Annie Apple could not be more proud of her boy; but her boy may be even more proud of her.
Eli Apple, who was drafted by the New York Giants as the 10th overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft in April, got some good news about his mom as he was finishing up his first day of team activities Monday. That day, ESPN announced that his mother would be joining its Sunday NFL Countdown pregame show as a contributor, based on both her prolific social media profile and her personality.
Armed with a typical no-nonsense black-mama attitude and a wicked sense of humor, Annie Apple presents all of her tweeted wisdom with faith, wit and love—perfect for the sports broadcast world.
Annie Apple began to hone her writing chops on her lifestyle blog, SurvivinAmerica, which tackles everything from “How to Have Those Awkward Sex Convos With Your Adult Sons” to “free” advice for NFL draft picks: “Don’t Be Average.”
Her Twitter feed, @SurvivinAmerica, established in 2009, was chock-full of zingers leading up to the day her son was drafted and continues to tell it like it is.
At the top of May, Annie wrote a column on the draft for Sports Illustrated (“From Redshirt to Red Carpet: Eli Apple’s Mom on Her Son’s Journey to the NFL”), and in it she said that she forbade her son to wear the free jewelry that he had been offered on draft day. “I told him, ‘Dude, you’re an unemployed college dropout. You will not be on TV with a Rolex.’ ”
Shortly thereafter, she appeared on ESPN’s His and Hers and continued to impress. The rest, as they say, is history.
Predictably, Eli proves that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree (ahem), as evidenced by the respect he has for his mom.
“Some people think you’re getting where you are because of me,” Eli said to Newsday, “but I know I’m here because of you.”
“Yes,” Annie said quickly. “And I got the stretch marks to prove it.”