I was willing to put it at risk in order for someone to gain, in order for the situation to get better.

There's bad people since the beginning of time. Literally one of the first four human beings was someone who killed somebody. So that's never going to change, unfortunately.

Shame on me, for me to have this platform and me to have this opportunity to stand up for something that I thought was unjust, and I passed on it. I can't do that.

I would never say anything about [James] LeBron because I know how much he means to the community I know how much he does in the community, which is honestly 100 times more than your average athlete.

Some people who make it to where we are, life changes for them, they're treated differently, they're recognized. They're 6-foot-6, 280 pounds and people automatically know what they do for a living.

How you educate the people around you, what steps you take toward making it better, what sacrifices you make. The equation of life is simple: There's no gain without pain. For whatever reason, that's the way this world was designed in every facet. It's the same thing, there has to be a sacrifice.

We're just at a point in regard to race relations, we're at a tipping point in America. It's a crucial time. It's sad, honestly, I think it's a place that deep down no one wants to be in. But it's something that needs to be addressed, it's something that needs to be fixed, and hopefully we can figure it out and take steps toward doing that.

I honestly think there's people who just perceive me different.

A lot of things create a distraction, and when you're on a quest as a football team you want to limit distractions. I'm very much on board with that because I am a football player, and things can be distracting. We have 53 people that we have to make sure aren't distracted, because we only have 16 turns to do it, so every one matters so much.

I'm never the kind of person to say what somebody else should do. I'm very much do what you feel to do.

My 4-year-old is the most kind-hearted person I've ever met in my life. Granted, he's 4, but he doesn't know people wouldn't like him. He doesn't understand that people would hurt him. When I get in these situations, that's what breaks my heart.

Whatever backlash I was going to get, whatever consequence there was for stating my opinion, I was OK with. Because I look at my son's eyes, I look at the eyes of my daughter, and I would be a bad dad if my No. 1 goal wasn't always to put them in the best situation as possible.

If you're tweeting - and this is what I tell the young athletes who come to me about these situations, because I've been through them and I've seen both sides of it - if you're tweeting just because everyone else is tweeting and you're not uncomfortable, if it doesn't feel like a sacrifice - like when I wore that T-shirt it was a sacrifice.

I just take the Cleveland Browns - we are a very close football team. We care about each other, and we understand each other, and we have conversations on everything under the sun.

I don't think I'm saying anything wrong. And that's just how I judge it. I believe it's not so much about the people, that's just my take. I think making it about people is the wrong way to do it. I think it's the systems. The systems are broken the systems are what need to be fixed. I think there's bad people in every sector of America.

They want everything to be better for their children. I think athletes are starting to see that and that's why they're starting to speak out.