TAMPA, Fla. -- Basketball was Jorvorskie Lane's first love. Then football got his attention.

Lane, who debuted in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins in 2012, is in his second season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The 5-foot-11, 258-pound fullback shares his inspirations and discoveries as part of our weekly Q&A with a member of the Bucs:

When did you know you first wanted to play football? "When I was growing up, at first I loved basketball. My dad was good in basketball. I was real good at it, too. And then I moved to Houston in the sixth grade, and I moved back to my hometown [in Lufkin, Texas], and it was in the fall time. ... My best friend, Alton, he was in city league or whatever, and I went to his house, and he was always gone after school. I was like, 'Man, what's going on?' He told me that he was in football, and that's where everybody was. And that's why I started. And then once I started, it was a wrap ever since."

When did you know football could become a profession? "I would say seventh or eighth grade, because we were a small-town school, but we were a powerhouse at the time. Lufkin is a big name in Texas football, and my coaches always broke it down to us that football could take you places. And with my skill level, he always stayed on me: 'Hey man, you can go do something with it. You just stay out of trouble. ... You can go pro if you want.' So I just looked at it like that, and I just used it."

Who's your biggest inspiration in the game? "Jerome Bettis, because he was a big guy, a bigger guy, a bigger running back, and I was a running back, of course, coming through. And he motivated me that big people can run the ball, too. So that was my biggest inspiration."

What has been your biggest challenge in the sport? "It's just keeping your body [in] tip-top [shape]. That's the challenge, I think, for all pro athletes, especially football. We play Sunday, and we start practice back up again Wednesday. That's really a day-and-a-half recovery. That's probably one of the biggest challenges that I can say, just getting ready to play again the next Sunday."

What's the best advice you've received about being an NFL player? "Take it day for day. Make a lot of friends. Get close to as many people as you can. Use your resources. That's my biggest advice: Use your resources, because the NFL label, it can take you places, too. Just learn never to burn a bridge."