I grew up with sports, but I was definitely not good enough to become a professional athlete - I just loved the storytelling aspect of it.

There is part of you as a female - no question - that feels like you have to be overprepared and outwork the men because people are automatically going to look at you and say, 'Well, you didn't play football,' or, 'You don't know what you're talking about,' because you are a female.

When there is a certain subject matter where I want to get involved, where I think I could add to the conversation, and especially with gender issues, I appreciate having that voice and that seat at the table.

My friends would always joke that I'm 'the grandmother' and 'the homebody' because I can't stay up past nine o'clock, but a lot of that rest is so important for me.

I've stayed calm when I'm winning and I've stayed calm when I've lost. Tennis is a sport where we have a lot of tournaments every week, so you can't celebrate a lot when you have big victories, and you cannot get too down when you're losing, as in a few days you'll be in the next tournament and you'll have to be ready with that.

I tore my abdomen. That ended my football career, which was what I wanted to do my entire life, and when that was over, I pretty much looked to just about anything, but nothing really caught my interest.

Ever since I was a little boy, I had my eyes set on being able to say I was a professional athlete. I worked hard every day to make sure that it became a possibility and sacrificed a lot for the game of football.

I can live without football. There are more important things in life.