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I think it's sad to me that I had to make a decision to not play the game that I feel like I'm best at and that I love. But if it was just about the game itself, I'd be there in a heartbeat. But that's not how the real world works.

To me it was never about what I accomplished on the football field, it was about the way I played the game.

It was about being wanted, it was about winning, and it was about my passion for the game. I just loved it. I absolutely loved to compete and to step out onto that football field with my teammates.

All my life my priority was football, football, football. I was just fully focused on that and when my kids were born that focus changed gradually. I had something in my life that changed my perspective. You experience something that is more important than win, lose or draw.

Nobody has done more for me than my parents, who devoted untold amounts of time and money that allowed me to play the game I love. It's no exaggeration to say I never would have gotten anywhere near a World Cup, an Olympics, or even the U.S. national team without them. I have never forgotten that, and I never will.

Playing the game, representing the team, giving my all and never letting go has meant everything to me.

What was important to me was entertaining the audience, and whether that meant winning, losing, singing, or whatever it was on the live show we were doing every week, which was awesome, I was game for it.

I was passionate. I found something that I loved. I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn't have to talk to anybody because of my shyness. It was great. I was in my fantasy world.

I didn't have to win, and winning wasn't important to me. Being world champion wasn't important to me. What was important to me was entertaining the audience, and whether that meant winning, losing, singing, or whatever it was on the live show we were doing every week, which was awesome, I was game for it.

For me, at least, all of my career goals, all of my focus, everything just shifted and the importance was my children, and that's where all the joy came from as well.