“It’s really like a cult. I’m going to say it. The NFL is a cult, because you’ve been looking at this motto and this logo for your whole life and you believe in it and you’re like, ‘They wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. They never would.’ And, uh oh, maybe they would,” Crews told Sports Illustrated.

Crews, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1991 and also played for the San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, says there was “a lot of co-dependency going on” while he was playing.

“Football discipline is not real discipline,” Crews told Sports Illustrated Wednesday. “It’s one of those things where they tell you when to get up, they tell you when to eat, they tell you when to practice and they tell you when to go to sleep.”