12 Questions with DL Thomas Booker | Drew's Dozen

1. DD: You're from Maryland. Instead of "Crab cakes and football! That's what Maryland does!", it should really be "Crab cakes and lacrosse", right?
   TB: I say crab cakes and lacrosse, just because lacrosse is so much more of a thing in Maryland than it is anywhere else. I feel there's a couple of places that claim football as being like a religion. Texas is one of them.
2. DD: Are you a crab cake guy?
   TB: I am a crab cake guy. I'm a big crab cake and Old Bay guy.
3. DD: What's the deal with too much breading and crab cakes?
   TB: I think when you put too much breading on it's because you don't actually have good crabs, so you're just trying to fry it. People really can't taste the quality. There's definitely a quotient to hit with the amount of breading versus the amount of crab meat.
4. DD: Did you play any other sports growing up?
   TB: Yah, I played a ton of different sports. Tennis is actually my first sport. My dad played it too. My dad played linebacker at the University of Wisconsin, but he started playing tennis. So I was in that sport first. Then it was baseball and basketball. I ran track for a little bit, did shot and discus. I tried to stay away from specialization as much as I could when I was a kid.
5. DD: So is tennis the favorite of those non-football sports?
   TB: Probably tennis or basketball. I used to watch a lot of tennis. Roger Federer and Serena Williams were my favorites. I used to watch the Grand Slams between Federer and Rafa Nadal all the time. My sister also played tennis, and she's ten years older than me. So I spent a lot of my childhood driving around with my parents to go see her play.
6. DD: You bring Federer and Serena: Michael Phelps is not tennis, but thinking of the champions of champions, or winners at the highest level. Who would you say is the tippy top in that regard?
   TB: Unfortunately, because I'm a big, big LeBron James fan, it's probably Michael Jordan in terms of the champion of champions. You can't really do that much better than a perfect resume in the Finals. Then Tom Brady, just for the amount of times he's been to the big game and the amount of times he's won it. It's hard to to equal that, especially in a sport like football, where there's no series. It's just one game, any given Sunday.
7. DD: What are you reading these days?
   TB: 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm about to finish that one. It's super interesting. Basically, it tells you about some of the misgivings we have as a society about success and where it comes from. 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism' by Shoshana Zuboff was another one that I was reading. It talks about social media and all the data mining.
8. DD: That sounds like a very interesting book. Also sounds semi-frightening, eh?
   TB: A little bit, yeah. Once you realize how much data people have on you, it's definitely a different era we're living in. But times change. So you've got to have the knowledge to be equipped to deal with it.
9. DD: When you wake up in the morning, what's the first thing that happens?
   TB: I get a bottle of water and then I sit there for a little bit to center myself. Sometimes you have that fog of sleep you have to get through for the first 10 to 15 minutes you're awake.
10. DD: The lights go out and your head hits the pillow. How long till you actually fall asleep?
    TB: I have a little fitness band that does sleep tracking. It actually tells me my latency, which is how long it takes me to go to sleep. Usually it's between five and 10 minutes, which is great for me. That means I go to bed at 9:45, I'm down by around 9:55 or 10.
11. DD: What artist gets you excited?
    TB: Drake. I feel like Drake has music for every single different situation that you have in your life.
12. DD: What Texans teammate gets you amped up?
    TB: Got to be (RB) Dameon Pierce, for sure. He's one of these guys who's joking, lighthearted, and all that (off the field). But when you see him on the field, he turns into an absolute dog. You see the way he cuts with violence, the way he finishes his runs, and just how hyped everybody is around him, for him. Just because they know how genuine of a guy he is, and how hard he works.

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