Being out for the year, it sucks. You know me, Im a ballplayer and I love the game of football. It sucks. Sucks. Its something you have to deal with in life, and you know the saying. Whatever dont kill you makes you stronger. I think this is showing me a lot of things in life that you shouldnt take for granted.
Its day-to-day with my mood swings. My wife hates it when I wake up wishing I was still on the field. To tell you the truth, this is the most frustrating thing Ive been through. Ive never had nobody close to me pass away. I know that would be harder. But since Ive never experienced that, this is the hardest thing Ive ever been through. But I am going to come back even stronger and even hungrier. I promise you that.
You can spent a lot of time at home and get tired of it, but its a good thing to be connecting with my family and spending more time with Kaydon in his younger days. I think its a blessing.
I had a second surgery. Nobody knows about it. I had caught a real small infection in my knee, so I had to go in about a week ago, had to go back under and get the infection out. I was in the hospital for two days. Im surprised nobody knew about it. I had to get all these antibiotics in me, get blood drawn four or five times a day. Its terrible. Right now, Ive got this IV in my chest, a central line.
Nobody knew about the surgery. Some guys over at the facility had it, and its floating around the locker room. I had to go in, it was emergency surgery. I had a 105 fever, I called Doc (team physician Pat McKenzie) and said, Im not feeling too good, and we had to rush in and clean out the infection. I dont know what its called. I guess you could call it a staph infection, but I dont think thats what it was. But I had to rush in and they put a central line in my chest. I wont get this taken out for another month and a half. Three times a day I have to get antibiotics put through it. Courtney, shes my doctor right now.
I got married real young. Courtney and me, weve been married three years. I think as a young lady, shes real, real mature. Shes stuck through thick and thin with me. We met at Texas. I went there a year before her, and she was moving into the dorms and her mom and dad were walking her in to move in, and I was the first thing that crossed her path. And her dad said, Thats the guy you dont want to marry. And the next thing he knows, Im at his house for a Fourth of July party. He did not like that at all. He came around, though. Were the best friends ever now. But he didnt like my tattoos. Thats why he didnt want her talking to me.
My son Kaydon is 2. Im his dad, so I get on him when he does something wrong, but when were playing, were playing. Well play Madden together well, he thinks hes playing. I give him a joystick and he thinks hes playing along. Kaydon, you scored a touchdown! Its almost like a big brother-little brother thing.
My favorite thing about being a dad, especially to a little boy, is now that hes 2, you can roughhouse a little bit with him and do boy things. Like, I can get a water gun and squirt the mess out of him. With a little girl, you cant do those things. You have to treat em like a doll.
What if I had a little girl? You know, were trying as we speak, as a matter of fact. Well, not as we speak. Im talking to you, Im not well, you know. [Laughs] Courtney wants a girl. Court says I need a girl in my life. I think if I had a girl Id have to change up my personality a little bit. I think Id get a little softer.
When she got older? Hey man, I know how boys are. I know what it was like when I was a younger days. No guy will get over on me, I promise you that. Thered be trouble.
My hometown of Diboll is in East Texas. To tell you the truth, its very similar to Green Bay and De Pere. Its real similar. I grew up with 5,000 people, three stoplights in the city. Its real small, everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everybodys business. Its as country as it gets, I promise you.
Im just a big kid. My grandma came up to spend a few days with us last week, and shes like Boy, youre still the same. I like to kid around, I love to make people laugh. I love to play around. Theres a lot of cracked jokes when Im around. Im a real playful guy. My wife says she cant take me seriously. She also says Im immature. And shes right. I really am a big kid.
My grandma cooked while she was here, and it was so good. Fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, pecan pie and then she cooked her famous chicken and dumplings. And then the next night, it was lasagna. She cooked all three nights. We never ate a meal out while she was here. And, we had her famous Texas breakfast. Texas toast, which is our version of French toast, with bacon, eggs, cut-up sausages. And grits. You cant forget the grits. You cant beat that.
My grandma took me in at the age of 2. I didnt know any different; I just grew up with her. I was 2 when I went to live with her, and ever since then, thats why me and her are so close. Her household, it was real strict. When I was in 12th grade, I still had to be in the house before the streetlights came on. It was old school. Shes 65 now, and she brought me up like she was brought up. She was always on me with my schoolwork, and she was like a coach. You have to pass before you play. Even when the school would try to pass me because I was an athlete, it didnt fly with her. She was tough.
One of the things my grandma used to always say was, Whatever you do in the dark, its going to come out in the light. That meant that whatever you try to hide, its going to come out. Thats one thing she always taught me. And its true, too.
I have three cars: A 2010 Jaguar XL, an Escalade and a Tahoe. My wife, Courtney, the Jag is pretty much her car. If I try to get in it, its a no-no. For one thing, its too little for me, and another thing, she claims it 24-7.
One of my favorite TV shows is Martin. Thats old-school, man. But I love it. Its hilarious. And another show I love to watch is King of the Hill. Its a Texas thing.
I dont have much on my iPod. My wife gets on me about that. Im not too much on music, but I like Lil Wayne. Of course. Everybody likes him. I also like Lynyrd Skynyrd. I love their track, Sweet Home Alabama. But Lil Wayne, thats really the guy I listen to the most.
Movies are the one thing that my wife is trying to get me into going to the movies. The movies are like taking a nap for me. Well be 30 minutes into the movie and Im passed out, and my wife says, What did we come here for? For you take a nap?
Twitter is cool. Im into it. Im @JermichaelF88. I love to read replies to me. Thats how Im passing my time right now, sitting reading replies that people write back. I love interacting with the fans. Thats my personality. I love to speak real and tell the truth. Thats just what I do. Im glad whoever invented Twitter invented it. Dudes a genius.
I just love to sit around the house and watch TV and play Madden all day. Which team do I use? I play with the Packers most of the time. If I tell you who I really play with, theyll hate me.
OK, Ill tell you. I play with Vikings sometimes. But its only because of my guy Percy Harvin. I just throw it deep to Percy every play.
I play a lot online. Its call a gamers tag, and a couple guys around the locker room play too. Theyll buzz you in and you connect and you play against each other online. Sometimes I play fans on Twitter. And yes, they know its me, for sure. Ill DM them and give them my gamer tag and then well play.
My favorite moment as a Packer was on Monday Night Football against the Vikings when I put up 128 yards (tying the team record for single-game receiving yards by a tight end). That was my favorite moment, because that was my coming-out party.
I learned a lot from when I was a rookie to now from vets around the league how to handle yourself on and off the field, what to say and not say to the media, just how to act. I went to this camp that Larry Fitzgerald has, and that was one thing I was going to try to put to use this year. I learned so much about route-running, catching the ball, hand-eye coordination it helped me tremendously. And obviously you saw it in my four games. I already had 300-some yards.
I wish I was better at communicating with people on how Im feeling and what Im thinking. I think I wish I was better at that for sure. I know I say what I think in interviews, but Im not always as open as I should be.
If I wasnt playing in the NFL, I think Id be coaching or playing in the NBA. I definitely had a shot at going to the NBA. I played AAU ball, and (Dallas Cowboys and ex-Texas A&M tight end) Martellus Bennett and I, we were on the same team. It was the Houston Hoops. I was committed to verbally to play basketball at Arizona, and then like two days before signing day, I de-committed and went to Texas. Thats when Mack Brown told me I could play both sports. And then when I actually got there, he said, You have to do one of the two, but we signed you for football. So I went with football. I tried to convince him to let me play both, but he wouldnt hear it. He kind of screwed me over on the basketball thing.
Sometimes I look back, especially now that Im injured, and say, Man, I shouldve played basketball. Basketball wouldnt have taken this toll on my body. But overall, Im glad I picked football. And basketball helped me be the football player.
I used to play a lot of pick-up basketball, especially my rookie year. Id play on our Green Bay charity team that travels around the state and plays police officers, firefighters, people like that. My games still there. But Im not sure its there today.
I dont have a hoop in my driveway here. Im waiting until Kaydon gets a little older, then I plan on putting in a court in my offseason home in Scottsdale. Thats what I plan on Kaydon playing basketball.
You know about my pre-game superstition, right? The Friday before a game, I always get a fresh pedicure. That started in college, when Courtney, she didnt make me, but I offered to go with her on Valentines Day to get my toenails painted red. It started there, and I just made that my thing. Since my sophomore year in college, Ive been doing this.
My best friend on the team is Nick Barnett, just because our personalities match up. My best friend outside the team is Jamaal Charles, the running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. We played together at Texas, and we keep in touch often. He calls me every time he sees me on TV, hell tell me if I had a good game or not. Obviously since Im not playing, Im calling him a lot. Hes doing great. And so are the Chiefs. Isnt that crazy? The Kansas City Chiefs. Who wouldve thought that?
My favorite place to visit is Los Angeles, the Santa Monica area, Southern California. Thats my favorite place to visit. Ive been there a handful of times, and the vibe there, I like it. I like the way they dress, they just throw on anything. Its real laid back. A-Rod (quarterback Aaron Rodgers), he lives in San Diego, and we had planned a visit, but we never went through with it. Put that in there. Hell know why.