I grew up in L.A. in the '80s, and the Lakers were the biggest thing to ever hit the world at that time.

There's a drive, there's a hunger inside of me that says, 'I know what I can do and I'm going to get it done.'

When football is your job, a lot of what you feel about yourself and about life can become attached to the outcome of those games. That's probably true about a lot of jobs, but we suffer our losses pretty publicly. When you're not getting the results you want, it becomes easy to get depressed.

It doesn't matter how well you play individually if the team isn't winning.

My parents were among the first families from their area to leave Nigeria and come to America, the land of the free.

My favorite piece of clothing as a boy was a purple Magic Johnson jersey from the Los Angeles Lakers.

Seven straight years of losing isn't fun for anyone.

When you go into free agency and have options, any team is up for you to be on - and the Raiders, obviously with me having been there for so long, have a great shot at it.

Luckily enough for me I reached a level in the game where no one questioned my work ethic or my ability and then I was like, I don't care. Every off-season I might do a scene in a TV show or something just to keep that going.

Oh man, you miss it so much when you finish playing, especially when you play for most of your life. You miss just being a part of a team and being a part of the guys. So I definitely think producing brought that back for me. A bunch of people working together for a common goal.

When you're playing to get into the playoffs, your contract is the last thing on your mind.

I don't think you can ever get bored or lose focus as a competitor.

I always go back to the fact that one man can make a difference. No matter what the issue, we always have the power to change it.

I think any time you're able to humanize the plight of the wrongfully incarcerated, then you're doing your job.

My position in football was cornerback, and what your job is as a cornerback is to read the person that's in front of you - read their body language and anticipate what's going to happen next.

When I was a kid, my aunt snuck us into see 'Boyz n the Hood.'

I was maybe halfway through my career, and I was shooting a Nike commercial, and the director came to the trailer and said, 'Hey man, you're really gifted at this. I get a lot of athletes that come in, but you were prepared, and you made everything seem very natural. I really think you should look into this.'

As far as producing, I was thrown into it on a film called Beasts of No Nation when we were in Ghana three months after I retired.

In film, there's always this looking for the 'If you lay down and burst into tears, you did a good job.'

I enjoy stories that can spark a conversation.

When I hear about a player losing his money, I'll rarely, if ever, point a finger at the player because I know how difficult it is. It's not always, 'Look at this idiot who got paid all these millions of dollars and lost it all.' It may be more like, 'This naive kid with a million things going on in his life put his faith in the wrong people.'

For athletes, it's extremely tough to trust people with your finances. It's so easy to be victimized.

People told me all of the time, 'You could be such a big star if you just talked about yourself more,' but I'm not good at that. It's always been about team.

Anytime you leave something you've done and where you've been for nearly a decade, it's going to be different.