Zack Crockett

On his Thanksgiving specialty, deep-fried turkey

Once you go deep-fried, you never go back. And if you inject something into the meat, it's much juicier and you have so much flavor. I inject a Cajun garlic butter on one side and on the other side teriyaki.

On cooking

I learned from my grandmother Elmarie Hall when I was growing up in Pompano Beach [ Fla.]. It wasn't a punishment, but it kind of seemed like it when I was a little kid. The first thing my grandmother taught me was how to season food, then how to work the stove. Eventually, cooking became a competition between me and my mom and everyone in my household. It was a great skill to have when I was going off to college. Also, when you get guys together to eat, it brings camaraderie to your team.

On whom he's expecting for Thanksgiving

We've got a new team, a lot of changing of the guard this year, but the new guys caught on fast--they know who cooks. A lot of my teammates are coming; my family comes. We average 20 people. Sapp comes over, Randy Moss, LaMont Jordan, Nnamdi Asomugha. Coaches.

On the Thanksgiving scam his teammates pulled on him when he broke in as a Colt in 1995

They gave the rookies vouchers for turkeys at the supermarket and said, Go pick up your turkey. One of my friends on the team gave me his, so I had two. We used the vouchers and came home with two huge, heavy bags, sealed up. We put them in my family's freezer, and when the time came they opened them up to baste the turkeys--and there were two big blocks of ice! My teammates had us on camera picking up the "turkeys" at the supermarket, and they laughed so hard. It was funny, but I felt bad because my family got caught in it.

On the weekly fish fry he hosts for his teammates

We had to move it from Thursday to Friday because we weigh in on Thursday, and guys were a little scared. People eat a lot, yes they do. I've been doing it since college. We start around 4:30 or five, end around nine o'clock. We usually have about 20 people, and we'll watch TV. I'll make tilapia, and we've got guys from Mississippi who like catfish and cheese grits.