Chris Borland

“I just want to live a long healthy life, and I don't want to have any neurological diseases or die younger than I would otherwise.”

“A piece of my heart will always be in football, but my mind ended it.”

“My height might be a disadvantage in some parts of my game, but it is a big advantage in rushing the passer.”

“The host of 'Face The Nation,' Bob Schieffer, was an important figure in my childhood years. Every Sunday in the fall, he occupied my family's time after church and before the NFL pregame shows.”

“About 10 percent of the time, I miss 3 to 5 percent of the game. I look back, and I'm happy that I played. I'm not wistful. You miss big games. I miss the locker room camaraderie. Sometimes I miss the lifestyle.”

“Dementia pugilistica was discovered in 1928... And we still have boxing. Football will continue.”

“I don't really trust the NFL.”

“One thing that's important to understand is that it's believed that the pathology of CTE doesn't have to do with concussion so much as it has to do with the accumulation of sub-concussive hits. So every hit matters. If you're subject to 800 or 1,200 of these every year, it accumulates. It's like erosion.”

“If you turn on the film, I can play.”

“The men and women that are hired to take care of players' health, their salaries are paid by the team. Before games, you would see team docs and trainers, and they're every bit as as excited to, say, beat the Raiders as you are; their emotions are tied up in it.”

“I've got a wide variety of interests.”

“I guess I compete in everything I do, but it's always good to get out and be active and find an outlet for all of that pent-up aggression you had as an athlete.”

“People think that athletes have it great, and we do in a lot of regard, but universities make a hell of a lot of money off of players. You don't get a free education: you work full-time year round for five years for an education you could pay for three times over if you just got your market value.”

“My experience over my five years at Wisconsin and my one year in the NFL was that there were times where I couldn't play the game safely. There are positive measures we can take... but on a lead play, on a power play, there's violence.”

“I've thought about what I could accomplish in football, but when you read about Mike Webster and Dave Duerson and Ray Easterling, you read all these stories, and to be the type of player I want to be in football, I think I'd have to take on some risks that, as a person, I don't want to take on.”

“I was a history undergrad, and there's some things I could do in academics or business.”

“Obviously, not the biggest guy in stature. Straight-line speed wasn't my forte either. But I play very fast because I know the game. I take proper angles and know all my assignments.”

“The idea that just the basis of the game, repetitive hits, could bring on a cascade of issues later in life, that was - it changed the game for me.”

“It would be ill-advised to compare war and a sport, but I don't think the brain knows the difference. With post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries in blasts with veterans, we see a very similar and somewhat unique issue with repetitive brain injuries in football.”

“I don't dislike football. I love football.”