The Pro Bowl is not very ideal for most football players. You’ve been through the gauntlet on a tough NFL season and your reward for being such a great player and not making the Super Bowl is to play in an exhibition game.
At the Pro Bowl, some players seem to pass the time by drinking and as competitive as they are, that sometimes turns into a drinking contest. Throughout the years, there has been talk about a mai tai drinking contest (when the game was in Hawaii) and similar to Wade Boggs, there would be an effort to drink the most mai tai’s in a single day.
According to DeAngelo Hall, the record holder is longtime Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber with 42 mai tai’s in a single day.
That is an insane amount of alcohol but Ronde reportedly drank that. Or so we thought…
There seems to be some dispute as to who has the record and the person who may know for sure might be Fox NFL insider Jay Glazer. Glazer discussed the record multiple times in years past, including as recently as December 2020. Glazer has been pretty consistent in his recollection that the record holder was actually Barber’s teammate John Lynch. Glazer revealed that Lynch once consumed 34 drinks and that when Glazer, Barber (both Ronde and Tiki), and others attempted to break that record, Ronde got to 30 after drinking for 16 hours. There’s also a story about how Glazer and Peyton Manning almost came to blows one year so things can get real when you’re drinking mai tai’s.
Like most drinking stories, the longer it’s been since it took place, the more likely that details are going to be embellished. Regardless, the competitors can probably appreciate Homer Simpson’s advice when it comes to taking part in drinking contests. “When you participate in sporting events, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how drunk you get.”
*It’s probably a good idea to let readers know to drink responsibly and not go for this record. Have fun in moderation.
[Photo: Brent Hofacker]
About Phillip Bupp
Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.
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