Q&A: Tight end Jeremy Shockey

10 questions about life away from football:

Q. You're a guy who loves to travel. Any idea how many countries you've visited?
I've been to a lot of continents. Not every continent. I'm not married or have any kids so those responsibilities are cut to none. I love to deep-sea fish so I always go to Central or South America, Venezuela, Colombia. ... 20, 30 (countries). I don't know.

Q. Always had wanderlust?
I like to get out, just take a backpack and travel around and see how many times I can get my passport stamped in different places around the world.

Q. How much planning goes into your trips?
I usually plan two legs of the trip pretty vigorously. I go somewhere and do a couple of weeks of fishing, if it's the Pacific or in the Carribbean. I may go to Panama and stay there for a couple of weeks then find myself backpacking or hiking in Central or South America.

Q. Ever found yourself in a scary situation?
I've had a couple of close calls. You find yourself up in no man's land in Colombia or something. ... I speak very little Spanish and they know I'm a gringo. I wouldn't say it was dangerous but it's been interesting a couple of times.

Q. Have a favorite place to visit?
Cohiba in Panama is a good place for fishing. It's a place that's pretty hard to get to. You fly to Panama City then you take an eight-hour boat ride or you take a little jet then take a couple hour dinghy ride to the place. That's a place that's untouched so the diving is really good and the fishing is excellent. You see people living there that look like indiginous tribal people. That's very interesting.

Q. What kind of fish do you catch there?
Black marlin. Tuna. Sailfish.
I caught a couple of big black marlins, 700, 800 pounds - monster, Hemingway kind of fight.

Q. What's it like to fight a fish like that?
It's definitely man versus the wild in that area. They're fish you really don't eat. They'll fight you as long as you'll fight them and die. I'm always cautious about that. I'll fight them as much as I can then let them go because I don't want to kill a fish like that.

Q. Have you had some unusual meals in your travels?
To say the least. I've eaten the craziest things you've ever seen. It's like roadkill. Very interesting. You acquire a taste or you'll go very hungry. They had like a big rat up in the jungle in Peru. It had teeth like a beaver.

Q. Do you ever get recognized?
You meet a lot of different people around the world and the No. 1 question is you look like Jeremy Shockey, what are you doing here? There are people that watch football all around the world.

Q. Didn't you have an adventure at Loch Ness in Scotland this summer?
I did a hundred mile race (biking, kayaking and jogging) and flipped a kayak in freezing water in Scotland.
I didn't see old Nessie.

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(charlotteobserver.com)