I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.
I was on my way to becoming a Hall of Famer and having my name in the rafters, but three surgeries in 14 months, that is not good. I wasn't the same player.
Every football player knows when his time is up.
I can play until I'm 40. But I won't.
We have become more and more not a nation of athletes but a nation of spectators.
To continue playing late into your twenties in the same style that you once played as a teenager is not possible.
That's the hard part about sport: as men we haven't started to be in our prime, but as athletes we are old people. I needed support. I lost trust and did stupid things.
I'm 6-foot-4. If my life depended on it, I could still dunk a basketball. Then I would need assistance from a first responder to get down from the rim.
The reality is that my style of drumming is largely an athletic undertaking, and it does not pain me to realize that, like all athletes, there comes a time to... take yourself out of the game.
Patrick Ewing used to be much better in every aspect of the game.
There will be a time when I physically cannot do this sport.
I think, at 32, you are past your prime as a footballer.
Approximately four years ago, we were told that Jerry Rice would be a free agent and there were people who felt that he no longer could contribute.
Every year it happens. When I'm not putting up big numbers, I start hearing it - that I'm too old, that time finally has caught up with me.
I don't know too many pass rushers playing at 40.
Boxing does not favor boxers over 35 who rely on reflexes.
Winning times in the New York City Marathon have not dropped all that much over the years, but rather U.S. runners went backward. In 1983, there were 267 U.S. men who broke 2:20 in a marathon, and by 2000 that number was down to 27.
It might have been easier to retire, to say my knee couldn't handle it and let that be that. At the same time, the prospect of not being able to compete in gymnastics anymore was heartbreaking.
At some point, you're not going to be able to run the ball for 180 yards, even with the best running back in the NFL. That's when you have to be able to throw the ball.
What's great about stand-up unlike athletes and other things when you get old you get old and rusty.
By no means could I play at the level of these kids who play in the NHL now but as 50-year-olds go, I feel really good and I feel blessed that I'm still healthy.
A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.
My athleticism will go away some day. I'm gonna be old one of these days, so I'm going to be able to use those post moves.
But I'll tell you this: When I lose my athleticism, it's time to go.
Tennis is a young man's game. Until you're 25, you can play singles. From 25 to 35, you should play doubles. I won't tell you exactly how old I am, but when I played, there were 28 men on the court - just on my side of the net.
