Don't ever allow yourself to feel trapped by your choices. Take a look at yourself. You are a unique person created for a specific purpose. Your gifts matter. Your story matters. Your dreams matter. You matter.
If you know where your next meal is coming from, you are not poor.
I would have dreams all the time about me playing in the NFL. Every day I woke up, I said to myself, you know, I'm going to work hard, you know, this day to get to that next level.
Everyone knows someone struggling in some kind of way. You are a role model to so many people, even if you don't realize it. Take someone under your wing. Show them the right way to do things.
Do what's best for you, and do it to the best of your ability - go after your goals like nobody's business.
There's a big difference between where I came from and the NFL. Things like this don't happen to people from there often. It just took a lot of hard work and dedication, staying on the right path, believing in myself, and having an inner drive.
Family is very important. Me and my brothers were very close when I was growing up. We did a lot of things together to survive. If you have family behind you, the sky's the limit.
Well we want to know... If you want to become part of the family." "... Kinda thought I already was.
I love Baltimore, I definitely look at it as home, somewhere I'm very comfortable.
Anything is possible. My background is a bad background, but a lot of people said I couldn't do it. You can do anything if you put your mind to it.
I'm not trying to prove anything. People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don't really see the skills and the kind of player I am. That's why I get downgraded so much, because of something off the field.
I know I didn't want to get caught up in the cycle of drugs and violence that was around me. Deep down inside, I felt there was something better outside the situation I was in.
I think I could handle right tackle. With great coaches, I think I can handle anything.
I'm a left tackle. I like playing left tackle. That's my position. I think I can do it better than anybody.
People mess up all the time. Michael Vick, he made some mistakes. He surrounded himself around the wrong people. And you've got to be careful with that. But he's redeemed himself and came back.
Obviously I'm not to where Michael Jordan is, but trying to get to some level where he was and just striving for the best. That's what got me here.
Not every day where I'm from do people get a movie made about them.
For me, I was always just a down-to-earth guy. From Day 1 my rookie year, I've been the same. As an offensive lineman, we just want to be under-the-radar, humble guys, just like to do our work and not be noticed.
Of course, we all need angels. I had to have one over my head throughout my life, even right now. The odds of my making it were slim to none. So you have to have an angel. You have to believe.
I always felt that I was, you know, smart. I just didn't have a lot of the resources that everybody else had... It was tough for me to catch up.
People who watch 'The Blind Side,' they're not going to have a chance to get to know me. People I'm close to, as long as they know me, know who I am, I don't have a problem with it.
I try to win at everything.
I'm not dumb, I just wasn't educated.
I've learned not to buy into what other people say. I've learned not to put dreams in other people's hands.
No kid ever truly forgets when they’ve experienced neglect, abuse, and heartbreak.
Children who have been taken to live in the foster system are twice as likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder than are American military members returning from war zones.
Offensive linemen don't get looked at. Nobody is paying attention to the offensive line. But me? I'm getting watched for everything. I know what type of player I am. Everybody else that I know knows what type of player I am.
I think there's a need for more oversight by social workers, because there are a lot of foster parents who are just collecting checks. They need to look closely into the backgrounds of the people whose hands you're putting the kids into and then continue to monitor them.
I would have - I didn't really have to be an athlete. I could have been, you know - worked in fast food, been a janitor, anything. I would have had two or three jobs, working long hours, you know, to support myself and for my family in the future. I would have been successful.
