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I went to Dartmouth College, graduated, and had the opportunity to play two professional sports - I played for the New England Patriots in the NFL and professional lacrosse for the Boston Blazers. I had an injury, so I had to stop so I could heal. But when I was playing football, I wasn't making a lot of money; I wasn't a superstar.

Since I was in high school, I wanted to play professional football and professional baseball, be a two-sport star.

I actually went to study journalism at Northwestern, thinking that would be my Plan B for a career. But then I realized, if I'm going to struggle and make no money, I might as well do what I really want to do.

I went to a football school, which meant that I went to a university that served up education and was simultaneously operating a sports franchise.

If football had always been my main goal then I would have gone to some scholarship school; I could have gotten more exposure there.

On the field, I went from an anonymous redshirt to a short-yardage specialist to a Heisman Trophy candidate. Off the field, I showed up as a wild kid and grew up.

It was the beginning of film for television. So we had all of these great opportunities. Northwestern was probably the only major film school of its kind at the time that was graduating anybody important.

If I'd had the chance, I'd like to have completed my degree before going full-time, and sports journalism was something that always interested me. Dad used to buy a paper, and I always turned straight to the sports pages.

I got a degree in broadcast journalism at Northwestern but was running a sketch-comedy group and then went to Second City. When the writers' strike happened in 2007-2008, I went to work at E! because I had that background.

The only thing I ever wanted to be was a professional football player.