The only way we protect ourselves, the only way a player gets what he wants is by holding out.

Now that I know the dangers? Yes, I still would do it again. Why? 'Cause look at me. Look at my family. They're able to eat, they're able to have food and shelter over their head. Would I play football again? Yes.

Coming out of college, I wasn't considered the fastest, the biggest or the smartest. There was no way around that.

I wasn't about one season, but career and longevity.

Football is what we do. It's our job, it's a business.

Encourage those around you. Encourage yourself.

God has blessed me with the ability to play football.

We're all going to have our trials and tribulations, but you can work through them and everything will be all right.

Stay in school because education provides you with an opportunity. Opportunity is all you can ask for.

Baltimore, I love that city.

I always said I wanted to become a master of my game, like Bruce Lee. I mastered my art of football, because that's what it truly is when you understand it.

I was a two-star athlete. I got looked over.

We have a bunch of American citizens who step up because that's what we do. We'll step up and go across the world to help people out. When it comes to our own backyard, it's always a different conversation.

I love to have my football camps. I love being a part of that.

Those inner-cities, they're not giving kids a chance. They're not giving the teachers a chance to really help those kids. They're making it real tough. You're either gonna help or you're hurting your own country.

I never came out of a game unless I was truly hurt.

When I make a tackle or make a play and I have a slight pain or something, you're going to react the way you react.

I always play the game a certain way, regardless of what guys say.

Not every game is going to be perfect. Not every game is going to be an interception or two or a big-bang tackle, so to say.

My older brother, he did everything. He played baseball, he played basketball. Just being able to watch him as a youngster, wanting to be like him, wanting to play on the team with him and watching those older guys in my neighborhood play sports.

It helps you as a person when you're teaching something to somebody to understand it even better.

It's tough for kids to stay focused if they don't have something to get them off the streets... that's where the kids can get into the bad things.

Football is a reaction sport.

You have to be coachable.

I don't want to be like these guys having neck surgery, then you got to go have another surgery just to continue to play this game. I love this game but I love myself more.

You've got to be smart about tackling.

I can't be lackadaisical when it's time for me to make any play, whether it's a tackle, fumble recovery, anything that it might be.

My time in Baltimore was awesome, every bit of it.

I always will be a Raven. That's where I was kind of raised in the NFL. I did a lot of growing, and we did a lot of special things. That's something that can never be taken away, and it never will. There's a lot of love there.

Yeah, some people don't know anything about football.

I don't want to play till I'm 40.

There's a reason why, outside of me dropping a few, people don't throw my way, man.

You know mental illness is one of the biggest problems in our world.

Everyone has their own greatness. Whether you reach your own greatness depends on your environment, your structure, the company you keep and your attitude.

There will be good and bad, right and wrong. Your reaction of choice, good or bad, has consequences that affect you and those around you.

That's what being a human is about, leaving this place better than we got it.

There's no place like Baltimore.

My philosophy was simple. I was trying to score when I got the football in my hand. There was no question about that.

We had a great staff in college, so after I got to the league, I'd already seen stuff I knew. Then it was enhanced, playing the game with great guys like Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Chris McAlister.

It's a kid's game we play. Nothing more than that.

The football fans loved the way I played the game.

I know a lot about football. I know a lot about this game.

We are human and regular people at the end of the day. We're not immune from the trials and tribulations that go on through life.

To be playing in my first Super Bowl in New Orleans, it's special.

The game takes a toll on your body.

The relationships I have in Baltimore will never change.

I'll beat a bunch of good guys, and then I'll get a ton of fans come up to me and go, 'Do you think you can beat Conor McGregor?' And I'm like, 'Oh my God. You guys are disillusioned.' They think because this man's popular he's good.

There's not a single strike that good preparation can't negate.

I beat Gilbert Melendez, and he got two shots at the title.

I've done it a couple times where I've had fight of the year. It's not what you aspire to.