I was a history undergrad, and there's some things I could do in academics or business.
— Chris Borland
You can't be in the locker room reading 'League of Denial.'
Football is an elective. It's a game. It's make-believe. And to think that people have brain damage from some made-up game.
If you turn on the film, I can play.
As far as what it takes to play football, I've got all it requires.
I think I'd be a good pass-catching fullback.
My experience over my five years at Wisconsin and my one year in the NFL was that there were times where I couldn't play the game safely. There are positive measures we can take... but on a lead play, on a power play, there's violence.
I enjoyed playing, and I've got a full and happy life now, so it's not like I'm looking back longingly at my time in football.
I loved football. I'm so glad I played. But I didn't think it was wise for me to play longer.
I think flag football is a great alternative, and it's a great game in its own right. It's a wonderful alternative. You can develop all of the skills and athleticism and glean the lessons you can from contact football through playing flag.
During the course of a 16-game season, everybody, in the end, is injured. It's almost as if pieces just get broken off, and you give up pieces or an appendage every year.
About 10 percent of the time, I miss 3 to 5 percent of the game. I look back, and I'm happy that I played. I'm not wistful. You miss big games. I miss the locker room camaraderie. Sometimes I miss the lifestyle.
One healthy thing I'd like for players to know, whether they're active or former, is you likely can't replicate the thrill of playing before 100,000 people and big hits and making that much money. We can get ourselves into trouble trying to.
I couldn't really justify playing for money, and I think what I wanted to achieve put me at too great a risk, so I just decided on another profession.
I loved playing in the Big Ten, where it's three yards and a cloud of dust.
I don't really trust the NFL.
I don't dislike football. I love football.
Obviously, not the biggest guy in stature. Straight-line speed wasn't my forte either. But I play very fast because I know the game. I take proper angles and know all my assignments.
My height might be a disadvantage in some parts of my game, but it is a big advantage in rushing the passer.
There are Hall of Famers at 5'11'' and 5'9''.
People think that athletes have it great, and we do in a lot of regard, but universities make a hell of a lot of money off of players. You don't get a free education: you work full-time year round for five years for an education you could pay for three times over if you just got your market value.
I'm more athletic than people think.
I guess I compete in everything I do, but it's always good to get out and be active and find an outlet for all of that pent-up aggression you had as an athlete.
I don't consider football fun. It's not like a water park or a baseball game.
Punishment for doing your job well is an unparalleled professional pressure.
I walked away from pro football and a $2.9 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers because I didn't want to develop CTE.
Sometimes men and women have trouble with just being vulnerable.
I wanted to fulfill my dream of playing in the NFL.
A piece of my heart will always be in football, but my mind ended it.
I never played the game for money and attention. I love football, and I've had a blast.
The idea that just the basis of the game, repetitive hits, could bring on a cascade of issues later in life, that was - it changed the game for me.
The reality is that it's just the nature of the game. It's the nature of playing offensive line, defensive line, and linebackers, where your responsibilities as a player involve those little hits that are going to accumulate. You can't take that out of the game.
Some of my best tackles were the most dangerous!
If you gave me an hour in the day between '09 and '14, I could have told you exactly where I was and what I was doing.
I don't do interviews without a collared shirt.
I think, in the eyes of a lot of circles, especially within football, I'm the soft guy. But I'm fine with being the soft, healthy guy.
Obviously, football and soccer seem to clash a lot, but soccer was great for me. It's a game that you play with triangles. You make a pass thinking that the person you pass the ball to is going to make the next pass.
I would never call myself anti-football. I think I'm pro-information, pro-people making informed individual choices, pro-health, so for that reason, personally, I'm apathetic towards football. But at the same time, I think we can retain some civility, and I understand why people support and love it.
The act of riding a bicycle isn't causing brain trauma. Yeah, you could fall, but that's if something goes wrong. Everything could go right in football, and it's still dangerous.
A generation of men really built the NFL and gave guys like me a shot, and a lot of these guys are left out in the cold by the league and forgotten.
The men and women that are hired to take care of players' health, their salaries are paid by the team. Before games, you would see team docs and trainers, and they're every bit as as excited to, say, beat the Raiders as you are; their emotions are tied up in it.
If I was a marginal guy or a practice squad player or a career-long special teamer, you take a hell of a lot less hits in those roles.
In places where people read hardcover books and eat sushi, they're not signing a five-year-old up to tackle another five-year-old.
I think I did a good job of compartmentalizing my life. It's crazy to say it, but even if football was this dangerous thing, it was a place where I could focus all my energy. I'm sure it's not the healthiest thing to direct stress from football into football, but that's basically what I did.
I just don't want to get in a situation where I'm negotiating my health for money.
It would be ill-advised to compare war and a sport, but I don't think the brain knows the difference. With post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries in blasts with veterans, we see a very similar and somewhat unique issue with repetitive brain injuries in football.
Football is inherently dangerous, and that will never change.
I'm involved in so many cool and interesting and redeeming things. I'm enjoying every day.
Pat Tillman is a hero of mine.
Dehumanizing sounds so extreme, but when you're fighting for a football at the bottom of the pile, it is kind of dehumanizing.
