PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Professional baseball and football are not the only games in Adam Clark’s life. The 43-year-old Yardley Borough police corporal from Fishtown is a game show enthusiast who once put his love for the Eagles to use in a Daily Double on "Jeopardy!"
Adam has been on two shows, and he is hoping for another chance at glory — the "game show trifecta," as his wife Shanna calls it.
“It's my little side hustle,” Adam playfully told KYW Newsradio. “I try to get on game shows and do the best that I can.”
He has loved game shows since he was a kid, and he always aspired to compete on them one day. It’s not easy. The tryouts typically include an online test and an in-person audition. You have to know your trivia — obviously — and present a vibrant personality at the same time.
Adam first made it on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” when Cedric The Entertainer was host. He won $250,000, which was life-changing for him and his family. It put Shanna — Adam’s girlfriend at the time — through school, allowed the Clarks to start a college fund for their daughter, and helped them make a down payment on their house.
"Millionaire" went so well, he decided to take on "Jeopardy!" next. To Adam, "Jeopardy!," in an era of mega champions, was harder. And when he was granted the opportunity to be a contestant in 2019, he ran into one of those beasts, as he put it: 19-time winner Jason Zuffranieri.
“Honestly I took it pretty hard at the time because I ended up losing,” said Adam, “but looking back on it now with the benefit of having some distance between now and that moment, I look back really fondly on it.”
There are a couple of reasons for that. First, he got to play during Alex Trebek's final season as host prior to his death from pancreatic cancer in 2020. “I was very fortunate, in that regard, to get to meet the iconic, legendary Alex Trebek,” said Adam.
Second, Adam went viral and psyched up his fellow faithful back home with a Daily Double wager of $4,133, a sly reference to the Eagles' 41-33 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
“It was very clever,” said Shanna.
So now he’s that guy whose Daily Double wager was a nod to the Eagles. And to be known for that, he says, is gratifying
Adam is just as passionate about Philadelphia sports — mostly Eagles football, which Shanna says he calls "Get 'em."
“It's just 'Get 'em.' It's called 'Get 'em,’” Shanna said with a laugh. “And he'll routinely — if they didn't get 'em, he'll say, ‘They didn't get 'em. Why didn't they get 'em? Don't they know that the game is get 'em? Go get 'em. You gotta get 'em.’”
His dedication goes beyond the funny phrasing. Adam works night shifts for the police department, so his sleep schedule is abnormal. Nighttime is daytime and vice versa. However, that doesn’t stop him from catching a 1 p.m. Eagles game even if it's during Cpl. Clark's prime snooze time.
For his third game show appearance, it seems Adam won’t stop until he’s spinning that "Wheel of Fortune."
“If there's a game to be played and there's money to be won, I'm interested. I'm here for it,” he said.
There's just one question left: When he makes it on that next show, how will he sneak in another homage to his beloved Birds?