Booger McFarland Fondly Recalls His Favorite Memory Of A Bowl Game: Blowing All His Per Diem At A Strip Club

Hey, at least they had good wings.

We’re in the middle of bowl season, and over the past few years there’s been a fierce debate about how much bowl games really matter anymore. With the College Football Playoffs and the transfer portal, it seems that bowl games don’t really mean much anymore as more and more players – and teams – opt out of the postseason if they don’t make the playoffs.

But to Booger McFarland, he’s apparently got nothing but fond memories of his experience in bowl games.

The current ESPN analyst played defensive tackle for the LSU Tigers from 1995 to 1998, before being drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the 1999 NFL Draft. And during his first season at LSU, the Tigers finished the regular season 9-2 and were invited to play in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

The Tigers ended up winning the game over Clemson, but it sounds like that wasn’t what made the game so memorable for McFarland: It was the…well, extracurricular activities that he got into while he was in Atlanta.

Last night during the Pop-Tarts Bowl between Georgia Tech and BYU, McFarland was asked his favorite memory of bowl season as a player. And he fondly recalled his freshman year at the Peach Bowl, when he apparently blew all of his per diem at an Atlanta strip club:

“My first experience in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. First time getting per diem, $987, went to one establishment and I gave it all away.”

McFarland also jokes that he had something in common with former NBA player Lou Williams, who was famously required to sit out two games in 2020 for breaking quarantine to go to Atlanta’s famous Magic City strip club – where he was such a frequent visitor that he even has his own “Louwill Lemon Pepper BBQ” wings named after him.

“They had some good wings though. Lemon pepper wings. Me and Lou Williams have something in common.”

I mean, that’s what the per diem is for, to buy food, right?

Players used to also get some pretty cool swag bags for playing in bowl games, everything from designer sunglasses or gift cards to PlayStations. That used to be one of my favorite parts of bowl season, seeing what the gifts were for each game.

Of course now college players are making millions of dollars so they probably don’t care enough to stick around and play in a bowl game just for the gift bag. And I have a feeling there are players who are regularly spending way more than $987 on…lemon pepper wings.

So even though bowl season may not matter as much anymore, it’s still one of the best parts of college football season. Sure, it sucks when teams are left shorthanded and the bowl games aren’t really an accurate matchup between the two teams. But it’s still fun to see the close bowl games and the pageantry that surrounds them – like pouring mayonnaise over the winning coach or sacrificing a Pop-Tart after the game.