July 30, 2008
20 Questions With Defensive End Larry English
Senior defensive end Larry English earned the MAC's Vern Smith Leadership Award (league MVP) last season, becoming the second consecutive Huskie to do so, and was a consensus first team All-MAC choice. He was the first defensive player to win the Smith Award since the first year of the award in 1982. English was named to the Bronko Nagurski Watch List for the second straight season this year. He has started 34 games in his career, recording 200 tackles, 99 solo. English finished the 2007 season ranked second on the NIU career sacks list with 23.5 and in a fifth-place tie on the all-time TFL list with 40. He needs 7.5 sacks to break the school record. Below is a closer look at the Northern Illinois DE.
1. What song do you listen to to pump you up before the game?
Little Wayne—the song called “Bird Man Junior” from the Carter One album.
2. Who’s your biggest hero and why?
My biggest hero is my mother. Because just watching how hard she works and how much she’s been through to make sure me and my little sister were taken care of all our lives and giving us everything she needed. She would always be willing to go the extra mile—it meant a lot to me.
3. If you could invite anyone to dinner, dead or alive, who would it be?
Micheal Jordan. Just because being a kid and still even today Michael Jordan would be one of the people that I’d be star-struck to meet.
4. Favorite movie of all time?
I’d say the first Bad Boys—that’s what comes to my head now.
5. What famous celebrity would you date?
Right now I’m feeling Alicia Keys. I went to the concert this summer and I had some pretty nice seats. I was a little upset because I would’ve had a chance to meet her but I wasn’t informed how early I was supposed to get there, so I was a little upset about that. But yeah, right now I think I’d say Alicia Keys.
6. Gas station snacks?
Trail mix and some Gatorade. I’m an athlete.
7. If you played another sport, what would it be?
Basketball
8. If you were a WWE wrestler, what would your name be and why?
Nothing comes to mind.
9. Favorite vacation spot?
My best vacation I’ve been to so far is Cancun. That was after I graduated high school, so that was a good time.
10. Other than NIU, what team do you play with on the NCAA Football video game?
I used to play with Southern Cal, when they had Reggie Bush.
11. What actor would play you in the movie of your life?
Denzel.
12. What’s the first thing you would buy if you won the lottery?
Probably a new car because mine is not running too good.
13. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
The worst job I ever had was working in the kitchen. I worked in the kitchen in high school in the summer time. We had to prepare food for all the little summer camps they had going on at my school. So the kitchen would just be hot, and I had to work in the dish-room at times. I’d be drenched in sweat and there would be 100 degree weather on top of it.
14. One word to describe yourself:
Focused.
15. Something about you most people don’t know:
That’s always a hard question for me to think about. –I sing in the shower. A little of everything. A little hip-hop, a little R&B. I’m definitely the best singer on the defensive line.
16. What is your nickname?
Sometimes they call me Darth Vader, because they heard me taking my inhaler for my asthma, and it sounds like Darth Vader—so I have that. Some people call me E. Some people call me L, some people call me LE.
17. What’s your favorite number and why?
I guess just number seven.
18. Do you have any superstitions?
I guess one superstition I have is splitting poles. When you’re coming up to a pole when you’re walking with two people, and one person walks on one side of the pole and the other person goes on the other. That's abd luck.
19. What’s one thing you can’t live without?
I’d say one thing that is really important to me is my family.
20. What do you want to be doing 10 years from now?
I hope to say playing football but if I’m out of football I might like to do something in real estate.
