"Junior Seau is directly responsible for me having the career that I had. As a rookie, I looked at Junior Seau every day at practice and I said, 'Junior, why do you practice so hard.’ He’s running around, a muscular guy, and he said, ‘Rodney, I get paid to practice. I’d play the games for free. It’s easy to go in front of 60,000-70,000 people and play. You don’t need motivation [for that].' But to come in and practice every single day and practice like it’s a game, that’s what Junior Seau taught me. I implemented that in my program and I did that over the course of my career. When I retired, the biggest compliment I got was when Bill Belichick said, ‘Rodney was the best practice player I had in 31 years.’ That’s what it’s about, because that sets the tone. I don’t care if it’s business or sports, when you come with that positive type of attitude, you come with that type of energy, it’s electric. People catch on. People want what you have. You don’t have to be a great athlete. But if you have your heart, the will to win, dude, you can accomplish anything you want. I was a decent athlete. I wasn’t great. But I had the will."
