when life gives you lemonheads
by
Laura Downhour
When Life Gives You Lemonheads
Anthony Adams fuels up for game day a little differently than your typical player in the NFL
M
eat and potatoes. Spaghetti. Both typical pre-game meals for athletes in the NFL. But not so for 27-year-old nose tackle Anthony Adams. His fuel of choice? “Instead of chicken and pasta, I eat Lemonheads,” he said. That’s right. The round, citrusflavored candy with the soft sour shell and hard candy core is how Adams readies himself for the gridiron. According to the 6-0, 307-pound Adams, his obsession with the sweet treat “started one Halloween long, long ago.” As a child growing up in Detroit, Adams would go to a penny candy store and get whatever a few cents could buy for him and his family. At the time, both Lemonheads and Gummy Bears were his favorites. The football tie-in began during his teen years while playing at Martin Luther King High School in the Motor City. “I guess I had some candy and went out and had a good game,” Adams said. “So ever since then, I just have to have some candy.” He then spent his college career at Penn State, before being drafted in 2003 in the second round by San Francisco. Once he started playing professional football, Adams honed in on Lemonheads as his candy of choice. While with the 49ers, Adams would stock up on them during team plane trips. “They’d have
20 BEARREPORT.COM
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
like seven boxes, and I’d take all of them,” he said. “Nobody else would eat them.” Once he joined the Bears in 2007, Adams briefly auditioned another hard candy for his pre-game meal: Jolly Ranchers. But he found that they just didn’t have the needed “twang” that Lemonheads do, so he decided to return to his original regimen. Adams loves Lemonheads so much, he’d “actually like to get Lemonheads where they need to be. Lemonheads need to be
the premiere candy out there.” If LeBron James has a Gatorade endorsement, Peyton and Eli Manning have been Oreo pushers, and Derek Jeter has hawked Fords, it seems Adams could be the perfect guy to serve as the official Lemonheads spokesperson. At least the manufacturer would know he really believes in the product. When prepping for Sundays in the NFL, Adams, who has more than 200 career tackles, typically chews downs a familysize box of Lemonheads the night before. About an hour before kickoff, he eats another batch. “I’m already a hyper guy, but I think the Lemonheads give me an extra oomph,” he said. But
When prepping for Sundays in the NFL, Adams, who has more than 200 career tackles, typically chews downs a family-size box of Lemonheads the night before. About an hour before kickoff, he eats another batch. Adams warns that the candy is “not for everybody” and has yet to go “mainstream.” Which may explain why, in spite of Adams’ Lemonheads sticktuitiveness, not one of his teammates has given his method a try. Maybe they would if they heard how the candy has apparently helped with Adams’ physique. He shared, tongue-in-cheek, that he “used to do sit-ups, but ever since I’ve been on the Lemonheads, they just get my abs so rock hard just like the rock-hard candy. Rather than just do sit-ups, I just eat Lemonheads.” And, according to Adams, Lemonheads are a fat-free food. All kidding aside, Adams’ build and burst are key when it comes to playing his position of nose tackle. Bears defensive line coach Brick Haley said players in that spot frequently face two-on-one blocking and take a little more pounding, so it helps for them to be slightly heavier than other guys on the line – but not too heavy. Haley added that Adams’ love for Lemonheads is “harmless” as long as “he plays hard and does what we need him to do.” Haley also said that among the players on the D-line, Adams “is kind of like the class clown. So that kind of goes along with him having a fetish for Lemonheads. That’s just him. He’s the kind of guy who just keeps things live and keeps things going. I can see him being a Lemonheads addict.” When hitting the weight room, Adams follows a specific workout focused on improving his power designed by well-respected Bears strength and conditioning coordinator Rusty Jones. “It’s a lot of high intensity, short bursts, because that’s all you do in the inside,” Adams said. “Everything happens so quick. Pushing weights to your limit, that’s basically it.” Included in his lifting workouts are exercises like clean-and-jerks, which help him “stay explosive.” Adams added, “Once you get on the football field, you just got to play football. Nothing can simulate playing nose guard. You just got
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
to get on the football field and shake it up.” Adams does notice a change now that he is in the “Black and Blue” NFC North division, known for its intense rivalries and physical style, compared to his time in the NFC West. “Out there, it’s more of that West Coast Offense. More finesse,” he said. “You got a lot more passing. It’s like the Pac-10 in college football. This division is like Big-10 in college football.” But he has found that “football is football. You still gotta play what you see.” Adams admitted that, along with the opposing team’s offensive line, what he sees “all the time” are visions of Lemonheads dancing in his head. n Laura Downhour is a New York-based contributor for ESPN the Magazine and has worked as a television sports reporter. She also previously served as a pre-game show reporter for the Detroit Lions, but try not to hold that against her.
BEARREPORT.COM 21
Laura Downhour
When Life Gives You Lemonheads
Anthony Adams fuels up for game day a little differently than your typical player in the NFL
M
eat and potatoes. Spaghetti. Both typical pre-game meals for athletes in the NFL. But not so for 27-year-old nose tackle Anthony Adams. His fuel of choice? “Instead of chicken and pasta, I eat Lemonheads,” he said. That’s right. The round, citrusflavored candy with the soft sour shell and hard candy core is how Adams readies himself for the gridiron. According to the 6-0, 307-pound Adams, his obsession with the sweet treat “started one Halloween long, long ago.” As a child growing up in Detroit, Adams would go to a penny candy store and get whatever a few cents could buy for him and his family. At the time, both Lemonheads and Gummy Bears were his favorites. The football tie-in began during his teen years while playing at Martin Luther King High School in the Motor City. “I guess I had some candy and went out and had a good game,” Adams said. “So ever since then, I just have to have some candy.” He then spent his college career at Penn State, before being drafted in 2003 in the second round by San Francisco. Once he started playing professional football, Adams honed in on Lemonheads as his candy of choice. While with the 49ers, Adams would stock up on them during team plane trips. “They’d have
20 BEARREPORT.COM
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
like seven boxes, and I’d take all of them,” he said. “Nobody else would eat them.” Once he joined the Bears in 2007, Adams briefly auditioned another hard candy for his pre-game meal: Jolly Ranchers. But he found that they just didn’t have the needed “twang” that Lemonheads do, so he decided to return to his original regimen. Adams loves Lemonheads so much, he’d “actually like to get Lemonheads where they need to be. Lemonheads need to be
the premiere candy out there.” If LeBron James has a Gatorade endorsement, Peyton and Eli Manning have been Oreo pushers, and Derek Jeter has hawked Fords, it seems Adams could be the perfect guy to serve as the official Lemonheads spokesperson. At least the manufacturer would know he really believes in the product. When prepping for Sundays in the NFL, Adams, who has more than 200 career tackles, typically chews downs a familysize box of Lemonheads the night before. About an hour before kickoff, he eats another batch. “I’m already a hyper guy, but I think the Lemonheads give me an extra oomph,” he said. But
When prepping for Sundays in the NFL, Adams, who has more than 200 career tackles, typically chews downs a family-size box of Lemonheads the night before. About an hour before kickoff, he eats another batch. Adams warns that the candy is “not for everybody” and has yet to go “mainstream.” Which may explain why, in spite of Adams’ Lemonheads sticktuitiveness, not one of his teammates has given his method a try. Maybe they would if they heard how the candy has apparently helped with Adams’ physique. He shared, tongue-in-cheek, that he “used to do sit-ups, but ever since I’ve been on the Lemonheads, they just get my abs so rock hard just like the rock-hard candy. Rather than just do sit-ups, I just eat Lemonheads.” And, according to Adams, Lemonheads are a fat-free food. All kidding aside, Adams’ build and burst are key when it comes to playing his position of nose tackle. Bears defensive line coach Brick Haley said players in that spot frequently face two-on-one blocking and take a little more pounding, so it helps for them to be slightly heavier than other guys on the line – but not too heavy. Haley added that Adams’ love for Lemonheads is “harmless” as long as “he plays hard and does what we need him to do.” Haley also said that among the players on the D-line, Adams “is kind of like the class clown. So that kind of goes along with him having a fetish for Lemonheads. That’s just him. He’s the kind of guy who just keeps things live and keeps things going. I can see him being a Lemonheads addict.” When hitting the weight room, Adams follows a specific workout focused on improving his power designed by well-respected Bears strength and conditioning coordinator Rusty Jones. “It’s a lot of high intensity, short bursts, because that’s all you do in the inside,” Adams said. “Everything happens so quick. Pushing weights to your limit, that’s basically it.” Included in his lifting workouts are exercises like clean-and-jerks, which help him “stay explosive.” Adams added, “Once you get on the football field, you just got to play football. Nothing can simulate playing nose guard. You just got
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
to get on the football field and shake it up.” Adams does notice a change now that he is in the “Black and Blue” NFC North division, known for its intense rivalries and physical style, compared to his time in the NFC West. “Out there, it’s more of that West Coast Offense. More finesse,” he said. “You got a lot more passing. It’s like the Pac-10 in college football. This division is like Big-10 in college football.” But he has found that “football is football. You still gotta play what you see.” Adams admitted that, along with the opposing team’s offensive line, what he sees “all the time” are visions of Lemonheads dancing in his head. n Laura Downhour is a New York-based contributor for ESPN the Magazine and has worked as a television sports reporter. She also previously served as a pre-game show reporter for the Detroit Lions, but try not to hold that against her.
BEARREPORT.COM 21
