A Lane Johnson Eating Story From His Step-Dad

Everything about James Evans’ appearance speaks to where he is from.

Evans is Lane Johnson’s step-dad, and he’s a rancher in a small East Texas town called Groveton.

During his first trip to Philadelphia, he brought his hometown with him, sporting a cowboy hat and a big belt buckle to complement his handle-bar mustache and Texas drawl. You get the sense he’s the kind of guy who has spent hundreds of hours entertaining friends, family members and strangers with stories from his past.

Evans remembers a time when his step-son had to keep his weight in check. The Eagles’ first-round pick was about 225 when he graduated high school and 230 when he attended Kilgore Junior College. You know the story by now. He kept adding weight to his frame, changing positions multiple times and now carries 303 pounds.

“He came home two weekends ago,” Evans started. “I bought 36 eggs on Thursday afternoon. He was coming home Friday. And I bought about 10, 15 pounds of hamburger meat. Well that Thursday, I cooked 20 burgers. The next Friday night, I come out to eat one, they’re all gone. I said, ‘Lane, where’s all the hamburgers?’ ‘I ate ’em.’ Well Saturday morning comes around, I was going to cook breakfast. I looked down, I said, ‘Lane, where’s the eggs?’ ‘I ate ’em.’

“You know those protein shakes in a blender? He’ll put in about 16 of the raw eggs at a time and eat ’em. That’s where all my eggs went that Saturday morning. I said man, I’m going to have to get a dozen chickens and a couple of milk cows to keep you around here.”

Given the way Chip Kelly has laid out the Eagles’ program so far, there’s little doubt that the the trainers will have a plan to keep Johnson’s weight up once he starts participating in offseason activities.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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