I grew up in Europe, and soccer was the first organized game I played. When we moved back to the U.S. in the middle of 4th grade, I switched to American football and stopped playing competitively until college, when I played intramurals.
Biggest lesson I learned my first year in the NFL is no one gives a crap about what you did last week. This league is about what have you done for me now. That's the NFL. It's also our culture. So you keep working hard because that's the biggest truth about football.
The sweetest thing we ever had was, like, animal crackers in the pantry. I think my parents sort of passively made sure that we didn't have a lot of junk food at our disposal, and I think that helped me and all my siblings growing up with how to approach nutrition and eating right.
I figure it's a European thing to eat cheese and crackers before a meal - that's my afternoon snack, or I do it before dinner.
Breakfast is so important, so I'll make an omelet with cheese and deli meats, and then I'll eat muesli and yogurt mixed with fruit or oatmeal with fruit - and then a side of baked beans.
Houston is my team, always and forever. But with the new TV packages, it's so easy to watch every league in the world, and my overseas fandom is driven by the American guys. If Sunderland's on TV, I'll watch Jozy Altidore. I try to watch Geoff Cameron at Stoke. When Clint Dempsey was at Tottenham, I watched a lot of his games.
When I grew up, my father taught us the value of hard work. He wanted us to enjoy ourselves, but he also wanted to know what it took to be successful. He coached a lot of our sports teams growing up. We weren't very good, but we learned about hard work and enjoying life and your teammates.
Watching soccer is my main hobby, really. I'm no tactician or coach, but I enjoy watching the free flow of it, the different styles, and the histories behind clubs. Like Barcelona vs. Madrid - it's not just a soccer game; it's a geopolitical struggle. There are great storylines and no commercials.
I stay away from straight bench; all the work I do is with dumbbells to protect my rotator cuffs. Then I'll do a bunch of different pull moves like inverted rows before finishing with some simple internal or external rotations with a band to strengthen my shoulder.
I realize that as the quarterback, you have to assume some sort of leadership role because you have to talk in the huddle on every play, and you're essentially giving out orders to the team. But in my mind, I have to prove myself on the field before I can start asserting a leadership role.
I'm teaming up with Quaker and PLAY 60 to encourage kids to eat right, stay active and do something outside for at least 60 minutes a day.
Make working out the centre band of core and hips a priority during any training session. As a sportsman, it's the key to any movement and the source of most of your power.
I think chocolate in moderation is not bad for you, but I eat way too much. I tell myself I'm going to eat two squares, and then I end up eating half a big bar.
I do know it's great to have a support from a fan base of a team. Football is such a team game, such a team aspect to it... Good things happen, the praise is spread around; and bad things happen, usually it's not just one person's fault.
