The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb.
People have assumed that I have to run the ball before I can throw it most all of my career, all the way back before high school. It's a stereotype put on me for a long time because I'm African-American, and I'm a dual-threat quarterback.
My parents found this paper from my high school theater class where you had to write down what you wanted in a significant other. At the bottom, it said, 'No athletes, because they're arrogant.'
We're often portrayed as rich, spoiled athletes who play a game for too much money.
These guys, just because we're NBA athletes, we're not superhumans.
A female professional athlete has to have the whole package, as opposed to a guy who can just be good at sport. You have to have a job or go to uni or do three sports instead of one, you have to be a standout.
Quarterbacks can still have good bodies. I'm always conscious of the stereotype. I want to change what people think. There's a lot more to it than what you see on the field.
Now that I'm retired, I want to say that all defensive linemen are sissies.
The self-image of many contemporary sportswriters seems to depend on maintaining that were it not for sports, athletes would be pumping gas, if they were not sticking up the gas station.
I'm the world's expert on sterotypes held by academics about athletes and held by athletes about academics. To me, both of them are caricatures.
