Will Anderson wasn’t always the toughest or most intimidating football player.

In fact, he wasn’t even the toughest or most intimidating in his own house.

The “SEC on CBS” re-tweeted a feature on Saturday, hours before No. 1 Alabama takes on Texas A&M, on the Crimson Tide linebacker and how his family – his father and five sisters – molded the defensive terror into what he is today.

“Those girls would have him crying,” his father said. “It was tough for him. I felt sorry for at times.”

It started by dressing him in a giraffe costume that would incite dogs to bark at him when they brought him to front doors.

“That was great joy for them, but I was scared,” Anderson said.

His five sisters, though, provided role models and the tough love needed to become the player he is today.

There is Shawnta. “We call her Nice-Nasty,” he said. Shanice is the “mother.” Chyna is “free-minded.” Endya, like Shawnta, is Nice-Nasty. Teria, he said, is the “life of the party.”

“Honestly, my sisters were tough,” he said. “They all played sports as well. They were rough growing up. They were out there with us in the street playing basketball with the ball everything like that. They weren’t taking no crap, and I was always watching them.

Anderson started playing football around the age of 5. He admits he knew little of what was going on. He wanted to play running back. Instead, he was a defensive end. By 10th grade, he was a middle linebacker.

“I think the older you get, you realize your parents do certain things,” he said of father being hard on him. “He was rough growing up, and I think that is why I am competitive with myself, and I hold myself to a higher standard.”

Even today, the girls are still on him.

“They tell me things other people were probably scared to tell me, the bad. People always want to tell you the food,” he said.

Watch the feature below.