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People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Mr. Michael "Lil Mike" Adams
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Home Phone: 972-283-0818 A Cardinal Redeems Himself in a Big Way BuzzPermalink By KAREN CROUSE Former Ragin’ Cajuns cornerback Michael Adams has enjoyed a lot of publicity this week for his game-winning play in overtime to help the Arizona Cardinals defeat the Green Bay Packers. Adams was featured in a NY Times article titled “A Cardinal Redeems Himself in a Big Way” written by Karen Crouse. Click here to view the original article. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/sports/football/14cardinal.html?DB_OEM_ID=15400&emc=eta1 Courtesy NY Times TEMPE, Ariz. – In his Louisiana home, Rickey Bustle yelled at his television as if his voice might carry all the way to Arizona. One of Bustle’s former Louisiana-Lafayette players, Cardinals cornerback Michael Adams, was getting embarrassed by Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Sunday in a National Football Conference wild-card playoff game. “Keep picking on him,” Bustle said he screamed, “because he’s going to make a play.” At 5 feet 8 inches, Adams was the second-smallest player on either team, but on the third play of overtime his stature grew immensely when he blitzed Rodgers and knocked the football loose. Adams’s teammate Karlos Dansby grabbed the ball out of the air and ran into the end zone to give the Cardinals a 51-45 victory and a date opposite the Saints in a divisional match-up Saturday in New Orleans. It was sweet redemption for Adams, who was burned on a third-down play in the second quarter when he blitzed Rodgers and Rodgers connected with Jermichael Finley on a 44-yard pass. “When I didn’t make that sack, it was a big play for them,” said Adams, who also was flagged for pass interference on two of the Packers’ scoring drives and for holding on a third. He said he stood on the sideline as the game wore on and prayed for the chance to make a game-changing play. Some teammates approached him and offered encouragement. Running back Tim Hightower told him: “Keep your head up. You’re going to make the play that wins this game.” When Hightower’s prophesy came true, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, a Pro Bowl cornerback who is one of Adams’s closest friends on the Cardinals, said: “I couldn’t do nothing but smile. It almost brought tears to my eyes and I’m not a crying man.” He added: “Never have I seen Mike hang his head. He always stays in there and fights. That’s why I like to be around him. He’s got a fighting spirit.” Packers fans were fighting mad the next day, condemning the 24-year-old Adams after photographs and video replays showed his index finger hooked on Rodgers’s face mask. A league official would affirm the no call, saying it appeared to be incidental contact and not an attempt by Adams to twist or turn or pull Rodgers to the ground by his face mask. “I just did whatever I had to do,” Adams said, adding, “I never even realized I had my hand on his face mask or anything.” Rodgers-Cromartie was asked what went through his mind when he saw the photographs and video replays of Adams’s sack. “I’m thinking like, ‘Shoot, he did get away with a face mask,’ ” he said, adding, “I was just, like, ‘He made the play, man, regardless of how he did it.’ ” To know Adams is to appreciate how hard he has had to fight to put himself in a position to make a game-deciding play. He is the ultimate underdog on a team that remains the dark horse of these playoffs despite having won last year’s N.F.C. title. “This guy has worked very hard to make our team and earn a spot on the field,” Coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “You want to pull for him.” He added, “As tough as it is when guys are making plays on you, you just hope that because of the fighting spirit that he has, that he’s going to make a play. I think it’s very fitting that he had the opportunity at the end of the game to make a play and he did.” Adams said the odds had been stacked against him from the start. In the rough area of Dallas where he grew up, he said: “It’s a bunch of underdogs out there. For me to be able to make it out of where I grew up at and go to college, no matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, I feel like I succeeded already.” Bustle, the coach at Louisiana-Lafayette, said there was no bigger competitor than Adams. He recalled a practice during Adams’s junior year when he sat on an ant hill. “When he realized there were ants crawling all over his body, he sprinted to an equipment shed throwing his clothes off right and left,” Bustle said. After frantically brushing off all the ants, Adams returned to the field. “He didn’t miss but three plays and then he was right back out there competing,” Bustle said. “That’s him.” The ants-in-the-pants story will no doubt tickle Adams’s fellow defensive backs. They are a close-knit group, these class cut-ups who occupy the far corner of the locker room. After practice, they routinely gather around Rodgers-Cromartie’s cubicle and try to trump one another with their mirth and merriment while playing cards. Their teasing is merciless. When a reporter mentioned that she is as tall as Adams, Rodgers-Cromartie’s lips curled into a sly smile and he said, “No, you might be a little taller.” Adams’s height – he’s an inch taller than his rookie teammate LaRod Stephens-Howling – surely will make him a target again this week, with Drew Brees and the New Orleans fans. “Sometimes the fans are really funny,” Rodgers-Cromartie said. “We’ll be in our little huddle as a defense and you’ll hear somebody yell, ’27 stand up!’ or ‘You must be mad you can’t go to Disneyland and get on the rides!’ I try to tune them out, but sometimes I’ve got to laugh.” Adams is glad to be a target. “I don’t worry about that,” he said. “People may think I don’t belong here because of my size, but for them to be talking about it means I’m doing something right.” * * * * * * * * * * Football: Cajuns’ Adams pushes through pain to succeed August 11, 2006 – Dan McDonald Michael Adams went crashing to the turf after breaking up a pass on the University of Louisiana football practice field Thursday morning, and didn’t get up very quickly. But Adams made his way up, jogged back near the line of scrimmage and again took his spot at cornerback in the Cajuns’ defensive alignment. “I just had the wind knocked out of me for a minute,” Adams said. “I’ve been feeling really good at practice every day. The first day I went through some fatigue, but since then it’s been good.” “It was on a punt return, and my foot got stuck in the ground,” he said. “I kept playing and I really didn’t feel anything until the next day.” Against FAU, he blocked a kick and returned two punts. But the next day, the soreness began in his left knee, a condition that eventually required surgery on Dec. 9. He played significant time in every remaining game last season except against Fla. International, but his tackle-per-game statistics went from nearly eight per game to half that total. “I used a lot of heavy tape,” said Adams, who at only 5-foot-8 is one of the team’s smallest players. But he’s also proof that size sometimes isn’t important, since he enters his senior season with 33 career games and 19 starts under his belt. And Adams was on an off-season mission to make sure those games weren’t his last. “He had an amazing rehab,” said UL defensive coordinator Brent Pry. “He was an animal in his rehab,” said director of sports medicine John Porche. “They told me I was about two months ahead of where I should have been,” Adams said. “In the spring, I’d come here (to the UL athletic complex) early, go to class, come back here, back to class, and back here. I did a lot of hill slides to strengthen my side-to-side movement, and Mr. Porche worked me hard to get my quad (muscle) stronger.” Adams knows his recovery won’t be complete until he hits the field for the Sept. 2 opener at LSU, and he also knows that today’s practice – UL’s first in full pads of fall camp – is another big step. “You always worry about that first tackle,” he said. “Once I make the first one, it’s going to be out of my head. The coaches have been pressuring me in practice … they told me I wasn’t going to get a day off. They were going to throw every kind of route they could at me and see if I could run it down. I feel pretty good after stopping some of these guys out here.” No one has to remind the Dallas product about last year’s late-season successes … or about the expectations thrust on his squad in his final season. “I kind of believe in destiny,” he said. “I don’t know how, but we went to Middle Tennessee and won last year when we were 1-5, and we won the rest. You look at the schedule, and what should be our three toughest conference games are at home. It seems like it’s falling into place … God’s looking out for us.” MICHAEL ADAMS Hometown: Dallas. High School: J.F. Kimball. Major: Mass communications. Age: 21, born June 17, 1985. At 5-foot-8, he’s easily the shortest defender on the UL depth chart. Adams’ resume includes an interception off Texas national champion quarterback Vince Young during last year’s season opener. His other interception last season came against North Texas, one he returned to the UNT 30 on the Mean Green’s first possession. Adams won three Cajun Player of the Week awards last year on the team in tackles as a junior. He has four blocked field goals and one blocked extra point in his career. Originally published August 11, 2006 EIGHT CAJUNS ON ALL-SUN BELT FOOTBALL TEAM December 06, 2005 – Matt Hebert, Sports Information – NEW ORLEANS � Winning a share of the Sun Belt title produced eight Ragin’ Cajuns on the 2005 All-Sun Belt team, as announced by the league office on Tuesday. It marks the most all-conference selections for Louisiana-Lafayette since 11 Cajuns were named to the 1995 All-Big West team. The Sun Belt Co-Champion Cajuns were led by three players on the first team. Greg Hodges and Brandon Cox were each named first team offensive lineman, while Michael Desormeaux was on the first team in the all purpose slot. Hodges and Cox led a Cajuns offensive line that produced a school-record 2,797 rushing yards and 34 rushing touchdowns. UL’s 254.4 rushing yards per game is seventh in the nation and the best average in school history. The Cajuns averaged 291.4 rushing yards per game in Sun Belt Conference games � crushing the league record of 245.1. Desormeaux was elected in the all purpose slot for his combination of talents. The redshirt freshman began the season as the Cajuns #2 quarterback and as a regular on the Cajuns punt, punt return and hands teams. When an injury to starter Jerry Babb occurred in the Cajuns fourth game of the season, Desormeaux stepped in to run the Cajuns offense. In four starts, Desormeaux threw for 368 yards on 36-of-69 passing (52.2%) and ran 48 times for 351 yards (7.3ypc) and two touchdowns. He finished the season with 597 yards passing and 487 yards rushing. Three players earned second team honors, true freshman running back Tyrell Fenroy, sophomore offensive lineman Jesse Newman and senior defensive end Eugene Kwarteng. Fenroy was also honored as the Sun Belt’s Newcomer of the Year. The New Orleans area native took over as the Cajuns starter in the third game (only 16-58 yards through first two games). He was the catalyst for the Cajuns season-ending five-game winning streak, posting 622 yards and 10 TD’s (5.7ypc, 124.4ypg). Fenroy became the first Cajuns running back to ever gain 1,000 yards. His 12 rushing TD’s are the third most rushing scores by a true freshman in the nation. He is the only true freshman in school history to post at least two 100(+)-yard rushing performances � doing it five times. Fenroy finished second (Patrick Cobbs) in rushing ypg in conference play, with 109.4 ypg and 11 touchdowns. Kwarteng won the Cajuns Top Defensive Point Award for defensive production in 2005. He tied for the team lead with four sacks (all in conference play) and led the squad with seven tackles for loss (6.5 in conference play). Kwarteng had two of the Cajuns school-record nine sacks at Middle Tennessee. He ranked sixth on the team with 43 tackles, 32 of which came in SBC play. Junior defensive end Anthony Hills and junior cornerback Michael Adams landed honorable mention honors. Hills tied for the team lead with four sacks and third with 4.5 tackles for loss. He led the squad with two forced fumbles. Adams was fifth on the team in tackles and led the team with two interceptions, while adding a fumble recovery. He blocked two kicks, a field goal vs. FAU and an extra point at #2 Texas.
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