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Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

Athletic ability can be taken away like that. It can all end in a heartbeat.

But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.

I would say that one of the hardest things for an athlete, and really anybody of any profession, is that we create our identity in what we do.

Growing up where I grew up, we looked to athletes. They were our first heroes. They came from the same places we came from. I mean, you can't watch TV and see someone who is successful that you can really relate to. That person isn't real; he doesn't exist. But athletes traveled the world, had these big houses and gave their families a better life.

You see so many different personalities and mind-sets in the world of sports, just like you do with actors.

I like to push characters to extremes so they have to make really tough decisions and there is no life more extreme than that of an athlete.

What is learned on the athletic field is not forgotten, nor are the lessons of character that are forged there ever lost. Consider the contributions in the field of public life, business, law, medicine, and the military of those who actively participated in athletics.