Just as Bruce Banner transforms into The Incredible Hulk, the NFL's Budda Baker is known to unleash a hidden savage beast on occasion. The origin story for this fearsome alter ego traces back to Baker's days playing college football at the University of Washington. Coach Chris Petersen had a ping-pong table by his office, one at which he was frequently challenged but seldom bested. Baker came to UW in 2014 as a recruit. Like many aspiring Huskies before him, Baker saw the table and took the bait. It was an easy win for Coach Petersen, who did not sugarcoat Baker's initial effort. "He wasn't very good," chuckled the coach. Baker admits the coach had his number, at least initially. "I couldn't beat Coach Pete," admitted Baker. "He had that spin, that serve, that was getting me every time." Luckily for both, Baker was good at football, and was dubbed a Freshman All-American by USA Today. Despite his success on the field, the ping-pong drubbing did not sit well with the über-competitive Baker. He trained for a rematch at every opportunity. What Coach Petersen did not realize was that he had activated what is now known as Baker's "savage switch." As his current teammates on the Arizona Cardinals will tell you, the normally mild-mannered Baker undergoes a metamorphosis when he steps onto the gridiron, transforming the undersized 5'10", 195-pound kid from Bellevue, Washington into one of the most feared safeties in the NFL. The next time Baker and "Coach Pete" met for ping-pong, the tables had turned. "All of a sudden, in typical Budda fashion, he got way better," describes Petersen. "And then he beat me one time, and it was like, 'Wait, what?'" While amateurs might have hung it up right then and there, a true competitor like Baker is committed to constant improvement. Case in point: He recently tweeted a video of himself practicing against a table tennis robot, with the caption, "Who wants some?" For those who dare to answer the challenge, beware. If you lose, you risk routine humiliation. If you should happen to win, however, you may wish you hadn't, as you will inevitably become the next target of the dreaded "savage."

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