I've always looked at my career as an athlete would look at his. I won't play forever. Some don't know when to walk away, but the smart ones do.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I don't know whether it's the athlete in me or the passion I have for the game: I always think that I can step back on the field and play.
As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you - but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.
That's a part that's always a challenge for athletes: trying to keep the passion alive while knowing it's still your job. There's no question that at some point, probably sooner rather than later, I'll be pretty burned out. And when that time comes, then I'll take a step back and take a look at it and see if I want to keep going.
When you're an athlete, you've got the horse blinders on pretty thick. Your exploration of other things in life tends to be limited because you have to have such a focus on what you're doing. I wasn't a good enough player to stray from that focus and still keep my ability.
When you are an athlete, it's difficult to take time off and say you want to come back without everyone judging you and attacking you.
Life's short, you know? Especially as an athlete. Your career is very short, and you use the opportunities that you have because you're not going to have them again.
We judge athletes as if we all don't have trouble performing our various duties from time to time.
I just think in order for someone to understand my game, they have to watch me more than once, because I'm not going to do anything that's extra flashy or freakishly athletic.
I think the people who have really followed my career from the time I was seven years old can see my steady progress and see the type of person and athlete I am.
Every athlete, I think, would like to play forever. They never want to acknowledge that they've lost a step or they can't quite do what they did before.