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Now out of the game, Adam speaks with Parade about where he and Steve stand now, tying a franchise record in eliminations, and his on-screen proposal to partner Averey Tressler that he made at the end of the finale.
We have to start with one of the last things we see this season: You doing an on-screen proposal to Averey. Now, full disclosure, we are talking before the episode has aired. But what was it like to prepare for that moment?I knew how much I felt it there. So we've been designing something that's not quite ready yet. Well, it's gonna be really cute. Because I never thought that MTV would give me that opportunity or platform to really talk about how much my family meant to me, how much my dad meant to me. And then to talk about Averey, we're kind of private. I'm trying to get into social media right now, which is a little bit different than the non-existent social media MySpace friends that we had back in the day. So this is a little bit weird to be so public. I guess it's not weird, because she's so amazing. And the kids have parents who are on TV and The Challenge. It's a family thing. It's not just like, "Oh, Dad's reliving His glory days and mom's gotta put up with it." The kids are really a big part of this, too. And so I think they've been planning it behind. I found out last week what happened. So we went out and got a duplicate, a version of what like is to come. And I think we're going to keep the proposal between Averey and I very private and go somewhere special. But what's cool is this one can maybe include the kids. We're gonna be away in the RV next weekend. I'm gonna turn off her phone so that when it's airing, things don't go nuclear. But I've talked to her sister and my family about it. So it was really special that they gave that opportunity to me. And if they had told me a few months before what was good, that it was going to actually be aired, I think I may have had the I may have been able to work it so that we were somewhere else for the proposal, glued in front of the television.Well let's talk about a very different type of partner, the one you won this season alongside. You were clearly not happy in All Stars 4 when Steve stole your star, and you two had not spoken since that moment. So what was your reaction when you found out you would be working together?I mean, I think I was just super petty. You got a really good emotional response for me. And when I sat back and thought about it, I just didn't think he had to make that move. The house and the numbers constantly put him into that situation. And I felt that I had done a really good job all season long. Making sure that, if I figured something out in a daily ,that he was the first person I told, if there was a way for him to stay out of elimination. I wore those gold pants in support of Steve. You're never gonna see me in gold f–king tights. And then I burnt those because those were his. I just got super petty. I guess I have to own that part. While I would love to be able to sit down and watch every episode with my girls, they're not always going to be proud of me. And I'm cool enough being vulnerable to be like, "Hey, I should be doing way better." But we weren't really brothers. We stayed in touch, but we weren't best friends. I didn't owe him anything. He didn't owe me anything. You just saw a really petty side of me. I think the whole "sit and spin" thing was kind of harmless, though. Like, I'm not coming for his family.Let's go from the beginning of the season to the end. What was your reaction when you heard how long Steve took before choosing to share the money. What did you think would happen?No matter what, I always told Steve, "I would never steal." But if you have gotten to know Steve at all, Steve would talk to me and be like, "Hey, maybe you should just take the money for tax benefits. And if we could start an LLC, then it makes sense. You know more about investing." And so sometimes Steve can spiral; sometimes I can spiral. So all of a sudden we're put into that hut. And TJ wouldn't let us say a word to each other. They immediately almost security around us, just so that we couldn't do signs, communicate anything. And they kept him away until we came back. I knew that I wouldn't steal, so I thought Steve's answer was really easy. But then I'm like, "Is he gonna brain f–k us out of this one?" So I wasn't nervous that he would steal. But that wasn't the question. The question was, what was your partner gonna do?You and Steve's journey to the end was well-earned. You went into five eliminations this season, tying a record first set by your fellow Road Rules alumni Sarah Greyson on The Gauntlet (which you won alongside her). What was it like to face such a grueling gauntlet of your own this season?So I need to go back and watch The Gauntlet. Because I remember I watched that show, and my feelings were hurt. I was like, "I'm competitive. I just finished the "Eco-Challenge," which is a worldwide adventure race. I had done so many marathons, and I was doing Iron Man at that time. And I think I cycled across the country. I was in peak physical form, and so I wanted to compete. And what The Challenge was to me, like, all these backyard birthday games and everything, it was so fun. But I just thought that if you don't win, the last person goes in. I was so stupid to think that Steve wouldn't mind me sending him in because of his performance. But I don't know whether you call this karma or poetic justice, but I liked it. I mean, I've always run my mouth and said, "If it was up me, I would just go in and do the work early on in the eliminations." Because then you have this pity card to play. You get locked in right away. So if I ever get called on the flagship, I don't think that that's a bad strategy. If you can rack up a couple wins, and you're one of the older people, if they don't keep on voting you back in, if eventually you can turn the house – which we did – I feel like you have a shot. Because the challenges wear on you. The eliminations wear on you. Even just going in with Nany and Turbo that one last time, going into the final, we were so depleted. At the beginning, it helped us knock our rust off. Steve and I thought we were rusty. But at the end, I'm taking 12 Excedrin a day to just show up. You're just full of pain pills. Back in the day, it was like, "Is this person doing steroids? What's in your pre-workouts?" Now it's like, "Hey, are we giving these people too many Advil?" [Laughs.]You mention that final elimination with Nany and Turbo, which you're sent into by Frank and Sam. Talk to me about your dynamic with Frank throughout the season. He gets you and Steve sent into elimination the first time, kicking off that chain of getting targeted. But he's also working closely with Veronica, one of your tightest allies. How much did you expect that final "rug pull" after making the deal with him?So I mean I think I called Frank on a spot. I saw Frank immediately for who he was, but I also respected him for that game. And I know that they're not gonna change their stripes. However, like I said going in that last time, Frank was shaking my hand so many times. He had the opportunity. I was like, "Hey, just let me know if I'm going in. I'm having a hard time sleeping with this whole bullshit about, 'Maybe you're going in, even though you promised you wouldn't.'" Steve was 100% sure. And I was like, "Well, let me try to get one last promise out. Give me a hug." He's like, "Oh yeah, go to sleep" or whatever. So when he did do that, I flipped a switch. And I was like, "Alright, guess what? We're coming back, and the only thing I care about now is making sure that Frank doesn't win the final." I don't give any f–ks about winning. I already won when I go back home. I made way more coming back. I can't even believe I was back. I was just was so angry. And the night of the first elimination, he came up to me. Because I would just go up to every single other team and be like, "Hey, just like in the other daily challenges where, like, I would share my strategy. This is what Steve and I are going to do if you want to do this, especially with many eliminations as we've been through and how similar some of the finals are. And Frank and Sam would come over, and I would just be like, "No, guys." He tried to make fun of me. Be like, "Oh, your daughters are going to be so proud." He tried to get me worked up, and I was like, "Nope, you don't get any of my resources." We had a healthy boundary. I saw you for who you were. Then you shook my hand and lied to me. Finally, that night, he apologized. But they were out of it. And they could have won that final hands down. We actually went up and down three times for those balls. We could not figure out the word "dispute." Melissa says that was everybody's final to win. It was so fair. And what's so funny is that, when the executive producer said that to us on the bus, nobody believed her!We saw you recently speak up on the drama going on between Da'Vonne and Shane. What's interesting is Shane is one of your fellow old-schoolers, a Road Rules alum, while Da'Vonne is a completely new relationship. And we actually see you speak up against Shane on Da'Vonne's behalf in a couple of moments. Talk to me about how you navigated that, knowing the variety in histories you had with them.Da'Vonne ws always super nice to me. I love her as a person, I love her as a parent. She's got a 10 year old daughter. I've got 9 and 10. We had such real conversation all the time. She does have a challenging partner, but Shane is self-admittedly challenging. We're all dysfunctional.I feel like Shane and I have had enough history. He pulled Abram off of me back on Viewers' Revenge. We sit together on the bus all the time. We talk about real things. Me holding him accountable at one of his weak moments when I thought, like I wanted to try to give him a hand or whatever. I feel like he's okay with that. Especially when, as a friend, I feel like it was just a misunderstanding. But he would do that for me. I know that he would do the same for me. So no hard feelings between the two of us. But that's why there's no way I'm throwing a ball at Shane and Da'Vonne. Because all I want them to do is win. I could keep an eye on Frank and Sam. I couldn't even start to think about like sabotaging anybody else. I was seeing red so much the first day.When I spoke with Corey Lay several weeks back, he talked about your edit, saying, "Adam is not this perfect, nice guy he wants to pretend to be. He's very good at playing it up in front of the camera and not letting you guys see who he really is." What's your reaction to that?He called me phony and a bunch of other things. And I've done enough work toown my past and be vulnerable. But I just wonder what he's getting at. He's claimed that he has receipts and all this other stuff. But I guess the receipts that I would have is actual relationships and friendships with people on the show, nobody who had his back. So I don't know if Corey has got anything to say. I would love to know what it is he has to say. How does he perceive me as phony? Because I took the time to get to know him and find out about his past as a video game producer. And talk to him about what it's like to build apps, because that's what I'm interested in. And his workout routine, where he lives in Seattle, that he's the youngest of three brothers and he has this entitlement syndrome, and comes out like a little brother and stuff like that. But I don't know if he knows anything about me. I tried to take the time to get to know him, and it wasn't phony. You didn't even use the word phony, but he did. And so, while I would love to go at Corey, I'm not sure.Well, we started with the future. Let's end with it. You and Steve were not on speaking terms coming into All Stars: Rivals. So how are things now that you competed and won together?I mean, we still communicate over parenting and weird sports injuries. I'm probably more likely to show him a bruised toenail falling off after a Spartan Race than I am to break bread with him and hit the favorite places he's going out to eat with his wife. But that's just because Steve appreciates that success. And, likewise to him. I would say that, if we were closer, we might hang out more. We've both got families. We're super busy, and we had a great time. So if I was in Chicago, we would definitely hang out. But I don't think you also need to be best friends with your rival. You just need to be able to communicate like adults. And this time, I think we have these community like we did some communication.
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