Jets defensive tackle Damon “Snacks” Harrison gobbled up some Q&A from Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Who gave you the nickname “Snacks?”
A: [Defensive line coach Karl] Dunbar (chuckle). I came here, I was a bit overweight, so they were encouraging me to lose weight. He actually gave a lot of the undrafted guys nicknames, and “Snacks” was the only one that stuck around. He had a guy he called Lunch Box (chuckle).
Q: How do you feel about your nickname?
A: I hated it at first. Just being a big guy, you’re pretty sensitive about your weight already, so just to be called “ Snacks,” I took it personally at first. After hearing it so much from everybody, it grew on me, and now I love the nickname.
Q: What was the heaviest you’ve ever been?
A: 375, close to 380.
Q: When you signed with the Jets?
A: I was 365 at my heaviest here.
Q: And now what do you weigh?
A: 333.
Q: Do you avoid certain foods now?
A: No. … I started getting heavier because the surgeries I was having on my knee. You’ll sit around for months without being able to move, already being a big guy, and the weight just piled on. I still eat the same things, I just … portion control now.
Q: How many surgeries did you have on your knee?
A: Four, two on each.
Q: Favorite snacks?
A: Butterfingers. I’m a chocolate-peanut butter-type of guy. … If I can’t get the Butterfingers, then I would have to go Snickers.
Q: You would eat a whole bunch of them?
A: Yeah.
Q: How many?
A: I don’t know, I haven’t really tried to eat a lot of ’em, so I can’t tell you how many I can, but if I were hungry, I believe I could run through quite a bit.
Q: What’s a typical dinner for you now?
A: Anything that they’re serving here [Atlantic Health Jets Training Center]. I try to stay away from foods at home, besides the fruits and the vegetables. Being from Louisiana, we love rice, so anytime I can eat rice, rice and chicken, and throw a few vegetables in there.
Q: How much would you eat in one sitting?
A: The thing was, I didn’t eat as much, but when I did eat, I ate a lot. … I know my favorite thing to eat back then were the hot sausages that you get in a pack. You’ll get eight in a pack, and I would eat all eight.
Q: Where would you get them?
A: From Walmart.
Q: They were big sausages?
A: Yeah, pretty big. I would eat all of ’em with a slice of bread and cheese (chuckle).
Q: But that would be just a snack.
A: No. … If you eat all of ’em with a slice of bread, it fills you up … eight slices of bread and eight sausages.
Q: You don’t do that anymore?
A: No. … I can’t even do it now.
Q: What do you mean?
A: I just can’t eat as much ’cause now, I’m eating breakfast, I’m eating lunch and I’m eating dinner, so I’m not so much as hungry at the end of the day like I used to be because I wasn’t eating breakfast or lunch.
Q: Who’s the biggest eater on the Jets now?
A: [Antonio] Cromartie can put away some food.
Q: Your pregame meal?
A: I stick with breakfast — an omelet and some hashed browns.
Q: One omelet?
A: It’s a pretty big omelet.
Q: Favorite restaurant?
A: Ruth’s Chris.
Q: What are you like on the field?
A: I do a lot of talking, you know. I like to have myself felt, and I like to be heard, especially when I’m doing good. I’m not the type of guy that’ll just run off at the mouth. In college I was, ’cause I was the biggest guy on the field — teams literally feared me. I tried to get in everybody’s head, but coming to the NFL, it’s a lot different. You’re no longer the biggest guy on the field. Everybody’s tough, so I had to calm down some. But now I’m getting back into being myself, ’cause at first I wasn’t being myself. I felt like that was holding me back. So now, I’m letting loose a little more.
Q: Are you a good trash talker?
A: Yeah.
Q: Give me an example.
A: I would tell you, “It’s gonna be a long day.” Or, if you can’t block me, I’ll tell you, “Your coach is gonna pull you out pretty soon,” or “It’s not your fault, not too many people can block me.” I have to be in the moment. You have up be down there to hear me. It’s very random.
Q : You got guys from the Bucs and Patriots upset? What did they say to you?
A: “Who are you? Be quiet.”
Q: What did you tell them?
A: After they tell me like, “Who are you?” [I’m] like, “Don’t worry about it, you’ll find out in a minute.”
Q: Who’s the best trash talker?
A: Last year it was Bart Scott, but this year I would probably have to say it’s a tie between Demario [Davis] and Sheldon Richardson.
Q : Somebody told me that Quinton Coples was a good trash talker.
A: Yeah, yeah. On and off the field (chuckle).
Q: So how would you rank them?
A: With Coples being back, I think he’ll probably take the crown as No. 1. Sheldon 2 and Demario 3.
Q: Describe your on-field mentality.
A: I try to play angry. I play a whole lot better when I’m angry. I try to do anything just to [tick] myself off.
Q: What do you do?
A: Just tell myself I’m being lazy, or I’m not doing this good enough. It’s the same thing that I’ve been telling myself since I’ve been here — if you don’t get it going, might not be here in the morning. Just any little thing that I could use.
Q: What drives you?
A: My family. I’ve gotten over trying to prove to other people that I’m good enough. As long as I prove it to myself, ’cause I had a hard time doing that last year. That was my No. 1 problem, just the confidence, believing in myself that I could do it, and not being scared to mess up.
Q: Why did you sign with the Jets?
A: My agent, Mark Lillibridge, told me this was the best opportunity for me. I just took his word for it. Shortly after getting here and I saw guys like … they drafted Quinton in the first round, they had Mo [Muhammad Wilkerson], Sione [Pouha], [Mike] DeVito, Kenrick [Ellis]. … I called my agent like, “What the hell are you thinking about?” He told me, no, he really thought this was the best opportunity for me with Coach Dunbar being, he thought was the best defensive line coach in the NFL, I would have a good chance to develop here. So, took his word for it. I worked my butt off, and it paid off.
Q: Does being a free agent give you extra motivation?
A: I told the guys at the time who were following me on Twitter, when I signed with the Jets, I planned on being one of the best free agents in NFL history. And not being drafted kinda ticked me off. It motivated me, gave me a little extra push. I hold a grudge against everybody. … Well not a grudge, just to prove to everybody that they made a mistake by not selecting me. Even the Jets, they passed on me too, so … just proving to myself I belong.
Q: How would you sum up Rex?
A: Great guy, great defensive mind, and he’s a guy that I personally would go to hell and back for, and a lot of guys on the team would. I love the guy, plain and simple.
Q: How did Hurricane Katrina affect your original hometown, New Iberia, La.?
A: We evacuated. It was mandatory, but we didn’t get a lot of the water, but we got the heavy rains and the heavy winds, but it was Hurricane Rita [2005] that affected us.
Q: In what way?
A: Everything that it did to New Orleans, Rita did the same thing to my hometown [Lake Charles], so we were out of place for about three to four months.
Q: Where did you go?
A: First we evacuated to Bunky High School in Bunky, La., for maybe two weeks, and the Coast Guard came and told us we had to go further north. So I got separated from my family then — they went to Shreveport, La., or Alexandria, I can’t remember, and I ended up in Lafayette, La., with my grandfather.
Q: For how long?
A: Over a month.
Q: What was that like?
A: It was hard, but being with my grandfather, it made the transition a little easier. But not knowing how your family’s doing, that was pretty tough.
Q: No cell phone service?
A: I didn’t have a cell phone at the time. I didn’t get a cell phone until my sophomore year at William Penn.
Q: How come?
A: Just couldn’t afford it.
Q: Do you get into New York City at all?
A: No, I hate it, man. It’s too many people, too much stuff going on, entirely too much traffic. Around here, it just seems like everybody has something to do all day, and I just don’t like to be in a rush, man. Just like to take everything slow and take my time (chuckle).
Q: You have three children living with their mother in Iowa.
A: The oldest [Elijah] is not my biological son, but I’ve been raising him ever since he was born. He’s 5. And my biological daughter, her name is Destiny, she just turned 4. And I have another daughter who’s 10 months. Her name is Brielle.
Q: How has fatherhood impacted you or changed you?
A: Elijah came around when I was about 19, so at the time I was fresh out of high school and really didn’t understand it, so it forced me to grow up quicker.
Q: You returned home after Northwest Mississippi Community College.
A: I started working overnight stocking at Walmart.
Q: What did you get paid?
A: I think it was between $11 and $14 an hour, but it was through a temp program so they got a percentage of it.
Q: You did that for how long?
A: I want to say two months. And at the time when I got the call from [CC coach] Steve Miller about the scholarship to William Penn, the same day I got the call from management at Walmart, they wanted to offer me the permanent position. And I was gonna take the permanent position ’cause at the time I was done with football. I got cut from the Middle School team twice, which pushed me away from football for years. Once I finally did do it in high school, thought I had an opportunity, and I was told once again I wasn’t good enough, so at that time it just took all the drive out of me.
Q: How much of a culture shock was Iowa?
A: Man, it was like night and day. Growing up in New Iberia and Lake Charles, I always went to all-black schools. We just didn’t have interaction with people of other races. So when I went to Iowa … man (laugh). I mean, they didn’t have any rap radio stations so I didn’t hear any of the new music. It was something to get used to, I’ll tell you that much, and I had never seen snow before until I got there. For the first two or three days, I wanted to go home. I just hated it.
Q: You were the first in your family to get a high school diploma?
A: I would have been the first ever to graduate from college, I’m three classes shy.
Q: You thought you’d be an NBA player. Who did you admire?
A: Michael Jordan, of course, and my favorite player’s Kobe Bryant.
Q: What position did you play in high school?
A: Shooting guard.
Q: Favorite movies?
A: “The Five Heartbeats” and “The Temptations.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Bernie Mack.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Sanaa Lathan
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Zero.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Jambalaya.