What’s your favourite thing to do in Hamilton and the surrounding area?
“My favourite thing to do in Hamilton is play Xbox. I’m in a rotation of games right now, I’ve got FIFA— that’s my latest pickup— definitely playing Madden, and a little bit of Battlefield mixed in there.”
So Eric Norwood has claimed that he’s one of the best Madden players on the Ticats, would you consider yourself that good as well?
“No way man, these guys can play Madden and feel comfortable putting money on the line. I definitely am not in that league, but I’ve got a great Ultimate Team if you want to find me online, I’m always down for a friendly match.”
Do you have a go-to team when you play head-to-head?
“No man, I don’t, that’s why I play Ultimate Team. I’m a fan of players, so I’ve got Reggie Bush as my running back, I’ve got Eric Berry at safety and I just play with those two guys right there and have a ball.”
Who do you hang out with most off the field?
“Probably B-Stew and Emanuel Davis. I hang out with a lot of the guys, but that’s who I was with yesterday.”
What’s your go-to pregame meal?
“A big breakfast. I usually have three eggs, four pieces of toast, turkey bacon, Eggo waffles with maple syrup, orange juice and some fresh fruit. I have that before almost every game.”
Was there a specific football player you grew up idolizing?
“I’d say the two that come to mind are Ed Reed and Sean Taylor, and when I got a little bit older there was Eric Berry. I never really had a team that I was attached to, more-so just players so there are a lot of great ones that I like. There’s Champ Bailey, Deion Sanders and Randy Moss actually, I liked him. I’ve still got a Randy Moss card on my wall in a plaque.”
Where did the jersey number #22 come from?
“To tell you the honest truth, I used to wear #21, but that’s Simoni so I got the next-best thing and I took it and ran with it. I’ve tried to make it my own.”
Man, zone or press coverage?
“Just get the job done, I don’t care, we can do it all. We’ve got a little bit of everything and whenever the ball comes my way it’s pretty much just man-to-man anyhow.”
Who’s the best player you’ve ever played with?
“I’d probably say my boy Jimmie Ward, he played safety with me in university, he was a first-round pick in the NFL.”
Who’s the best player you’ve played against?
“I don’t know if you can call it one-on-one, but we played against Russell Wilson and he beat our tail. It was about 50-something to whatever we had when he was at Wisconsin in our senior year, so that sucked but it’s pretty cool to look back on it now I guess. It was a good experience. We played against Temple too, and they hard Bernard Pierce, he was really good.”
What would you consider to be your number one football memory?
“Getting put on scholarship when I was in university. I walked on as a junior, I spent a year on the scout team and in spring ball they granted me a scholarship to my surprise. That was a gratifying moment, a lot of hard work paid off. I left home to go far away and that was a nice way to reward that risk that I took.”
