As FIFA leaked information to the media, portraying me as an unethical person, I felt I was left naked, helpless to defend myself, as they repeatedly cut me with a sharp knife.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was a piece of meat. I was betrayed by the business of football.
People want to tear me down, they were going to knife me anyway.
When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something.
What shocked me, and what I wasn't prepared for, was just how brutal and how unethical some people can be in the NFL. I mean, there were some great people, but there were some real snakes, too. I was like, 'Holy cow!' But it made me a better person, and it got me ready for other things.
For a while, I dallied with the idea of the law - I didn't really know what it was, but I thought it sounded sensible. And as a child, I wanted to be a goalkeeper. Or a butcher.
And then ESPN fired me. I did not think that was a fitting punishment.
I played a lot of football, and I was a goalkeeper, but I didn't really like playing in goal.
There have been times when I've reflected on my international career and just thought: 'Well that was a massive waste of time.' Sorry for sounding sour, but my best mate, David Beckham, got butchered after the World Cup in 1998, then my brother, Phil, after Euro 2000.
For years in football I was angry with the game, angry with pundits and, a lot of the time, angry with the journalists writing about me. All that changed when I got my break in movies.
In sports, I refused to do any interviews that were just going to become human-interest stories. Don't turn me into a tragic heroine.
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