Ravens full back **Le'Ron McClain** caught up with BR.com and talked about following his alma mater Alabama, talking to opposing players on the field and his favorite memory so far in the 2008 season.
BR.com: Alabama football just reached No. 1 in the BCS rankings. Do you still keep up with any of the coaches or the players?
"Oh yeah. Some of the players like Roy Upchurch, Glen Coffee, I talk to them every now and then. Those guys are doing great. I hope they can keep up the good work, try to get to Miami and catch the title."
Do you and Jarret Johnson, who also went to Alabama, ever talk about the team?
"All the time. Every Saturday we talk about who we've got, do a little game analysis to try to see who we're going against and what we think will happen."
Do you support "Sweet Home Alabama" as the unofficial state theme song?
"Oh yeah, it's a great song. I used to love to hear it when it came on on game day, while we were out there warming up before we went back into the locker room before the game. The fans go crazy when it comes on. It's a great tradition down there."
I've heard you described as a chatterbox. Is that on the field or off, and what do you talk about?
"Really, it's mostly on the field. You try to get in the other guy's head, just luring them in. It's just talking to him, saying stuff off-the-wall to him. You've got to keep conversations, and then when the play happens, it's all business. But after the play, I play around with them and then just lure them in a little bit."
What's an example of something off-the-wall that you would say?
"I'll ask him, 'How was the flight coming over?' Or, 'Where did you train for the Combine?' Just stuff like that. A guy that had probably been in the league for eight years, I asked him where he trained for the Combine."
Do the players ever talk back?
"Yeah, they'll laugh about it. Some will get mad. It works out both ways."
What's your favorite memory of this season so far?
"I'd say the first game versus Cleveland (9/21), just scoring two touchdowns. It was my first time doing that, and it felt great."
You were a human environmental science major in college. What is that?
"It's a lot of stuff. It's dealing with health issues, also dealing with pharmaceutical sales. There's a lot of stuff that you can do with it. You can get your coaching license and start coaching."
If you could go back to college would you stick with that major or choose something else?
"I'd choose something else, probably communications. I think communications is pretty cool, on the outside looking in. One of my teammates from college, he majored in that, and he was always telling me about it. I wish I would have chosen communications before human environmental science, but I was so close to graduating at that point."
What do you aspire to be or to do?
"I want to be the best father I can be to my daughter. She'll be 1 year old this month on the 28th. Yeah, just be the best father I can be."
What was the last book you read?
"The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge. That's a great book. I read that at the Combine, so that was two years ago. It's about a murder that happens up in the Hamptons. They break down the book through people's minds and thoughts. Every chapter is a different person talking. It's a really good book."
What was your first job?
"McDonalds for prom. My mom said she wasn't paying for my prom, because I had a little trouble at school, so I had to get a job. I worked at McDonalds for about two months, stacked up about three paychecks, and then I moved on. It was to pay for my tux and the limo, dinner and all that."
