FIRST FAMILY
Adams’ mother knows risks of football from husband’s agony
HER SON is now a Jet, her husband a former Giant in frequent pain and hobbled by two hip surgeries. But Michelle Adams never discouraged Jamal Adams from chasing his dream, even as she dutifully was forced to become the best teammate George Adams ever had.
“This is something that a lot of parents gotta understand — you can get hurt anywhere, any sport,” she said moments after the Jets introduced her son, their first-round draft choice, and hours before they added safety Marcus Maye and wide receiver ArDarius Stewart. “So I always try to keep in my mind that be positive and just support your children in anything they want to achieve. That’s how it is in our house. I never think you’re going to get hurt. Never.”
A short while later, she added: “In addition to my husband going through his pain and agony, we were just there to support our children in any sport that they wanted.”
She met George Adams shortly after he suffered the hip injury in August 1986, an injury that would have completely sabotaged his career had he not been the kind of warrior his son is today. He kept on playing, as diminished as he was, now sports a titanium rod in one leg where his femur once was, and the statute of limitations was up by the time the George Adams versus the New York Giants verdict was reached on July 3, 2003, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
“Still today she has to help me do different things,” George Adams said. “Some days it’s good days for me. If I take a couple of pain medication, I can do a little bit of it, but most of the time, she has to help me.
“That’s why I love her to death, because she stuck by me and helped me every day.”
Her husband was a running back, until he could no longer run. Her son is a safety who smashes running backs. The way Jamal Adams must ease mom’s safety concerns.
“He’s just a monster … he’s just an energized monster out there,” Michelle Adams told The Post. “He’s different. Like if you’re standing here talking to Jamal, and to compare him on the field, he turns into somebody else. I can’t describe it. You just have to look at it and see.”
Her son is nevertheless a chip off her husband’s block.
“Their personalities are quite the same, you know, just always
trying to compete, challenging, the whole bit,” she said.
Michelle Adams aspired to be a fashion model.
“When you meet ballplayers, sometimes your dream is put on hold,” she said. “That’s what happened — kinda like put it on hold, had a family, and here’s Jamal.”
She and her husband would move to Kentucky and live there for only three months.
“We wanted to mix New York and Kentucky so we came up to Dallas,” she said. “Kentucky was just so laid back, there’s nothing to do — how are you gonna take a New Yorker, and move her down to Kentucky? I almost died!”
Her son was not a Cowboys fan in Carrollton, Texas.
“Of course he has this crazy dad, so it was always the New York Giants in our household,” Michelle said. “Actually, the Cowboys were the Cowgirls in our household. There was no Cowboys, OK? It was the Cowgirls.”
Her son is a natural-born leader.
“Just like in school, people gravitate to Jamal,” she said. “It’s his personality. There’s some- thing about Jamal. He’s a people person.”
Jamal resembles a cross between both parents. “Yeah he likes the camera,” Michelle said. “He likes to be in that spotlight. ‘Cause everywhere you go, you’re gonna see Jamal.” She was the disciplinarian. “She didn’t let me go to practice if I didn’t finish my homework, or if I didn’t clean my room,” Jamal said. “She always complained about how I don’t clean mu room or I don’t make my bed. So I’m working on that, she definitely pushed me still to this day to clean my room. But I definitely love her for everything she’s done.”
Michelle: “He has piles … I love a clean house. And it’s to the point where I was like, ‘Jamal, you’re killing me.’ Because I would go in his room and actually clean his room. I have to stay up on him, yes I do.”
She grew up on Nepperhan Avenue in Yonkers, attended Yonkers High School, and to hear her talk, there is no place like New Yawk. And no place like New Yawk for her son.
“I think he’s a good fit here,” Michelle Adams said.