Raised in the Cajun back country, Hester is an adrenaline junkie who enjoys hunting wild hogs and alligators. In particular he likes to kill animals when they have a chance to kill him as well. Now, our conversation shifts from training for the NFL Combine to hunting. "Do you kill the hogs with guns?"
Kurt Hester looks at me sideways, shakes his head vigorously, as if I've just offered him a peppermint martini. "Naw, I don't kill hogs with guns. That ain't hunting. Guys go out in the woods and sit around all day and then shoot something from 400 yards away. S**t. We use dogs to corner the hogs, and then wait until the right moment and run up beside the hog and stab it in the throat with a knife. You've got to watch the tusks or they'll kill you. I like it because it's dangerous."
Similarly, Hester goes alligator hunting in the swamps with a knife, a small boat, and some rope. "I see an alligator and I just jump out of the boat on top of him and hold him down. Wrap that son of a b***h up. Because, you see, alligators can't really get you once you've clamped down their jaws. Well, they can get you with their tails, but that's why you lay on top of them."
Occasionally, to get a high school team fired up when they're training in his Louisiana gym, Hester releases wild alligators he's caught in the swamps in the weight room. He's put camouflage tape around the alligator's mouth, but the kids don't know this and go wild thinking the thrashing gator is about to attack them. After he's gotten them fired up, Hester sprints across the weight room, pulls out a knife, and stabs the gator in the head with a large hunting knife. He did this before a Louisiana high school football game recently, his team was playing a team nicknamed the Gators, and the team he trains won by four touchdowns. When I tell Eastern Michigan defensive end Jason Jones this story in the locker room a few minutes later, Jones nods, "That's a good idea," he says.
