**Q: What were you like as a
student? **
A: I was very observant. I was pretty quiet. I always paid attention to the teachers, and I was never distracted with friends in the classroom.
Q: So no trips to the principal's office ever?
A: I had a bully when I was maybe in the second grade and he used to come around and mess with different people. I was one of his targets one day and we got in this scuffle and I went to the principal's offense. It was something real quick that was broken up. No one really got any good licks or anything.
Q: Best subject?
A: Science, I loved science. I liked biology, getting to dissect stuff, all of those classes.
Q: Worst subject?
Math and social studies were probably a tie.
Q: How many brothers and sisters did you have?
A: I've got seven brothers and three sisters, and I'm the youngest of them all.
Q: How spoiled were you then being the youngest?
A: I really wasn't. I think some of my older brothers and sisters wanted to spoil me, but I just wanted to be independent. I didn't want to accept any coddling.
Q: What was the most trouble you ever got into as a kid? Did your parents stick with grounding or did you get spanked?
A: I think one of my worst troubles was when I was younger I played a lot in the yard around my dad's cars. He had some antique cars that he really liked and I would swing different type of metals around his car, and he would tell me over and over to move away from the cars. One day, I was swinging this piece of metal with a string and I ended up breaking one of the windows. When he got home, he was very upset and I paid for it severely. We got spankings, usually with a tree limb!
Q: How old were you when you first played football?
A: I didn't play organized football until I was a sophomore in high school. I'd played street ball all the time, but I was just interested in other things when I was little. After we did homework, we'd go outside and play in the yard, ride bikes, and play different sports.
Q: What was your favorite thing to do back in the summers as a kid?
A: We'd go to the swimming pool a lot and swim, or my sister would take us to the park and we'd play basketball. My grandmother had a basketball hoop in her yard so we'd play there all the time. We didn't really ever go anywhere out of the town.
Q: What is one of your fonder memories of being a kid?
A: We used to go way in the back of our yard and pick blackberries with my auntie and uncle and we'd bring back all of these blackberries and my mom would make a pie. It was so good!
Q: What was your first job?
A: I worked with a lawn maintenance company.
Q: What is the most important thing you try to teach your kids?
A: First of all to really love each other and that as brothers and sisters they need to stick together. After that, integrity and then just being honest.
Q: Do you give them chores or are you kind of loose with them?
A: My eight-year old daughter is starting to do more and more chores. My five-year son and my seven-year old daughter we are more lenient with. My youngest daughter though is neater and really cleans up on her own. She's more organized and she knows that I like things straight so she'll try to adhere to that. My older one is a little messier.
Q: What's the hardest thing about being a parent?
A: Disciplining my girls is hard. I don't like to have to be mean or harsh with them. My son is a different story, but my girls, I really hate it. Sometimes they do the fake crying, and I know it, but it still makes me feel bad.
