Thursday’s Raiders-Chiefs game is one of the latest in an inevitable string of NFL games that will be affected by freezing cold weather.
Two-time Super Bowl champion and current ESPN NFL analyst Anthony “Booger” McFarland told Mike & Mike in the Morning about an old trick some players used in order to keep warm in cold conditions.
“When I came into the locker room, you came in, you’ve got the little food stations, they had the chicken broth, and they had, next to that, the players had brought in a little whiskey,” McFarland said. “So I took a little shot of whiskey.”
McFarland also added that he once wore a onesie for a game against the Packers in Lambeau, since the booze could only do so much.
There would be reason for McFarland to undergo such offbeat solutions to deal with cold temperatures. McFarland is from Louisiana, went to LSU and spent a large portion of his career with the Buccaneers who had a notable aversion to winning cold weather games. Mike Greenberg seemed shocked by McFarland’s confession but Booger explained about one of whiskey’s lesser known charms.
“Yeah, the whiskey kinda warmed the inside up,” McFarland said. “Even though I don’t drink … when you give a shot of kind of firm whiskey, it kinda burns a little bit.”
While we don’t encourage taking shots of hard alcohol before a football game, when it comes to trying to stay warm and playing at your best, it seems some players will do anything to keep that performance going. Even if that means drinking hard booze before a game. And as Business Insider points out, it’s been a decade since McFarland played in the league, so it’s quite possible this is still happening deep inside NFL locker rooms.
Whatever it takes to win and keep warm.
