DC: It’s evident that family is very important to you. Is there any advice that you consistently try to convey to your kids as they grow older?
PT: My son is five and my daughter is six, but they’re very close in age about 14 months a part. I call them twins! One minute they’re thick as thieves and best friends and then the next minute they’re not. Sometimes my daughter will kick her brother to the curb when her friend comes over to play and I can’t stand that. I’m constantly telling my kids that family is all we got and they need to treat each other the way they want to be treated. I tell my kids that they’re smart, kind and important. At the end of the day we’re family and we will always be here. But trying to get a five and six year old to under-stand that is kind of hard. I’m also working on getting my daughter to be a leader and not a follower. No one wants to be brave and do the bold or right thing, especially at her age, she always wants to do what her friends want to do. But I tell her that if she doesn’t want to do something then she doesn’t have to do it. Be brave, be bold and do it on your own. My nine year old daughter used to be a follower, but now she has developed into a leader. I always commend her when I see her taking a stand and not following what here friends want to do. I’m always trying to reinforce that message. I’ll always remember a lesson that I learned from my Grandfather at the age of five. My brother, uncle and I all went to one of their friend’s house, Barry, to hang out. Barry told them that I couldn’t come in, so my brother and uncle sent me back home. I was a little upset, but didn’t really think anything about it. When I arrived back home by myself, my Grandfather asked where the other two were. I explained that Barry didn’t want me to hang out with them and that really upset my Grandfather. Needless to say that my brother and uncle were both in trouble when they got home and my Grandfather let us all know that if one of can’t go then none of us can go. It was a valuable lesson learned and so now I practice that with my kids.
DC: Tell me the 3 most challenging things that you had to deal with on and off the field.
PT: The first one is when I dislocated my shoulder twice. When your shoulder is dislocated they have to put it back in to place and put in three pins, so I
have six pins in my left shoulder. Fans see what we do on the field, but they don’t see the rehab process. It took me half a year to rehab and get my
shoulder back to where it should be. Rehab is probably the most humbling thing, because you go from this elite athlete to being limited and you have to work like hell to get all of that back. When that happens, I’m thinking, will I ever be the same? Will I play again? Will I be able to run as fast? Will I be able to punch the ball as hard? It’s very challenging. The second thing was dealing with my daughter when she got sick with her heart transplant. I can talk for hours about how difficult and hard that was, but out of that entire ordeal I think that I mastered the mental psyche of playing football. When I was on the field playing, I didn’t really think about it. But when I was at the hospital, that’s all I thought about and I was able to mentally block off football. My wife calls it crazy, but I can compartmentalize many things that are going on in my life and I’m pretty good at it. If I see crazy things happening I can block them out when I need to. The third thing is just dealing with my triceps injury again. I tore it twice in a year. The process of doing rehab the first time, getting healthy for the season, going through training camp, pre-season, first game, and then re-injuring it the second game on a fluke play was just frustrating. I really just extended my arm and it completely tore. The previous year I continued to play the rest of the game with a torn triceps, but this past year I couldn’t. Dealing with that a second time in less than a year was just frustrating and I knew it was going to take another six months of busting my ass doing pure rehab to get back. I’m always up for a good challenge and I welcome those challenges. Although it was hard in the beginning, once I got past that initial challenge it was fine. I have a rule in which I allow myself about a day of feeling bad for myself. After that pity party day you've got to get back to work. It’s on!
DC: What are the 3 things that you are most proud of away from the game?
PT: My hard work. I feel that I’ve always worked hard and proud of my accomplishments. My hard work also allowed me to be the first from my family to graduate from college. I’m also proud that I have a good name on and off the field. When I first came into the NFL someone told me that it was was important to build a good brand with that being my name. I think me as a brand has a good reputation. Finally I’m proud of the work that I’ve
done off the field by helping people. I’ve not only