At the time of the videotaped cold tub incident from training camp last year, Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara seemed a bit removed from some of his teammates.
Now we know he’s very different from many, if not most or all of them.
Amukamara said in a Q and A with Muscle and Fitness magazine that he’s yet to have his first taste of alcohol, and remains a virgin.
(There was a lot of other stuff in there too, like how much he could squat and what he eats before a workout. But we’re all adults here, let’s not kid ourselves.)
Amukamara said he might have a drink someday at his bachelor party, but made a conscious decision as a youth to abstain from alcohol.
“I grew up Catholic, so it just started out as one of those things. I’d think, ‘If I do this, maybe I can get to heaven,’ so I said no drinks, no sex, all the big things,” Amukamara said. “As I grew up, I realized that’s not what it’s about. It’s about having a relationship with Jesus. It’s not about ‘Don’t do this. Don’t do that.’
“But still, it’s just one of those things I haven’t done, and I don’t see any benefit to doing it. You’re always reading about people getting DUIs. So many bad things that happen and wind up in the paper are alcohol-related, so by not drinking, it saves me, my team, and my family a lot of trouble.”
Amukamara joked that some people call him “the black Tim Tebow,” but discussed his choices with no shame. He’s engaged, and said he was hesitant to tell his fiance he was a football player at all.
While his lifestyle choices will make him ripe for mockery by some (the same way A.C. Green became a punchline for declaring himself a virgin during his NBA career), Amukamara’s choices aren’t easy ones.
But the challenging and impressive part might be the fact he hasn’t made a spectacle of himself by putting them on parade already.