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Kickin' back with Anthony McFarland

In his third season, defensive tackle Anthony "Booger" McFarland is a man of few words in the media. But here are some of his takes on LSU, his message to teenagers about patience, his nickname, playing alongside Warren Sapp and a whuppin' he didn't deserve.

RM: So, your school (LSU) won the SEC title.

AM: Before the game the guys were telling me LSU didn't have a chance and they wanted to throw some money on the game, all the Tennessee guys. At halftime of the game, we were in our meeting in the hotel and we got a report that Tennessee had just gone up 17-7 and they were so confident, so confident. Well, later that night when we won, I tried to call them guys on their cell phones and I couldn't get ahold of any of them. Apparently everyone's phone line was busy.

RM: Your community program, Booger's Bucs Can Wait, encourages teenagers to think twice before engaging in sexual behavior. That's a strong message.

AM: I try to go by the standards and creeds that were passed on to me and I've always believed that before I act on something, before I do something, I need to know some facts about it. When I didn't, that's when I usually found myself in a jam.

RM: So when NBA forward A.C. Green says he has been celibate for his entire life, should people believe him?

AM: They have no right not to believe him. A man is only as good as his word.

RM: But it's hard to conceive, through all these years as a professional athlete, that he has remained celibate?

AM: It's hard to conceive, but you have to look at it differently. Every man has his own willpower and some are stronger than others.

RM: Yeah, but he's taken it to a whole new level.

AM: Who says he can't? It's a dangerous assumption not to believe him. Things are not all what they seem.

RM: So, the message isn't just stay away, but it is make sure you understand?

AM: It doesn't really matter whether you're 15 or 45, you have to know what you're getting into. If you're old enough to make those decisions and live with those consequences, then that's your choice. You have to be able to make an informative decisions.

RM: Christmas dinner: ham or turkey?

AM: Ham. Turkey has always been a dry meat for me. I do eat turkey, turkey wings and stuff like that smothered in gravy. But generally, I'm a ham guy.

RM: Has there ever been a point growing up when you resented the nickname Booger?

AM: When you're a kid and you are driven so much by what you peers think about you, sure. But as I got older things like that stopped bothering me. Probably by the time I got to high school.

RM: What's it like playing alongside Warren Sapp?

AM: It's a situation where through my first three years I've been able to gain a lot of his respect and he's been able to gain a lot of mine. I'm a believer, and I got some of this from him, that if you're going to talk the talk, then walk the walk. Show me something on the film. Football is a show-me game. That's the creed we live by. I think through the first three years I've shown him and the coaches that I can play and I think every time we go out we show each other.

RM: He is the marquee defensive tackle in the league, to gain that guy's respect must mean something to you.

AM: It does. The thing about it is it goes back to how I work. I have never met a man who doesn't appreciate hard work. Warren's the same. No matter who it was. No matter if you're George Bush or a guy who's a scout team quarterback in college. If you appreciate hard work, then you'll appreciate what this game is all about.

RM: What's the cutoff point for chicken samples (on toothpicks) in the food court in any mall?

AM: There is no cutoff point. They are there as a taste samples. So if your taste hasn't been reached to the point of satisfaction, you can keep on going back until you can say, "Okay, this is good.'

RM: What's the toughest thing you ever did in your life?

AM: I carried a casket to put my best friend in the ground. It was probably my sophomore year in college. His name was Arthur Jackson. He committed suicide.

RM: What was that like?

AM: It was difficult because at that young age you don't have a sense of life and death, at least not when it comes to some one that young. You talk for so long, you dream for so long about the lives you're going to have for yourselves and then you make up one morning and it's gone. You don't know how to react.

RM: Did the fact that it was suicide make it worse?

AM: It was more the fact that you didn't know why, not necessarily the suicide.

RM: Did you ever find out why he did it?

AM: No.

RM: Do you want to?

AM: I'm never scared of the truth.

RM: Tell me about a whuppin' you got that you didn't deserve.

AM: Well, I lived in the country and everybody had a big ol' trash pile in the back and would burn their own trash. I was about 13 at the time and mom had gone shopping (about an hour away) and I decided I was going to burn the trash and have everything cleaned up in the yard when she got back. LSU was playing Ohio State, so I lit the fire and went inside thinking I would check it at the half. Well, the fire was about 10 feet from the back door and it started out about 40 yards away. So it was coming. We had to call the fire department, so you know everyone in the neighborhood had to come out and see what's up.

RM: Come on, you deserved that whuppin'.

AM: I didn't deserve it because I was trying to do a good thing. Sometimes when you're a kid you're trying to contribute. My mom was a single parent. I wanted to take the pressure off of her.

RM: How bad was the whuppin'?

AM: Bad, about half-an-hour.

RM: Hand, shoe, belt, switch?

AM: Man, I can't remember. There was so much going on. I think she got tired of one, put it down and picked up another.

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