vikings/nfl

On making the Pro Bowl for the first time last year, in his 10th season:

"It's all politics. I'm the best nose tackle in the game. I don't care what no scouts say, or what this guy says or that guy says. I know I'm the best in the game. So I don't have to worry about it."

On the first time he remembers talking trash:

"In eighth grade in Monroe [La.], I'd go watch the varsity practice. I'd tell the guys, 'When I come over here [next year], I'm going to start. They said I was crazy. I said, 'All right, you all say what you want to say.' So I've always had that anger and attitude. When I got up to varsity, they couldn't stop me."

On going from 5-8, 160 pounds as a freshman at Woosman High to 5-11, 240 as a sophomore:

"Yeah. I got big fast."

On being 33:

"Age don't mean nothing. They always want to throw something at you. When the game comes on Sunday and them guards are 25, 27, I'm whipping their ..." um, butts. "But that's how I play. That's what I do."

On spending his NFL riches wisely:

"I see a lot of guys waste their money, and then have nothing when they leave the game. I'm on a budget. I have a lawyer who handles my money. All I get is $5,000 a month to spend. If I ask for more, he won't give it to me. That's why I pay him, so he'll say no when I ask for more money. I'll ask. He'll say, 'No, you don't need it.' And I say, 'OK, bye.' "

On whether he's patched things up with Chicago Bears Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz:

"Yeah. I talked to Olin. We're cool. He was taking everything too seriously. I was just trying to make things exciting out here. Some guys take things too seriously. They're all football. I said, 'It ain't that serious.' "

Uh-oh. More on Kreutz:

"Ever since Buffalo, I've been playing against him since he was a rookie. I've always been whipping his ..." um, butt. "He can't win. It doesn't matter what he does. Hey, I tell it like it is."

On Vikings second-year coach Brad Childress:

"Last year, he just kind of got in the water. ... I think he's the guy who can turn it around for us. I talk to him all the time. He walks around and talks to the players a lot. He didn't do that last year. He wasn't down in that locker room talking to the players last year. Now, he's more into the players. He's changed. ... Everybody's more comfortable with him now. Last year, you knew him, but you didn't know him."

On second-year quarterback Tarvaris Jackson:

"He's coming along, but I'm hard on him. I tell him, 'You're not my leader right now. You got to prove that you can lead the team before I start respecting you.' That's nothing bad. I told Childress that, too. I said if I hurt his feelings, I don't know. But this is what I told him. Childress said, 'That's why I love you in the locker room. You're going to tell everybody like it is.' "