Q: Word is you have a few extra roommates?
A: “At home right now I have four snakes and one puppy. Unfortunately, my iguana got too big so I was going to build him a bigger cage, because they need a bigger cage once they grow. I was letting Pet World hold him for a while so I could build him a bigger cage. Then, Pet World burned down so I lost him in the fire. I was going to have an iguana, four snakes and a puppy.”
Q: So how do your human roommates feel about the snakes?
A: “Scared at first. My first roommate was Dexter McDonald, and he was not a fan of any kind of snakes. For him, I just kept them in my room, kept them locked up and kept him as comfortable as possible. I’m not fan mice either, but snakes take care of the mice.”
Q: What all goes in to owning snakes?
A: “Snakes are a little easier (than most other pets). At the same time, you want to play with them at least 30 minutes a day so they get used to humans and won’t snap and bite you. So, for them, 30 minutes a day is good for that. They are really good on feeding. You can go a month or two without feeding them. They eat mice, and I like to feed them live mice so it won’t be boring for them. I fed them before camp so they will be good until I’m done with camp.”
Q: So what is the story with your puppy? What does he think of these snakes?
A: “His name is Bando. My teammate, Ronnie Davis, who was going home to Oklahoma, knew I always had puppy fever. As a kid, I never really could have gotten a dog as a pet, so it was my chance to get a dog and I got a dog. Ronnie said his friend’s dog was having puppies, and I said, ‘What?!’ I jumped on it right there. He turned 12 weeks today. I introduced him to the snakes last week. He (the puppy) was really interested, so he was sniffing, while the snakes were trying to run away.”
Q: Where did this animal love come from? Were you a typical little football player growing up?
A: “For me it was just animals. Coming from New Orleans, I played a little pee-wee football, but at the same time, I was just always helping around the house and all that. I looked up to my big cousin, who was a really good football player and went to Grambling State to play football. I was just trying to stay out of trouble, since it was a troubled neighborhood. My grandpa had a little farm not that far from the neighborhood, so really, my first pet was a pony. We would always go buy hay and then I would always see chickens. My grandpa would be like, ‘If you catch them, you can keep them.’ Every time I would go out there I would catch one or two chickens a day. That was my first actual pet.”
Q: Being on the farm kept you out of trouble - was there quite a bit of trouble?
A: “Yes. There were drugs, violence and killing a lot. Where I come from in New Orleans, you just want to stay out of that and be on a straight path, so I would do sports. Doing sports all the time wouldn’t lead you to trouble, but you want to do sports 24/7 because that little bit of free time would get you in trouble real fast. I had to have a curfew, my momma and grandma were real hard on me, so I would just always be on the farm messing with animals.”
Q: Can New Orleans be a pretty violent place?
A: “Yes, it was. During that time it was probably one of the top murder-rate cities. You really have to be careful going around there.”
Q: Is that how you lost your dad?
A: “Yes, that’s exactly how I lost my dad. I don’t really know if he was drug dealing or not, but he got shot. I was still at a young age, around 7 or 8 years old. He just got shot up, and I was in Houston at the time. I found out when I got the newspaper saying that my father got shot up and died. That’s how it really happened.”
Q: Did that have a lot of impact on you staying down that good road?
A: “It did have a big impact. After the shooting, everybody wanted to move back to New Orleans. I got that news like, ‘Man, it’s a huge risk to move back.’ I really wasn’t involved in sports (in New Orleans) like I was involved with sports when I moved to Houston. So it was either stay in Houston, continue in sports and doing good in school and coaches being in my ear saying, ‘This will get you to college.’ (or go back to New Orleans). I had to influence my mama to stay down there with me, and I know it was hard on her because all my family had moved back to New Orleans pretty quickly. My mama stuck it out with me for the next four or five years – and now I’m blessed to come to college and get a degree.”
Q: How hard is it to be a good kid when there are all these temptations and pressure from your friends?
A: “It’s really hard, peer pressure. You want to go out, you want to sneak out and mom is asleep. You don’t want to wake her up because she has to go to work. You want to go outside, but it’s a huge contradiction to go outside and get a whooping or something like that. You want be on the good side of your friends, but you want to be on the good side of your family, too. It’s just real tough growing up. It is tough saying no to your friends, tough obeying your family, but you just have to go through it.”
Q: Do you name all of your snakes?
A: “Yes I did. The first snake I got was a boy. My teammate and I got him at the same time. His name is Versace, because he was really a Versace Python. He got tired of his snake, and his was a girl, so I just kept his. My sister named his Chanel, going by clothes. Then I always wanted an Albino Bald Python. It’s really cute, too. It’s bright yellow and has red eyes, so I named him King. Then I just… animals are very lonely so I got a girl for him, and her name is Queen Kelly.”
Q: Did you work on the farm for your grandfather?
A: “Yeah, so that’s why I really love animals. It started off with ponies and horses, cleaning up every day after them. I had a jar of worms. I had chickens. I was catching lizards, anything you caught on the farm you raised it. That’s why I’m so comfortable with animals and snakes and everything. I used to catch snakes. They used to bite me, but it was just a little pinch so you get used to it. Man, I really love animals. I had every pet, so that’s where I get it from.”
Q: Do you want to be a veterinarian?
A: “Yeah, still today, as a kid I always wanted to be a veterinarian or a zookeeper.”
Q: When Hurricane Katrina caused your family to evacuate New Orleans – was that a blessing in disguise?
A: “A lot of people don’t look at it in a positive light, but my family, we look at it in a positive light. It’s a blessing for me. It washed away all those negative sayings and we got a brand new start. It was eye-opening and my mom got me involved with sports heavily and that got me to school. If I was in New Orleans, I’d be on the farm basically, so I really have to go to school and play the sport that I love.”
Q: What advice would you give those kids who are picking between the path of being good or picking that path of getting into trouble?
A: “It’s going to be real hard at the beginning, just know your friends are going to influence you in all different ways. Some of them will influence you to do sports, or some will influence you to stay out late and try to get you to do things that are really bad. You just have to listen to your parents or a mentor, get the right guidance during that time and just do the right thing.”
