On what he missed about college football:
“I think playing college football in general is the last time you really play for team spirit, your teammates. Then it becomes a business. That’s what I miss the most – playing for the right reasons. Money is always a good reason, but it becomes work.”
On the biggest adjustment to college football:
“The biggest step for me, and the thing you can’t duplicate in practice, is how fast the game goes. When I got in a game situation my first game up in Washington, everything moved so fast. Eventually, it slows down.”
On his newest project, the Lazy Bear Ranch:
“I’ve always considered myself a Bear. I was a UCLA Bruin, a baby bear, and I grew up and became a Chicago Bear. Now I have the Lazy Bear, an executive bird hunting retreat. It’s a nice weekend retreat.”
On winning a Super Bowl:
“I’ve had six knee surgeries, and people ask was it worth it. If I had to do it all over again, if I could do it the same way, be part of the Super Bowl team I was a part of, yes. If I was on the Bengals? No, no way. I don’t know if you’ll ever that type of talent again, four Hall of Famers, but what set us apart were the things we did off the field. We did things that brought fans that weren’t even fans. What team could sell 1,000,000 rap singles?
On picking the USFL over the NFL:
“Looking back, you say what a price I had to pay to be the answer to a trivia question, and hindsight is 20/20. I probably, if I would say what I would have changed, I would’ve stuck it out and gone right to the Bears and had a five-year career. But you can look at it from the philosophical point of view, everything is meant to happen for a reason. If I didn’t have those steps and those experiences, maybe it wouldn’t have worked out.”
On missing the game:
“I see Logan Paulsen out there today, and I think I could at least run a crossing route with him. I don’t know if I could go deep, but I could choke it down in the zone.”
On wearing his Super Bowl ring to talk to the players:
“Of course. Every day, if I’m not in Idaho and I’m not out working, I wear it every day. It’s a great conversation piece, but 20 years now, they’ve gotten so enormous now that some high school championship rings rival my Super Bowl ring.”
On his “ladies man” persona:
“Neuhseisel gives me a bad time, but the girl I dated at UCLA became Miss USA, miss universe, and my senior year we play in the Astro Bluebonnet bowl. ‘Wrightman,’ Neuheisel says, ‘the first things he does is pick up on Miss Texas, the Bluebonnet queen,’… which is true. When the song girls were up on stage, Neuheisel likes to say I almost had to get a seatbelt so I wouldn’t run on stage.”