I always prided myself on trying to break the stigma of the 'dumb jock.'
I disagree that an athlete can't be intelligent. Some people think that, in basketball, we have a bunch of masculine adults who don't know how to control themselves. They're feeble-minded and can't engage or articulate ideas. That's a narrative they keep trying to paint.
I don't think we know who a lot of these athletes are. We think we do, but they're never allowed to be themselves. Because the minute they try, people are saying, What's wrong with him? Why is he drawing attention to himself?
Every time an older player gets toward the end of their career, they're always talking about 'I feel better now than I did 10 years ago.'
It took me years to separate Nick Foles the person from Nick Foles the football player.
A lot of people might sit back and watch Dominick Cruz doing his footwork, and say, 'Oh, Dominick Cruz just dancing around, and he runs away.' It's a totally different atmosphere until you get in there, and you actually experience it.
My mom gets mad because she'll read on Twitter or some message board that Spencer Paysinger is no good, and the Giants need to get rid of him. I tell her to stop reading that stuff because, at the end of the day, the media has no say on what happens in the locker room.
How's the game changed in my 15 years in the league? Well, we used to be called hard-working players. Now we're overpaid crybabies.
I never use the word 'hero' in sports. Hero is way above 'star.' I save 'star' for sports. Sports is entertainment; that's all it is.
I think people have a misconception of athletes when they think about what goes through their heads, you know what I'm saying?
You can't worry about what people say, but... People always harp on athletes being selfish individualists.
We're often portrayed as rich, spoiled athletes who play a game for too much money.
There's that initial reticence for some athletes to take you seriously.
People treat us and they put us on this pedestal like we're so much better human beings than them because we play a professional sport.
When you talk about professional footballers, rightly or wrongly, people often already have an idea in their head about what they're like; they'll paint a picture before they've met them.
I know more about UFC than the wrestling circuit. I think everybody's a pretty good guy in the UFC.
I think that - this is my personal opinion - but sometimes African American athletes are considered overly cocky.
And people are always saying he deceptively quick, deceptively athletic, and I don't know if that's just because I'm Asian or what it is, but obviously there's going to be stereotypes that you have to fight.
A lot of NFL guys are misunderstood.
