I grew up playing in the streets. We played two-hand touch from street pole to street pole. That's how I learned the game.
We've been doing work outside of the anthem since the beginning. Before the anthem even started, players were involved in these types of social justice issues. The anthem protests or demonstrations just brought eyes and attention to it.
After spending time with police officers on ride-alongs, meeting with politicians on the state and federal level and grass roots organizations fighting for human rights, it's clear that our criminal justice system is still crippling communities of color through mass incarceration.
I've seen signs of life with regards to bipartisan support for criminal justice reform, but the support does not reflect the necessary urgency for real reform. This must be made a priority.
I can create as many programs and mentorships and scholarships as I want, but it doesn't change the environment in which our youth are growing up in.
You're starting to see more and more athletes recognizing their reach and how much leverage and power that they have in their celebrity and in their platform. And more and more guys are trying to use that leverage to better their communities, to better this country and are speaking out on injustice.
We have that responsibility to look out for those who haven't had the road and the success that we have.
If you want change, and you want things to get better across the country, there's different ways to go about it.
A lot of guys try to stay out of the political limelight because you have things like endorsements; you have fans and all these other things that you represent.
Donald Trump is a divisive name in a locker room.
A lot of guys will talk politics, but usually not about Trump. Those might get a little heated depending on who you're talking to.
I have a huge passion for giving back.
I pop in highlight films from high school once in a while because those days were special.
When you have your star players that decide to use their platform, one, their platforms are bigger than everyone else's, and two, they're a force to be reckoned with because teams don't want to lose that talent. They're a force to be heard.
The biggest things I have are the platform that I have and influence.
The more that I learn about what's going on, it's really hard to ignore the oppression that people are actually going through.
The problem with hashtags is if someone starts a new hashtag, people move on.
For myself and the Players Coalition, it was never about the money or having our voices bought. To hear people call me or anyone else a sell-out is insulting. It has always been, and will always be, about lifting the voices of the people and the work of those that fight for them.
You've got a bunch of kids out here that might not want to be athletes, but they want to learn how to make a difference in their community, and I'm trying to as best I can show an example of that.
I don't want to do things to do things. I want them all to make sense to me.
Changing communities and changing our country is going to last a lot longer than how many footballs you catch or how many touchdowns you make.
Sometimes, we get numb to the fact that people get sent away. We don't see where they are; we say they are 'doing time,' and you really don't know what that is.
I don't claim to be a fashionista.
Bow tie wearers are like a cult.
Everybody I interacted with in my life, directly or indirectly, has placed a fingerprint upon my life. That combination has made me who I am.