My favorite Christmas gift as a child was - I had a ninja turtle skateboard.
Danny Amendola
However you can affect somebody positively is what you should aspire to do.
Everybody is going to face adversity at some point, definitely when you leave college and try to get into the real world so to speak and get your first job.
My dad is a high school football coach in Texas so I've been around this game for a long time.
I tried to convert all my friends back in Houston to Patriots fans, which was successful to a small degree.
Accountability is huge and everybody has a job to do on every play and that's the really only thing you focus on.
You've got to deal with adversity throughout the season, whether it's injuries, losing a game where you don't play well.
The toughest injury I've played with was I tore my planter fascia in my foot. As a receiver, as a skill position, anytime you get your wheels, so to speak, messed up, it's hard to play like you want to play.
It is a business, and at the end of the day, I'm very lucky and very thankful and blessed to have the ability to play this game and be compensated as much as I do anyway.
Philly was a great opportunity because I met Pat Shurmur. I was very grateful for that. Unfortunately I wish I had more football memories there. I didn't play in any regular-season games, which sucks because I wanted to play.
Wind, weather, everything comes into play when you're in the kicking game - how far the ball is going to traveling in the air, where it's going to travel with the wind.
For me, if I wasn't going to get a full scholarship to go to school, I was going to go to the Army or Navy so I could avoid debt.
We feel that if you - practice habits turn into game realities.
I remember my first practice, from Pee Wee football when I was, like, 10, and I didn't know what was going on.
I always drove the crappiest cars out there.
I wish I could play Blackjack really well.
If athletics wasn't an option, I'd probably work at like a surf shop in Hawaii on the beach, just dishing out surf boards.
Even though I'd been invited to the combine, I didn't test particularly well. That didn't really surprise me, I had I no expectation that I'd shock people with an insane 40 time. But I knew things weren't looking good when I started getting asked a lot of questions about the size of my hands.
When guys talk about going to the league in college, they're thinking about flash and bling. But my first taste of the NFL was a relatively small non-guaranteed contract, a crappy room at an extended stay hotel and a sense of panic every time my phone rang because it might be the cut guy.
Every team in the league is always looking to upgrade its talent.
When I was on the practice squad, it felt like I was just a guy who came in off the street three days a week to help actual NFL players get better. It was unsettling, unfulfilling and there were a few times when I wondered whether I would get my shot. But I kept showing up and kept competing. I was too stubborn to stop believing in myself.
As much as it hurts to work out after a game, it helps that much more.
I like to make my training sessions harder than an actual game with very high intensity workouts, lots of sprints and plenty of weight room lifts.
You have to finish the season strong and you have to come out ready to play regardless of the situation you're in.
All games are huge, especially division games, and the ones at the end of the year matter the most.
Patriots Nation is loud, they have sick accents.
I'm just encouraging students to read. It's something you can do daily. It's something you can do whether you're sitting at home reading a newspaper or ordering something online. It's endless.
I like clothes that you can't tell what era it is, clean, and something I can look back at in ten years and not say, like, 'what the hell was I thinking?!'
My job is just to get open and catch the ball.
I'm just trying to build a rapport with whoever is calling the play. That's my job.
I learned how to be a smart, tough, fundamentally sound football player.
I've always wanted to throw a first pitch out, and nothing like doing it near your hometown where you live.
We've got to win. That's the goal each week.
Everybody has a job to do and I'm no different.
You want to start fast in each game, you want to start fast in each season and take it a week at a time.
You've just got to get open and catch the ball.
Strengths, I believe deep down that I am a football player, just have to do whatever it takes to win games, whatever it takes to fulfill my role on the offense and help my team win games.
Obviously Tom Brady is a great quarterback.
I believe the NFL is a land of opportunity. As soon as you figure out you can find your little niche, you can find your role on an offense, in my position at receiver, I feel like you can develop an identity and go from there.
Whatever my role is on each play, that's just what I have to do. I have to do my job. That's pretty much it, regardless of whether it's inside or outside.
When you come to work you're expected to be professional.
There's a difference between being injured and being hurt.
All my family's from Boston.
I was huge Steve Smith fan watching him play for Carolina.
You practice hard, you play hard and hopefully you play good.
I love every aspect of football, so getting out on the field is fun for me.
You want to make as many plays as you can just to help your team to get points on the board. If that happens you're going to naturally gain confidence.
I love playing special teams. It's fun, it's like 'Braveheart' sometimes but it's a lot of fun.
I've never played for my dad. I played against my dad actually in high school. That was fun, but he taught me how to play the game the right way. Respect the game, give it all you've got and regardless of what happens, have no regrets.
Without a doubt, one of the toughest football players to ever play the game is Tom Brady.
