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| | | | | | | |  Wednesday, December 6, 2000
Getting Crazy with ... Indianapolis OT Adam Meadows
By Marc Connolly
MondayNightFootball.com
Every week throughout the 2000 NFL season, ABC Sports Online senior writer Marc Connolly interviews one player from that week's upcoming Monday Night Football game on a variety of topics. In Week 4, Connolly caught up with Indianapolis Colts right tackle Adam Meadows. Here's what transpired:
Connolly: I hear you're the jokester on the team. Give us some evidence why you deserve that title.
|  | | Adam Meadows wants coach Jim Mora to know his name isn't Randy. |
Meadows: I tell you what -- we're a team of jokesters. I just happen to be constantly defending myself. Mostly from the likes of Peyton Manning.
Connolly: I can't picture him busting people like that.
Meadows: Oh yeah, he goes after everybody. He especially likes picking on me. I fire back at him when he doesn't expect it.
Connolly: Didn't anyone ever teach him that a QB isn't supposed to rag on the guys who protect him out there?
Meadows: I know, huh? He just takes it to another level. I tried to put on my boxers the other day and they were filled with Icy Hot. That was not good. You always gotta check your clothes around here, then if something's in there, you gotta fire back even if you don't know it was him for sure.
Connolly: You said he goes after you a lot, but is there anyone on your team that is particularly gullible?
Meadows: I'd say the most gullible guy is our punter, Hunter Smith. He's got a lot of naivete going on with his life. No one ever gets on him, though. He's always quiet. Kelly Holcombe is the brunt of a lot of jokes. He backs Peyton up, but he doesn't treat him very well (laughing). In the internal war thing, there's now a fourth source that is getting involved but we can't figure out who it is yet.
Connolly: How about the guy in the locker room you don't want to irritate?
Meadows: I would say Larry Chester, a backup defensive tackle. He goes around and picks on people. Everyone calls him "Deebo" from the movie Friday, so he goes around and throws people in trash cans and laundry bins just for people walking by him. You wouldn't want to mess with him.
Connolly: I know that Peyton is one of your best friends. Tell me about how that happened.
Meadows: We have that whole rivalry from the Tennessee-Georgia thing, even though it wasn't much of a rivalry when he was playing. When he came here, I found that we had a lot of things in common. Just regular things like music and hobbies. Plus we like to rib each other a lot like I said, so it's a great relationship.
Connolly He always has that "gosh darnet" look about him. Does he every swear or is he really so squeaky-clean?
Meadows: First off, I've never heard him say "Gosh darnet." He kinda resents, in a way, that Golden Boy image he has. He's kinda down and dirty, in fact. He hides a few things and the media has done a good job building him up. Peyton really gets into the game. He's a rare breed. He expects everyone to work as hard as he does.
Connolly: I know you guys have been a little shaky on the O-Line this year -- don't kill me for saying that -- but you protected him as well as anyone last year. I hope he took care of you guys for Christmas.
Meadows: Oh yeah, he and Edgerrin went in together and bought us digital camcorders and gave us gift certificates for custom tailored suits. It was real nice and something they didn't have to do, but we'll take freebies any time we can get them.
Connolly: Do O-Lineman ever buy anything for their quarterbacks?
Meadows: Not a chance. We do buy them some time now and then.
Connolly: What do you and Peyton do together when you're away from the field?
Meadows: We've been to some country concerts together. We play golf a lot, too.
Connolly: I hear you just picked up the sport recently.
Meadows: I'm not that good, but when I'm going bad I ruin everyone else's time. I'll talk on their back swings and piss everyone off, which actually makes my day pretty good.
Connolly: I know a few guys like you, so I'm surprised you keep getting invites to the Country Club. At 6-5, 295 you must be able to kill the ball off the tee. That is if you can keep it straight.
Meadows: Oh, I don't even know the definition of straight. I'm one of those guys that when I get the slice going real well, I'll aim about 50 yards to the left of the fairway so that it ends up on the far right of the fairway.
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I was teasing Peyton earlier today that he's losing his hair. I would dread the day to see him bald. He's got an odd shaped head. I'm not afraid of saying that. ” |
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— Colts offensive tackle Adam Meadows |
Connolly: So you might hit the ball 500 yards in the air for a measly 200-yard drive.
Meadows: Yep, or it could go 500 yards straight, but straight up. I've also hit a ball twice off the tee in the same swing. That's pretty impressive, I'd say. I mean, not everyone can do that. It might be a world record.
Connolly: So you got that going for you ... Going back to your college days and your upbringing in Georgia, what is in the water down there that makes fans so crazy for football?
Meadows: I wish I knew. Being a football fan down there means loving high school football, too. I can't say they love the Falcons a lot. It might be something in the water, maybe. I'll tell you one thing, though, if you don't win they get pretty upset.
Connolly: You got the bald look going. Is that in homage to Lou Grant or Michael Jordan?
Meadows: That's the no-choice look. I'd be looking like George Costanza if I grew my hair back out. I call it the "lunatic frizz" when you got hair on the outside and nothing in the middle.
Connolly: My friends and I call it the "Saturn."
Meadows: There you go, the Saturn. I'll use that.
Connolly: Are there any white bald guys who have no business pulling off the look?
Meadows: I can't think of anyone, but I was teasing Peyton earlier today that he's losing his hair. I would dread the day to see him bald. He's got an odd shaped head. I'm not afraid of saying that.
Connolly: I'm looking right now at the ESPN Magazine cover with Edgerrin on it. That gold tooth just screams out at you. Do you like that look he's got going?
Meadows: (laughing) That's just part of the scenery now. That's him, that's Miami, that's his look. More power to him. Me with a gold tooth? My wife would divorce me and I'd be excommunicated from all my social circles.
Connolly: I have some great quotes on my computer from Jim Mora back when he was with New Orleans. Like the classic, "I'm totally embarrassed and totally ashamed. We sucked. We totally sucked." Any memorable things he's said to you guys.
Meadows: Plenty. One time after practice he was ticked off at the defense because they were lackadaisical during a two-minute drill which we ran down the field and scored in three plays. He was talking to Mark Thomas who was going against me and he turns to me and says, "Hey Randy, does Mark give you a good look?" We don't have a Randy on the team. Things like that. He gets so mad he trips over words sometimes. It's hilarious. Any time he blows up you're laughing on the inside but you can't show that to him.
Connolly: Did he ever explain the "Randy" comment?
Meadows: Don't know why, but of course everyone calls me "Randy" now. It's my name.
Connolly: You've hardly left the field in your four years in the NFL. Of all the D-linemen you've seen, who talks the most?
Meadows: John Randle. By far. He doesn't do it as much as he used to. I played against him in '97 as a rookie, and he ruined my day. But, then again, my whole season was ruined that year because we were terrible. I won't name names, but there are a lot of guys out there who talk trash but have no business to do so.
Connolly: I have to ask you about something I saw in your bio. It says you took part in Colts 101, an annual women's football clinic. Please explain that.
Meadows: You wanna know the core of that? It pays $1,000 for about three hours of talking football.
Connolly: In my next lifetime, I want to get paid like that for talking to females. Last question, how much can a group of offensive lineman eat when you hit a McDonald's or a Taco Bell?
Meadows: It depends on who's buying. Sometimes, we'll eat like five entrees apiece. We do have some guys who watch their figure on this team thinking they'll be on the cover of Men's Journal or something like that. But we definitely have some guys who can throw down some groceries. No doubt about that.
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