Sapp preferred bankruptcy to jail. (Getty Images)

The cautionary tale of Warren Sapp -- a sure-fire Hall of Fame defensive tackle who made over $40 million in his career and recently filed for bankruptcy -- has been in the news a lot recently.

But we've yet to hear from Sapp, until now. Gary Shelton of the Tampa Bay Times caught up with the NFL Network analyst and discussed the bankruptcy filing with him. Sapp pointed out that the alternative to bankruptcy was significantly less appealing.

"Do you think I wanted to declare bankruptcy?" Sapp said. "Do you think if there was any other way possible I would have done it? It was either this or go to jail. Those were my choices."

According to Sapp, things went south with a real estate deal in 2005 that ended up with he and his partners owing a million dollars because of some built-but-unsold houses. Sapp says his wages at the NFL Network were garnished which led to unpaid bills and a lack of cash on hand.

"You tell me what to do,'' Sapp said. "Do you keep working without a check? If you don't pay your child support, you go to jail. This wasn't something I wanted to do. This was something I had to do.''

Per Shelton, Sapp says the bankruptcy nightmare has "left him a little embarrassed but not distraught" because he believes he made "about $60 million" while playing football. As for the fact that Sapp's Super Bowl ring was lost, well, he doesn't appreciate the skepticism that comes with him losing it prior to filing for bankruptcy.

"Is it so unbelievable that I misplaced my ring?'' said Sapp. "I wore it for 365 days, and we had a 7-9 season [in Tampa Bay in 2003] and I went to Oakland and I took it off. You never saw me with it anywhere. The only time I brought it out was when the NFL Network wanted us to wear it."

Sapp says he lost it at a Super Bowl event, when he handed it to someone but that someone said they didn't have it. He also says the ring "didn't make me a champion ... that crew made me a champion."

Shelton also asked Sapp about the report of the naked woman in his listed items of net worth and he gave an answer that makes it sound like he's in pretty good spirits after all.

"I'm not an interior decorator,'' Sapp said. "Some designer put that on the wall, and I liked it. It's in my bedroom. By the time a woman gets there, she might be naked, too."