My parents told me from the time I can remember that, 'Yeah, you're adopted. But this is your family.' I can remember my mom, she tells me this story: when I was little, I was looking at her, and I was like, 'Why isn't my skin the same color as yours?' She was like, 'Oh, you're adopted, but I wish I had pretty brown skin like you.'
You have to train hard and be strong while staying flexible and limber, so I'm trying to find that balance.
All my life, I've had these flashbacks, these dreams, nightmares, daymares, like visions, where I relive certain plays. Only the bad plays. I see them over and over, as if somebody's rewinding a tape and forcing me to watch.
Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.
When I'm actually getting off the bus, I still have my gospel playing. That's the way-to-the-game kind of music.
You have to take care of the ball to win football games.
To me, I'm going out there focusing on competing, not worrying about cardio or anything like that.
I think, between the tattoos, the way I dress, the way I talk, people don't think it should go together with a franchise quarterback or someone that's leading the team or representing the organization.
I don't look like my high school self anymore. I feel like I look more like an adult now.
Unless you're being carted off, you should be on the field.
I don't believe in pressure. The pressure is not being prepared for what you want to do.
Most people don't want to change. They're comfortable and set in their ways. But in order to change, you have to be able to agitate people at times. And I think that's something that's very necessary for us to improve as a country.
When it comes down to it, you're playing football regardless of what offense you're in.
What other people think of how I play and how I go about things really isn't something I worry about.
When you step on the field, you want to be a starter. You want to be the person everybody looks to and says, 'If we need a play to be made, let's go to him.'
I don't play for job security.
I'm still trying to improve. Everything I can do to improve every part of my game - I'm going to do it.
Nobody cares if you're black, white, straight, gay, Christian, Jewish, whatever it may be. When you step on that field, you're a member, in my case, the 49ers. That's your job, your occupation.
I never felt that I was supposed to be white. Or black, either. My parents just wanted to let me be who I needed to be.
I have great teammates around me who make plays.
I've had times where one of my roommates was moving out of the house in college, and because we were the only black people in that neighborhood, the cops got called, and we had guns drawn on us. Came in the house, without knocking, guns drawn on my teammates and roommates. So I have experienced this.
Thankfully, God blessed me with some legs that move pretty good, and we also get to wear pads, so I should be alright.
I'm here to play football.
Whether football's here or not, I will be fine. I go out, I play to win.
I refuse to take shortcuts.
I wouldn't say there is one specific designer I rock. It's more of the look of the shirt and what occasion and where I'm wearing it to.
Sometimes, when things are going really well, I feel like I've already seen things - it's the flashback feeling in a good way. Like I'm watching a rerun, because I've studied this defense and know what comes next. Now, that is a good feeling, when your mind is working fast because you've studied, and you realize, 'I've seen this before.'
I felt the way people talked to me was like, 'It's OK to be No. 2 in the NFL, a backup,' and things like that. That's never been my approach.
Teammates tell me to bring it down a notch in practice or that their hands are hurting. Randy Moss told me I was the first person to ever dislocate one of his fingers.
If I got a football scholarship, I was going to be a football player.
The biggest thing is I watch myself: What I need to improve on, what I can do different.
The support I've gotten from my teammates has been great.
There are a lot of details to running that I never even thought about. I just went out and ran. I think I can be faster. I think I can be quicker.
Its a touchy subject, 'cause I never want to take it there, where it seems like it's all about race. But I feel like that's something that comes along with the territory of being a black quarterback. When you have success - 'Oh, you're a freak athlete.' Not, 'Oh, you're a good quarterback.'
I'll never take the easy way out.
Jim Tomsula is going to be great coach for us. Players' coach. Always around the guys. Someone that's willing to listen to what the players say and has their intake.
Once I get into the locker room, I turn on stuff to get me hyped up. Mainly, it's a lot of rap music.
Victor Cruz just got his deal with Givenchy - amazing. I was so excited for him. That was amazing. So I think there are great opportunities for a lot of athletes out there.
This stand wasn't because I feel like I'm being put down in any kind of way. This is because I'm seeing things happen to people that don't have a voice: people that don't have a platform to talk and have their voices heard and affect change. So I'm in the position where I can do that, and I'm going to do that for people that can't.
It was just something - I didn't agree with what the flag was representing at this time, and you know, if you look at the original picture where people addressed it, I was trying to sit behind the coolers and out of the way, 'cause I didn't want to interrupt anybody else's right to stand and hold attention to the flag.
I have great respect for the men and women that have fought for this country. I have family, I have friends that have gone and fought for this country. And they fight for freedom, they fight for the people, they fight for liberty and justice, for everyone.
We have a presidential candidate who's deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate. That doesn't make sense to me, because if that was any other person, you'd be in prison. So what is this country really standing for?
I have a very high expectation for everything I do. And when I go out and compete, I expect myself to make every play.
A lot of them have families to feed, and I think it's a tragic situation where players aren't comfortable speaking what's on their mind or what's right because they're afraid of consequences that come along with it. That's not an ideal environment for anybody.
I was not going to let people tell me what I'm capable of.
The SFPD has had a lot of issues, and I think one of the issues that needs to be addressed is the racist text messages that have been passed back and forth between PD members, not only talking about the community, but also talking about colleagues that work in the same department as them.
I trained with a few Olympic runners and jumpers. Just to try to get a little bit faster, a little bit better. Anything I could do to try to get a little bit better and stay ahead of the competition.
Training, that's my specialty.
You're going to hurt, yes. You're going to have tweaks and problems. But you're a football player; you can play through those.
