I used to play the Halloween theme song and it was important that it was Michael Myers because the mask itself was void of emotion.

It has nothing to do with camaraderie, stone cold killer.

And I would listen to that song over and over and over to get, that's when you know you better run.

I wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody.

You know, I just wasn't in the mood. I didn't want to hear anything. I was in my mode, my focus. I wasn't going to let anybody break that. But if you are able to get up every morning with that kind of fire, you will be successful in life. I guarantee you that. Going around to the state of mind, if you can go four rounds, you can go six, you can go ten, ten, fifteen, and so on. In the state of mind, it's very difficult to believe that a fighter back then can go forty-five rounds, why can't we do it nowadays? The only state of mind. And I never played for money. You know, if I ever ever played for money, I would have complained a long time ago that I was being underpaid.

You know, I've accomplished everything that I could.

How did you get your mindset into this alter ego to be comfortable being Black Mamba?

At practice or when I'm training or during games, I switch my mind to something else.

Switch my mode into something else.

For me, it's the equivalent of Maximus, Desimus,

Meridius, and Gladiator picking up the dirt, smelling the dirt, is go time. So that was my

mental switch. It was like an actor getting ready for a film. You got to put yourself in that cage.

When you're in that cage, you are that

character. And then when you leave there, it's something completely different. But when

I'm in that cage, bro, don't fucking touch me, don't talk to me. Just leave me alone.

I don't know any of my surroundings when I'm locked in. Like, I can't hear anyone. I can't, like, think of anything besides the game. As long as I feel great, and as long as I can still play at a high level, and mentally I'm sharp and I'm there, I'm giving everything to the game. Nothing just distract me from what the main objective is. And me and Tom Brady are one and the same. We don't play until we can't walk no more.

It's tunnel vision.

Right now I'm just so, my mindset is on a whole other level.

Nothing could distract me.

Nothing could get me off my game.

You know, basketball for me was the most important thing.

So everything I saw, whether it was TV shows, whether it was books I read,

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