“I was on the treadmill running, because, you know, Fat Camp,” Williams recalled. “And my mom, who loves me and knows my love of popcorn, had sent me a care package — a box of popcorn.”
The problem for Williams was that it wasn’t just popcorn in that box.
"Mind you, this is going to embarrass my mom — who believes I’m super innocent to this day — sent me a box of popcorn with two boxes of condoms,” he said. “No one knows, to this day, about that story. No one knows that it was 48 bags of popcorn and if you dig into those bags, at the very bottom was two boxes of condoms. To this day, people think it was popcorn, but it was popcorn and condoms. Imagine that combo.”
The only person who didn’t have to use his imagination was the man who intercepted those boxes of popcorn and condoms through the Tennessee athletic department customs.
“Being coach Barnes, he was like, ‘You know you’re not using either one of these Grant.’ He just took ‘em away from me,” Williams said. “So next thing you know, coach Barnes walks out. I don’t see him, I’m tired, head bobbing and weaving. Then all the sudden, what is that smell? Popcorn? Coach Barnes is standing right beside me, I turn my head and he’s eating popcorn right in my face.”
“Tell your mom this popcorn tastes good,” Barnes told Williams as he ground away on the treadmill. “You want some Grant? Oh sorry, you can’t have any. Talk to you later. Bye.”