Quotes from Nnamdi Asomugha

Obviously, teams are passing a lot more, and there are rules that... allow the offense to be more explosive, so you want to have as many defensive players and defensive playmakers and defensive backs that you can.

I learned early in my career that I had to be prepared for life after football because you never knew when it would end.

I know that a lot of times when a guy is making a lot of money and he's not playing up to that caliber, it's like he's just getting his paycheck. That's never been me. That's never, ever been me.

Doing interviews after a game, you can't give your true emotions. You can't tap into them. So when you do that for so long, you go into acting and it can be difficult to suddenly just be open and vulnerable.

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 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.

I'm very grateful for my time in Philadelphia and I want to thank the Eagles organization for the opportunity to play here.

I'm always willing to help out when people have stories and they bring them to me. I also like the completely fun films like 'Patti Cake$.' My taste is, if it feels like it's something I'd like to see, then I'll get behind it.

I've had a chip on my shoulder every year that I've played.

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

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

Something clicked, and I was like, 'I gotta be prepared. This could end at any time.' That was my second year in the league. From that point on I started doing broadcasting and things like that in an attempt to find my passion - something I could do after football.

I'm a class clown.

I was always the person who would make the mistake. I was the one who would get suspended from school.

I'm one of the guys that thinks you have to spend a lot of time at whatever your craft is in order to sustain it, and in order to get better at it.

From what I came from, all the negative criticism - that keeps me from embracing that title of being the best. Because I always feel like there is another level I have to get to.

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.

I talked to a lot of people that switched careers. Not necessarily to acting, but switched jobs. The 'becoming a student again' is the thing that always kept coming up.

You're seen a certain way in the acting world. To them, you're still a football player and not taken as seriously. They think you're just doing it to be a celebrity, to keep your name out there. They don't think you'll prepare.

I remember players talking to Willie Brown in my presence. Receivers asking, 'Is this who you drafted? I can't believe this is who you drafted.' I was hearing it from my defensive backs: 'Man, you got a long way to go.'

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

I get friends that ask that all the time, and I remember my mother asking me a couple of times, because there was no action during a game, 'did you play?' It's so weird. Everybody's like, 'Great game, great game.' And because I demand so much of myself, I'm like, 'Well, I didn't do that great, because I didn't have any stats.'

After 11 seasons, I retired from football. Four months later I was in Ghana shooting 'Beasts of No Nation' as an executive producer.

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