Richardson told Garrett Downing of BaltimoreRavens.com, the team's official web site, that this time around in the NFL he had the focus on his football career after shedding himself of hangers-on and people with their hands out.
"Me carrying a lot of people with me, it gets heavy," Richardson said. "Taking care of everybody else and doing a lot for everybody else was slowing me down. It wasn't me being me."
Richardson also told Downing that he'd learned he couldn't rely solely on his natural gifts in the NFL.
"Football has never been a problem," Richardson said. "Even my trainer said, 'You never had to really put that much into it when you were at Alabama. You were just better than everybody as a freshman. ... I'd have to say this is the first time I had to put everything into it. I put in all this work, and I can't let it go to waste. I've done that too many years."
Richardson said the Ravens agreed to give him an opportunity if he could get his weight down to 225 pounds. He said he reported for the offseason program weighing 215.
But then a hamstring problem sidelined him for the first week of OTAs. That prompted Baltimore coach John Harbaugh to tell reporters: "Trent just needs to get healthy. I think the workload and the amount of work it takes to be a world-class-conditioned athlete is something that he's working on right now, and that's what he needs to understand and that's where he needs to get himself. And when he gets himself there, he's got talent. I'm very certain he'll get there, and when he does, we'll be able to evaluate him."