S32: ​Gary and DeAngelo (former NFL stars)

[Whimsy]

Read Gary and DeAngelo’s full bios.

Name: Gary Barnidge
Age: 34
Hometown: Middleburg, Florida 
Current occupation: Retired from the NFL and now work on my non-Profit AFWB (American Football Without Barriers). Played for the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns. 

Three words to describe you: Adventurous, competitive, and honest.

What do you hope to accomplish by running The Amazing Race with your partner (other than winning one million bucks)? 
Just get that adrenaline going again because when you are retired you don’t get that competitive environment again, so this allows us to achieve that environment in a race around the world. Also, just getting a chance to see so many countries is another big plus. Our main goal is to make it to every country. 

Name: DeAngelo Williams 
Age: 37
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina 
Current occupation: Retired from the NFL. Played nine years for the Carolina Panthers and two years for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Three words to describe you: A natural winner. 

What do you hope to accomplish by running The Amazing Race with your partner (other than winning one million bucks)? 
I look forward to the sport and competitive aspect of it. Since I have been retired from professional football, I have missed the competition.

[Maverick]

 I usually don't like pro athletes on reality shows but these guys seem pretty down to Earth.  And Hoss is effing hot.  So I'm pulling for them.

[leighdear]

DeAngelo was a bit salty at the last task, just assuming he would have conquered it immediately and they would have been leaders.  He was not very patient.  There's confidence, and there's arrogance.  DeAngelo didn't display any confidence in his partner

Gary did the best he could.  

[Mountainair]

7 hours ago, leighdear said:

DeAngelo was a bit salty at the last task, just assuming he would have conquered it immediately and they would have been leaders.  He was not very patient.  There's confidence, and there's arrogance.  DeAngelo didn't display any confidence in his partner

Gary did the best he could.  

I agree with that. I was unspoiled going into this season who any of the racers were and recognized DeAngelo immediately. I’m a huge Panthers fan so that instantly gave me a team to pull for. Have no idea who his teammate is. I liked the interviews they had together and that they seem to be real friends. 

[Maverick]

 I didn't hear him say they would have won or placed higher.   That is a little arrogant.  But most of his blaming seemed to be directed at himself.  Be even said "I screwed us on that" because Hoss tried to get him to do it and begged off.   

[TazDevil]

I liked them in the premiere but I am officially rooting for this team now, having seen this video posted on TAR's Facebook page!!  I'm a breast cancer survivor (finished chemo one year ago today, in fact) and knowing the story behind the pink in DeAngelo's hair, and that he spearheaded the NFL players wearing pink in October to create awareness, and now I'm all in for them.

https://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/video/97F57529-0F91-1FC4-C754-23950B421E32/the-amazing-race-mama-s-boy/

 

[AZChristian]

18 hours ago, TazDevil said:

I'm a breast cancer survivor (finished chemo one year ago today, in fact) 

That's an awesome milestone.  Congratulations . . . and continued good health.

[TazDevil]

2 hours ago, AZChristian said:

That's an awesome milestone.  Congratulations . . . and continued good health.

Thanks AZChristian!!!

[Maverick]

"My future's so bright...I gotta put on my glasses."    That's....not how it goes.   

[Halting Hex]

So if they are "Gary & DeAngelo", why are they racing as though they're "DeAngelo & Gary"?  it's driving me nuts.

(For those who don't know, Racers are encouraged to always present themselves to the camera in the order of their billing, be it in cars, in confessionals, at Rip & Reads, whenever.  Thus Will is always on our left and James on our right, for example, because they are "Will & James".  Very useful for telling Kaylynn from Hayley, I must say.)

But in this case, Gary gets top billing…even though he's The One on the Right.  That's totally breaking the rules!  At first, I thought that perhaps Gary had relitigated this after the Race, but when they did the sign-up board in the salt mine, back when, he signed it as "Gary & D".  And if he was breaking protocol then, they had 12 hours or so to re-shoot the scene.  (Or they could have just left it out of the edit.)

Very odd.  And I like them, so this annoys me even more.  Hmm.

[jah1986]

7 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

So if they are "Gary & DeAngelo", why are they racing as though they're "DeAngelo & Gary"?  it's driving me nuts.

(For those who don't know, Racers are encouraged to always present themselves to the camera in the order of their billing, be it in cars, in confessionals, at Rip & Reads, whenever.  Thus Will is always on our left and James on our right, for example, because they are "Will & James".  Very useful for telling Kaylynn from Hayley, I must say.)

But in this case, Gary gets top billing…even though he's The One on the Right.  That's totally breaking the rules!  At first, I thought that perhaps Gary had relitigated this after the Race, but when they did the sign-up board in the salt mine, back when, he signed it as "Gary & D".  And if he was breaking protocol then, they had 12 hours or so to re-shoot the scene.  (Or they could have just left it out of the edit.)

Very odd.  And I like them, so this annoys me even more.  Hmm.

I thought I was the only person that saw this and was annoyed. I kept thinking "that big white guy's name is DeAngelo?, that can't be right". It's been throwing me off all season, not sure why they're doing it that way.

[Fukui San]

13 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

So if they are "Gary & DeAngelo", why are they racing as though they're "DeAngelo & Gary"?  it's driving me nuts.

(For those who don't know, Racers are encouraged to always present themselves to the camera in the order of their billing, be it in cars, in confessionals, at Rip & Reads, whenever.  Thus Will is always on our left and James on our right, for example, because they are "Will & James".  Very useful for telling Kaylynn from Hayley, I must say.)

But in this case, Gary gets top billing…even though he's The One on the Right.  That's totally breaking the rules!  At first, I thought that perhaps Gary had relitigated this after the Race, but when they did the sign-up board in the salt mine, back when, he signed it as "Gary & D".  And if he was breaking protocol then, they had 12 hours or so to re-shoot the scene.  (Or they could have just left it out of the edit.)

Very odd.  And I like them, so this annoys me even more.  Hmm.

I never actually realized they did that! It seems futile. If the two racers in a team look at all alike I'll never remember which is which. Ask me which one is Hayley or which is Kaylynn? No effin' clue. Same with the beard bros.

[Halting Hex]

3 hours ago, Fukui San said:

I never actually realized they did that! It seems futile. If the two racers in a team look at all alike I'll never remember which is which. Ask me which one is Hayley or which is Kaylynn? No effin' clue. Same with the beard bros.

Well, the point is that, if they always stand in order, you don't need to look for visual clues.  (Maddison is notably taller than his brother, and his mustache has the Salvador Dali curved tips, which Riley's doesn't.)  You just look at Kaylynn and Haley next to each other and know that the one on our left is Kaylynn, without going "slightly taller, nose is pointier" or other minor distinctions.

(The famed "Cha-Cha-Cha" team raced as "Danny and Oswald" in Race 2, then flipped and returned as "Oswald and Danny" for the All-Star Race 11.  Very disconcerting, I felt.  But they got the exact same place, IIRC, so clearly they were a well-balanced team, after all. 🙂)

[MerBearHou]

Gary is a bit too "I'm smarter than you" in his bitchy comments to DeAngelo.  I rooted for this team early on and still am very fond of DeAngelo, but Gary's cutting comments are not OK in my book.  

[TattooFan]

Way to be a bad sport, DeAngelo!

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by TattooFan
Fix typo.

[aghst]

DeAngelo very salty.  He was not a good racer anyways.  Almost got them eliminated in Cambodia.

Good for him that he didn't need the money like other racers, including probably Gary.

Maybe that's why he wasn't detail-oriented enough.  He's competitive even after his years as professional athlete are over.  But like the running back that he was, he kept diving in head-first without too much deliberation and thought or paying attention to details.  He kept missing and missing details during the tile-making task.

If he doesn't want to ever come back, not a big loss, I don't think he was that pleasant to watch because of his attitude.

[Tdoc72]

I’m looking forward to see what he’s like at the final finish mat. 

I also wonder if he still feels the same or has given it any thought. 

[aghst]

Saw some of the extra videos on CBS website.

Extended discussion at the mat with Phil.  DeAngelo said that he wanted to leave after the first leg.  Doesn't exactly say whey and I don't recall what happened.  Maybe he didn't like that first country or whatever.

They both said they wouldn't have gone to half these countries on their own.  Gary said he might be interested in revisiting but DeAngelo no.  In another video, turns out his wife and in laws are Filipino and they've been trying for like 15 years to get him to visit the family home in some distant province without running water and electricity.  De has been refusing and deflecting but now that he went to Manila, he may have no choice now.

De also said he thinks the teams conspired against them because they're not motivated by money like the other teams.  Gary said he thinks they feared them as threats to win it all.

Maybe they didn't hang out with the others much during the free time they had.

 

 

[seacliffsal]

Wow, Gary must have worked really hard to keep DeAngelo from quitting if DeAngelo wanted to leave after the first leg.  I wonder why Gary chose DeAngelo as a partner in the first place.

[raven]

Maybe DeAngelo just didn't enjoy the game and/or it was different from what he thought it would be.  Maybe he only went because Gary really wanted to do it or DeAngelo wanted to raise his online profile or something.    Eh, the producers picked them so who knows?  Maybe they were recruited.

 

[hendersonrocks]

They did a good job of editing out how miserable DeAngelo was up until that last moment; I wouldn't have guessed that he wanted to bail from that very early leg. My crush on Gary still feels well placed - I think it's understandable to be a little pissed in the moment that three teams entirely conspired against you, while his attitude about the race overall still seemed good. 

[aghst]

There's one bonus video where they're looking for the next point, which is the post office and De is kind of shut down saying "I'm just following you."

 

[chaifan]

6 hours ago, aghst said:

In another video, turns out his wife and in laws are Filipino and they've been trying for like 15 years to get him to visit the family home in some distant province without running water and electricity.  De has been refusing and deflecting but now that he went to Manila, he may have no choice now.

The clip with DeAngelo talking about his wife wanting to go to the Philippines with her mother, and him not wanting to go, was not a good look on him at all.  Geez, it's your mother in law's home and she lives on the other side of the world, so yeah she wants to stay for a while.  And boo-hoo, it's a long plane ride.  Seriously, he sounded horrible in that interview.  But if they couldn't convince him to go to the Philippines before, good luck now.  I highly doubt he ever wants to set foot in Manila again. 

I was thinking, bring Gary back but put him with someone fun, like one of the Globetrotters.  And then that got me to thinking, what if they did another "strangers" season, but made it "rivals".  Racers would all be professional competitors of some sort, and teamed up with a rival.  Or mix up sports - put a football player with a basketball player, a professional dancer with a race car driver, etc.  I could go for either of those.  (But they need to cast fun people, not assholes.) 

[seacliffsal]

Or even a "rival" from the season in which they appeared.  One of Will/James with one of Leo/Aparna or one of the blonde sisters...  Could be interesting to watch them going from targets to partners.

[Maverick]

 They could just bring back 22 single Racers and have them draw for teams at the starting line.  

 De'Angelo really does come off as a bad sport.  I could understand the reaction at the mat but he doesn't sound any better afterward.  The whole focus on the other teams needing money but don't was kind of tacky.  It's interesting that the show worked so hard to edit out the bad attitude until now.  Gary and D didn't even seem that friendly by the end. 

[sinycalone]

Gary and D are still good friends....check out their Twitter accounts.  In fact, they were on good terms with the rest of the teams after the race....group chats, meet-ups, etc.  (I wonder if after viewing the race on CBS they still have that attitude towards a few of the teams...like the VBallers, lol.)

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 12/10/2020 at 3:18 PM, seacliffsal said:

Wow, Gary must have worked really hard to keep DeAngelo from quitting if DeAngelo wanted to leave after the first leg.  I wonder why Gary chose DeAngelo as a partner in the first place.

They are apparently pretty good friends. Here's an interview attesting to that from July 2019. I presume they had already done the Race at that point.

https://theathletic.com/1060985/2019/07/03/why-pro-bowl-tight-end-gary-barnidge-who-spreads-the-gospel-of-football-walked-away-from-the-nfl/

Five years ago, Gary Barnidge bought a 7,100-square-foot home and turned it into a funhouse, one that looks like it was decorated by a bunch of fifth-grade boys or Pee Wee Herman.

Like some pro athletes and celebrities, the former Pro Bowl tight end has an auxiliary garage on his spacious 10-acre property. But instead of stocking it with luxury sports cars, Barnidge furnishes his with a wrestling ring and an inflatable water blob, which he drags out for parties to catapult guests into the heavens before splashing them down into nearby north Florida waters.

His video-game room features multiple big-screen televisions and its walls showcase figurines and action figures from Barnidge’s favorite movies. His theater room is lined with slasher-flick-inspired artwork and includes a secret bookcase trapdoor, the kind that Shaggy and Velma stumble across in almost every episode of “Scooby-Doo.”

“We tell our kids we’re thinking about going to Disney World and Florida and all they want to do is go to ‘Uncle Gary’s house,’” said former NFL running back DeAngelo Williams, who’s one of Barnidge’s closest friends. “Gary and my 3-year-old (DeAngelo Jr.) are best buds. It’s like, dude, I am doing all the hard work and Gary is the one who’s winning.”

Even during his nine NFL seasons with the Panthers and Browns, there was a childlike quality to Barnidge. He dressed up in a pink bunny costume for Christmas. He ran online scavenger hunts for fans. He took Cleveland teammates to search for ghosts in the old Mansfield, Ohio, reformatory.

The story goes on for a bit about how basically Gary had a number of years where he was an average tight end, then he exploded relatively late to have a Pro Bowl year, and then when his contract ran out, the teams that were interested offered him really lowball offers so he walked away. At the time of the interview, he'd stopped watching the NFL. 

It talks about how Gary and D have gone to a bunch of Wrestlemanias (and Gary dated Divas), and how Gary was going to look in North Carolina for Bigfoot.

 

 

[hendersonrocks]

Gary seems like an A+ human.

[chaifan]

 

15 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

They are apparently pretty good friends. Here's an interview attesting to that from July 2019. I presume they had already done the Race at that point.

https://theathletic.com/1060985/2019/07/03/why-pro-bowl-tight-end-gary-barnidge-who-spreads-the-gospel-of-football-walked-away-from-the-nfl/

 

That's a great article on Gary.  Very much who we saw on screen. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

40 minutes ago, chaifan said:

 

That's a great article on Gary.  Very much who we saw on screen. 

I could stand to hear more. 🙂

Being that it was from a sports journalism source, it was a lot of insider-y football stuff. And to a certain extent even though I like him and understand the principle that he should get paid what he's worth, I can't help but bust out the world's smallest violin that teams were offering him only a mere $1ish million a football year (i.e. mainly late July through early January, though they have to keep in some shape year-round), when that is of course more than many will see in 10-15 years.

Anyway, he was seemingly authentic, but at least some of the goofball described in the article had to be tamped down by the need to keep D on task. If he were to come back and have freer rein to be himself, that would be better. 

[tv4sho]

For anyone still wondering if DeAngelo is still salty.lol

[chaifan]

That's a great video.  A little long, but worth the time.

I still just don't get DeAngelo, though.  It was 21 days of your life, 2 years ago, man.  Get over it.  I just don't understand how he can still be so upset over having to be confined to the hotel room and not being able to go out and see the sights.   First, it doesn't mesh with a) his statements that he has enough money to go see all these places on his own (so go back, then!); and b) his insistence that he was "in it for the competition".  It would be like getting mad at getting into the Super Bowl and finding out they moved it to backwater Idaho where there was nothing to do.  You're there for the competition!  Also, all the other racers were also stuck in their hotel rooms, and none have anywhere near the money/ability DeAngelo has to travel back to these places whenever they want, but none of them are whining about it. 

Gary, though, is just great.  I love that he pulled D aside before hitting the mat and said "Don't embarrass me."  I hope Gary gets to race again, but leaves D at home.  But, what's with the attempt to be the 3rd Beard Brother?  I know Gary has a thing for Bigfoot, but at this point he's turning into him.  And, at the same time, he oddly looks like an overgrown Will Wheaton, when Wheaton was also sporting an overgrown unkempt beard... 

[MoTV]

I get Deangelo. From the first episode, I knew that he had no clue what the Amazing Race was. I know that once cast he should have watched some old episodes, but he didn't. Gary seemed to be the Race fan, and he dragged his friend on it. So yeah, I can see him thinking there's a competition, but in their free time they can do whatever. I thought that too (I do get why, but I would have never thought about it until now), and I've watched since the first season, but I never looked at the behind the scenes stuff, only what is on the actual show. It seems he trusted Gary, and Gary gave a broad overview of the Race, and Gary may not have known about the behind the scenes/between legs stuff either.

[sinycalone]

1 hour ago, MoTV said:

I get Deangelo. From the first episode, I knew that he had no clue what the Amazing Race was. I know that once cast he should have watched some old episodes, but he didn't. Gary seemed to be the Race fan, and he dragged his friend on it. So yeah, I can see him thinking there's a competition, but in their free time they can do whatever. I thought that too (I do get why, but I would have never thought about it until now), and I've watched since the first season, but I never looked at the behind the scenes stuff, only what is on the actual show. It seems he trusted Gary, and Gary gave a broad overview of the Race, and Gary may not have known about the behind the scenes/between legs stuff either.

I'm not sure Gary was aware of all the behind-the-scenes hotel-isolation either.  Like you said, many fans have no clue about the heavy restrictions -- even those who watch faithfully.   Until I read the post-race interview with Alexander Rossi (Indy driver), a couple of years ago, I was not aware that they were virtually confined to their rooms for 24+ hours at times.  I thought he was exaggerating.  He wasn't.  His partner, fellow driver Connor Daly, persuaded him to enter the Race...and I don't think Connor knew about the isolation.  Alexander stated he would never do the Race again...he was that frustrated by the non-race aspects.

I thought Gary grew the beard at the start of the pandemic.