It was very up and down because I didn’t leave on my own terms. I got to a point where, emotionally, I couldn’t do it anymore. I was with the Oakland Raiders and ended up getting released – I kind of had an emotional break down. I ended up going back to school at Ohio State to finish my degree, and when I went back it was very difficult for me to even concentrate because I was in a state of depression.
I tried to figure out what I was going to do. In my mind, I had been playing football since I was nine years old and now it’s like ‘Okay, now what? How do I respond? Where do I go from here?’ Because for most of my life everything had been centered around football. I was in a place where I was just trying to find myself.
Getting to the point where you’re at the pinnacle of football, and then to not have it work out the way you wanted it to is really difficult. Again, it was me trying to find myself and reidentify who I was. Now that this is over, who am I?