Marcus Spears lining up on the defensive line is scary enough.
Now imagine what a deer is thinking when it sees the 6-foot-4, 315-pound Spears creeping through the woods with a gun.
"I'm pretty stealthy, man," Spears said with a grin.
Considering today is National Hunting and Fishing Day, I figured it would be a good time to let you know that Spears is quite the outdoorsman.
He's usually hiding in the woods somewhere around Baltimore during his days off on Tuesdays and Saturdays. He can't hunt on the start of the new season because the Ravens are traveling to Buffalo, but you best believe he'll be ready when they get back.
Spears' Twitter tagline is, "God, Family, Friends, Football, Hunting, Fishing and in that order."
Last week, he tweeted asking for somebody near Howard County to take him out deer hunting. Later that day, he posted a picture of himself camouflaged in the woods with the line, "In my element!!"
Spears then tweeted back and forth with followers about hunting, talking about the strategies and different good spots to go around the state.
He got into hunting during college at Louisiana State when his uncle took him out. Spears was frustrated that he wasn't seeing anything, until finally a doe walked in front of them.
"The excitement level that I felt seeing a wild animal … ever since then I've been hooked," Spears said.
When he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 2005, Spears' hunting hobby skyrocketed. "It's part of the culture there," he said.
Ravens rookie defensive tackle Brandon Williams is also a country boy and avid hunter. He got in some turkey hunting back home in Missouri before reporting to Baltimore for the first time this summer. Williams, who just got a new bow, admits that Spears is the better hunter of the two.
"He's got me because of experience, but I'm coming," Williams said.
So if you see two huge guys in the woods, you may want to head the other direction.
