Sports Illustrated has a new interview with John Cena at this link. The WWE Superstar received the 2018 SI Muhammad Ali Legacy Award for his leadership as a philanthropist on Tuesday night in Los Angeles at SI’s Sportsperson of the Year event. Below are highlights from the interview:

Make-A-Wish families writing to him long-after their meetings, with stories of how their child got better or how their child did not, and how their child found a moment of joy with Cena; the effect from that on him:

“It will not allow me to have [a negative] perspective on life. We all have bad days, but when I find myself taking a turn down that road, I literally just stop and ask myself, ‘O.K., what’s so bad?’”

Continuing his philanthropy after his in-ring career is over:

“I’m not even close to done.”

Being in the “definite twilight” of his WWE in-ring career and doing whatever it takes to establish his successor as WWE’s next big star:

“It’s a giant relay race, and I’m in the phase where I’m handing the stick off. My time is up,” he adds, riffing on the lyrics to his WWE entrance theme. “Someone else’s time is now.”

Participating in the 2016 “We Are America” Ad Council video that equated patriotism with a celebration of diversity:

“As soon as I heard about it, I said yes. There were people saying, are you sure? I said, Yeah, I’m absolutely sure, because this is something that I believe in…. Every once in a while we need to be reminded everyone is welcome here.”