Triumph from tragedy

His mother's death during training camp forced Anthony McFarland to put family first in his life.

By RICK STROUD
Published November 27, 2005

	[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]
	Bucs defensive tackle Anthony McFarland hasn't let personal tragedy disrupt his passion for life, people and football. "I'm a people person," he says.

He is a big kid at heart. And at home. Anywhere Anthony McFarland goes, the fun follows.

"Everybody has a passion," McFarland said. "I'm a people person."

At 27, the 6-foot, 300-pound defensive tackle has no trouble releasing his inner child.

On Halloween, he sat in the hatch of his SUV and passed out candy and conversation with extra helpings.

On Thanksgiving, three rookies took him up on an open invitation to teammates to join him for dinner at his Westchase home. McFarland's grandmother flew in from Louisiana to fix a feast.

"Oh, my God, the food," Bucs defensive tackle Anthony Bryant said. "I haven't had Thanksgiving in six years and he made sure we went over there for a home-cooked meal."

The sharing doesn't stop after the holidays. On his day off during the season, McFarland speaks to Hillsborough middle school students about making informed decisions about smoking, drinking, relationships and drug use.

"It's mainly making choices, but before you make the choices, get the facts before you act," McFarland said of his I Can Wait Foundation. "That's our catch slogan. If you can do that, it gives you a chance to make a better choice."

But the choice McFarland made in August couldn't wait.

Just a few weeks into training camp, McFarland was informed his mother, Nancey Faye McFarland, 50, had died.

To say the news hit McFarland like an anvil would be an understatement. The middle of three children, Booger earned his nickname for tugging on his mother's dress as a child.

That attachment never frayed with age. They grew up poor in Winnsboro, La. The children's father checked out of their lives when McFarland was 6.

Nancey ruled with a soft heart and an iron fist. Her weakness wasn't for McFarland or older sister Latriece, but for younger brother Christopher, who was born with a hole in his heart and spent much of his first three years in the hospital after open heart surgery.

Latriece and Christopher lived with Nancey in the home McFarland built for them in Winnsboro shortly after joining the Bucs as their No.1 draft pick in 1999 out of Louisiana State.

McFarland had forged his own life in Tampa, the fun-and-sun routine of a millionaire bachelor who is as at home in the tee box as he is when they tee it up on Sundays.

McFarland could have left Latriece and Christopher to care for each other in Louisiana. But this decision seemed like the only one to make. He brought them to Tampa to live with him shortly after their mother's death.

"It doesn't change you," McFarland said. "You know what it does? It makes you grow. We always talk about stepping out of your comfort zone. You never grow as a player, as a person, as anybody unless you step out of your comfort zone. So anything that you do in life like that makes you grow. I just continue to grow as a person and take care of business as usual.

"I can't say life is different. Life continues to move on. You've just got to continue to move with it and you've got to continue to make the decisions and choices. Not only do kids have to do it, but adults have to do the same thing. I did it by being more responsible for family."

That's basically all McFarland cares to say about his family. Fiercely private, he downplays what he has sacrificed to become the head of the household.

It's no small commitment, according to Falcons running back Warrick Dunn, McFarland's former Bucs teammate. Although only 18 when his mother, Betty Smothers, a police officer raising six children, was killed in an attempted robbery in Louisiana, Dunn appreciates the tradeoff.

"It's admirable because he's taken on that burden," Dunn said. "You have to respect that, because when you lose someone that's like your world, you can change as a person. It's a life change.

"Whatever he's doing for his family, you have to respect. He's stepping up. Obviously, I'm going to respect whatever decision he makes because he feels that's not only what's best for himself but best for his brother and sister. You can't be selfish in that aspect. You have to be open-minded and giving and also think about others. He's a guy who's doing that."

All the while, McFarland has been playing some of the best football of his career. In the past two weeks, he has 14 tackles. Consider how disruptive he has been.

At his own 8-yard line after a series of penalties, Michael Vick dropped back to pass last weekend and was knocked down when McFarland drove 6-3, 307-pound guard Kynan Forney into the feet of the Falcons quarterback.

Vick was shaken and left the field.

Enter backup Matt Schaub, who never knew what hit him. On third and 22, he was asked to drop back into his end zone, where he was sacked by Simeon Rice, who stripped the football. McFarland fell on it 8 yards deep in the end zone for his first NFL touchdown.

McFarland finished with seven tackles for the second straight week. He also had a sack, fumble recovery and a tackle for a loss on Vick, running him out of bounds a yard shy of the line of scrimmage.

"He's played well," coach Jon Gruden said. "He's really been disruptive on first down, second down, third down, playing with a good motor. And that's exciting. That really is. ... McFarland as the undertackle here really is the engine that makes it go. You know he's a guy that we need to be disruptive for us to once again be a great defense."

The way in which McFarland has handled himself off the field this season is exemplary. Teammates say he rarely hangs his head and is always joking around. Amid the tragedy, he chose to triumph.

"You tend to forget all that because sometimes you just sit in a dark room and watch tape," Gruden said. "But you get excited about playing well and forget about the mortality of it all. But he is a strong guy, he's a great guy. He's a leader here. He's a great talent, there's no question. But he's been through a lot, man. It's a credit to him. He's got a lot of friends on the team that have helped him. But he's a grown man now and he's the driving force in his family and I think he's embraced that, just like he has his business on the football field."

--Times staff writer Joanne Korth contributed to this report.

[Last modified November 27, 2005, 01:18:21]