During Thursday’s “Fox & Friends” on Fox News, NFL Hall of Famer and former CBS football analyst Shannon Sharpe was asked about his reaction to the recent retirement of former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland. Borland played only started half of his rookie season in 2014, and finished fourth in NFL Rookie Defensive Player of the Year, and was considered one of the top players at his position in the upcoming 2015 season.

Sharpe said that even knowing the inherit risk of playing football that he now knows, he would still play football because of what the financial side was able to do for him and his family.

“For me, if I had to do it all over again I would do it a thousand times over. I grew up in rural South Georgia. Ten people living in a thousand square foot, cement floors, no paneling, no insulation. And we ate raccoon and rabbits and squirrel and armadillo. I survived for 20 years. But I didn’t want to survive another 20, 30 years. I wanted to live. Playing in the National Football League gave my brother and I for an opportunity not only for us to live but for my grandmother, my sister, my mom, we both had kids. It gave us an opportunity for our kids to live. And so, as a parent, you always say ‘I want better for my kids than I had it for myself.’”

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