{"id":633721,"date":"2010-01-18T12:09:24","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T17:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/?p=10955"},"modified":"2010-01-18T12:09:24","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T17:09:24","slug":"gaines-adams-remembered-as-%e2%80%98gentle-free-spirit%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/633721","title":{"rendered":"Gaines Adams remembered as \u2018gentle, free spirit\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagobreakingsports.com\/gaineadams-rickstewart-ap.JPG?resize=167%2C251\" alt=\"gaineadams-rickstewart-ap.JPG\" width=\"167\" height=\"251\" \/><strong>The St. Petersburg Times reports:<\/strong> Gaines Adams, the Bears&#8217; defensive end who died of cardiac arrest Sunday at age 26, is being remembered by his former Tampa Bay teammates as an elite athlete who was humble, gentle and easy-going.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was one of the most genuine people I&#8217;ve ever met,&#8221; said defensive tackle Chris Hovan, whose locker next to Adams&#8217; in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was this gentle, free spirit. He could be friends with anybody. He was always happy, always grateful for his life.&#8221; <span id=\"more-10955\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Adams struggled with the expectations of being taken with the fourth pick in the 2007 draft.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re the fourth pick in the draft, you&#8217;re going to be the face of the franchise,&#8221; Hovan said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was tough on him at first because he was so young. But he understood. And he came out with the mind-set that he was going to get better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Get the full story<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/sports\/football\/bucs\/article1066210.ece\" rel='nofollow'>TampaBay.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><span>Photo: Gaines Adams struggled with high expectations in Tampa. (Rick Stewart\/AP)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span>Read the original article from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagobreakingsports.com\/2010\/01\/gaines-adams-a-gentle-free-spirit.html\"  rel='nofollow'>Tribune News Services<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/kYC0e2AMCi0MG7kzC6f1aBTSBCI\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/kYC0e2AMCi0MG7kzC6f1aBTSBCI\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/kYC0e2AMCi0MG7kzC6f1aBTSBCI\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/kYC0e2AMCi0MG7kzC6f1aBTSBCI\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.chicagopressrelease.com\/~ff\/windycitynews?a=aAzs86b0zWo:9MXgRBVGKGc:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/windycitynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.chicagopressrelease.com\/~ff\/windycitynews?a=aAzs86b0zWo:9MXgRBVGKGc:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/windycitynews?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.chicagopressrelease.com\/~ff\/windycitynews?a=aAzs86b0zWo:9MXgRBVGKGc:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/windycitynews?i=aAzs86b0zWo:9MXgRBVGKGc:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/windycitynews\/~4\/aAzs86b0zWo\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The St. Petersburg Times reports: Gaines Adams, the Bears&#8217; defensive end who died of cardiac arrest Sunday at age 26, is being remembered by his former Tampa Bay teammates as an elite athlete who was humble, gentle and easy-going. &#8220;He was one of the most genuine people I&#8217;ve ever met,&#8221; said defensive tackle Chris Hovan, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-633721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2ERj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}