I remember I was at home with my family in California. It was early in the morning — I had just gotten up, and we were just getting the barbecue marinated. The third round had just finished, and the fourth round was starting. My agency was telling me I was going to be like a sixth-, seventh-round pick or a free agent, so I had time.

At least that's what I thought.

All of the sudden, my phone rings, and it's the defensive coordinator for the Bengals, Chuck Bresnahan. Then the owner of the Bengals, Mike Brown, was like, "Hey, you ready to be a Cincinnati Bengal?" I remember I got my whole family together, and we got in a circle and just said a prayer and said thanks to God. And then after that we got after it and partied it up.

I remember my rookie year I had a good game against the Broncos. It was Jay Cutler's first year, and I had two sacks against him. That was a good memory. I just remember my first year, I was behind two really good defensive tackles — John Thornton and Sam Adams. Those two guys taught me the game really well.

But the most important rookie lesson came from Justin Smith. He was a great defensive end. They called him "The Cowboy." I remember him telling me, "Hey man, you've just got to give it 100 percent. Every game, every play, every practice, give 100 percent. Give your best, man, and the camera and the film will see that and the coaches will see that." And I've just been living by that, man, just always giving my best at practice and in games and everything.

There's a quote, "Give your best and God will do the rest." So that's what I decided to do — just give my best and my hardest effort, and good things will happen.

I remember playing really good defense out there, being a top-five defense for a couple of years in a row. But there's one play that really sticks out in my head.

There was one "Monday Night Football" game in Cincinnati against Pittsburgh where they put me at fullback, and I got to run over one of the best safeties to ever play the game, Troy Polamalu, a good friend of mine.

I remember in practice I was preparing to go against a linebacker like Larry Foote or James Harrison — some really good 'backers. During the game, I was going hard. I thought it was going to be Harrison or Foote and then it ended up being the 'uso' Polamalu, man. I put my head down and ran him over, and I remember Cedric Benson scoring the touchdown, and it was a big touchdown for us.

I just remember seeing him after the game and saying, "My bad, 'uso.'" But he's a professional. He was like, "Hey man, you were just doing your job."