He told me he’s sorry, He’s all I have in terms of family, and I needed him in my life. My dad was absolutely everything to me.

He is an inspiration to me. Whatever challenges that are thrown at you, I know I have the stuff to make it happen and I know my dad is cheering me on.

It goes back to childhood. My father like I said earlier, he’s just a wonderful dad to me. When I was growing up, I didn’t know he was famous, but I could count on my father. Anytime I needed him, he was always there for me. He is a very present father. When I was little, he was the one who would wake me up at nights, take me to the bathroom so that I don’t wet the bed.

For my Dad to go and play for the All Blacks, he was a dad at 16, married at 17, coming from a really small town. He never really gave up on his dreams and that's what my parents have always instilled in me. Anything is possible if you work hard, dream big and chase everything.

It runs in the family as my father used to play football, so I knew I was going to grow up to be a footballer. I was quite lucky with the support I had through my life.

My dad was a good man. A kind man... I...loved him for what he did. He'd foster independence, showed us the value of education, and taught us to be curious about the world. Even more important, he'd helped the three of us become close as siblings, which I consider to be the greatest gift of all. I could have asked for nothing more in a father. And really, who could?

He was like a father to me, and I mean that. My dad died after I had been with the Yankees a year and I guess Casey felt it was up to him to bring me up right. He kept me when I wasn't ready for the big leagues. He had confidence in me. He taught me to think, to play hard from the first pitch to the last.

If not for sports, I do not think my father would have ever talked to me.

I am the man my father loved and was.

Perhaps that is what it means to be a father- to teach your child to live without you. If so, no one was a greater father than I.

GOD and my father, Benson Idonije. My father is the best parent I know and he has managed to live according to the values he taught and still believes in.

I mean, my dad was there with me and my dad was just so proud and excited to be there and I was so happy to have him there with me and I don’t know, I connect that a lot with my dad in that experience of being there, being there with him and what it meant to him.

I knew my dad was a good man, a kind man, and though he'd led a wounded life, he'd done the best he could in raising me.

I've always really just liked football, and I've always devoted a lot of time to it. When I was a kid, my friends would call me to go out with them, but I would stay home because I had practice the next day"