

There are a lot of details to running that I never even thought about. I just went out and ran. I think I can be faster. I think I can be quicker.

If I got a football scholarship, I was going to be a football player.

I felt the way people talked to me was like, 'It's OK to be No. 2 in the NFL, a backup,' and things like that. That's never been my approach.

Whether football's here or not, I will be fine. I go out, I play to win.

Feelings aren't going to help me win a game.

I'm here to play football.

I'd say that, 99 percent of the time at Nevada, I knew what the coverage was and where I was probably going before the ball was snapped. It makes it very easy when I only had to read one person and know that I was going from here to here, and if not, I'm checking it down.

I never felt that I was supposed to be white. Or black, either. My parents just wanted to let me be who I needed to be.

You have full-field view when you're watching the film. Eye in the sky, it's a lot easier to look at it that way than when you're back behind center.

I don't believe in pressure. The pressure is not being prepared for what you want to do.

If you work hard and perform well, it doesn't matter whether you're 20 or 40. People are going to follow, and you can go in there and run the show.

I have great respect for the religion. I know a lot of people that are Muslim and are phenomenal people.

When I'm actually getting off the bus, I still have my gospel playing. That's the way-to-the-game kind of music.

I'll always be a fan of coach Harbaugh. Not too sure about Michigan.