My favorite player growing up was Steve Nash, so that's been a guy I look up to and a guy I've gotten to talk to a few times, too.

Not a lot of people take advantage of that opportunity of being different. A lot of kids that are highly touted coming out of high school, like, doing the traditional thing and going to the blue bloods and all that, but I was always different growing up.

I remember me being that kid growing up. Me being the kid that grew up going to games and being a ball boy and wanting a high five from Blake Griffin or the other players.

It's a mystery coming out each and every game to try and figure out how a team is going to guard me and how I'm going to dictate how my team wins.

One of the things that first attracted me to chess is that it brings you into contact with intelligent, civilized people - men of the stature of Garry Kasparov, the former world champion, who was my part-time coach.

I was very hungry to succeed. It wasn't easy, but the football world can build you up, and you can sometimes go down. But when you have a good base, you don't have to worry. When you know you have qualities, then you know your hard work will bring you far.

Me and Coach Koetter have a great relationship, first and foremost, and we've got the same goal when we go out there on that football field - and that's to win the football game.

I know that every football fan would love to do my job; get paid to watch football and say it how they see it, and I know I'm in a very privileged position.