While Boomer Esiason might have one of the most ridiculous haircuts on this list (look it up), he definitely was an offensive leader worth keeping a close eye on as a defensive coordinator. And while Esiason might have also played for some pretty lackluster team's during his decade-plus tenure in the NFL, he's proven why he deserves to be on our top fifty quarterback list of all-time with his size and ability to maneuver outside of the pocket and pick up yardage with his feet. The 6'5 quarterback hailing from East Islip, New York played his collegiate football at the only institution willing to offer him a scholarship, the University of Maryland. While at Maryland, Boomer broke seventeen different football records, was named All-American in his final two seasons (1982 and 1983), and helped the Terrapins secure an ACC Championship over the North Carolina Tar Heels in his final home game.
Despite his impressive play at the University of Maryland, Boomer Esiason was picked 38th overall in the 1984 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals where he played nine seasons out his fourteen-season NFL career. As the starting quarterback of the Bengals, Esiason led the Ohio-based football franchise to Super Bowl XXIII but stood no chance against Joe Montana and the red hot San Francisco 49ers ultimately losing 20-16. Boomer's AFC Player of the Year Award (1988), NFL MVP Award (1988), and three out of his four Pro Bowl nominations all came during his tenure with the Bengals. In 1993, Esiason was traded to the New York Jets where he played from 1993 to 1995 and signed additional contracts with the Arizona Cardinals and his former Bengals team before retiring in 1997.
Celebrities are no strangers to changing their looks for a role. And in some instances, they have to get pretty extreme. From 500-calorie-a-day diets to drinking pints of ice cream, Actors and actresses know what it takes to change their bodies in preparation for a new film.
Charlize Theron is no stranger to gaining and losing weight for movie roles, as we remember her transformation in Monster. Charlize Theron gained close to 50 pounds for her role as Marlo in Tully. Theron said that “for the first time in my life I was eating so much processed foods and I drank way too much sugar. … I remember having to set my alarm in the middle of the night in order to just maintain the weight.”
You’re used Chris Hemsworth's hulk-like figure in Thor, but In the Heart of the Sea required a totally different diet. The movie required the cast members lose a ton of weight to make their stuck-at-sea plight more believable. Chris Hemsworth said there were days when all he ate was one boiled egg, a couple of crackers, and a celery stick.
Anne Hathaway wanted to get serious for her role in Les Misérables, as she was playing Fantine, a starving prostitute with tuberculosis. So Anne Hathaway went on a diet of “rabbit food” to drop 25 pounds. Hathaway explained her diet was essentially just starving herself, but she didn’t want to give details, as she doesn’t want to encourage anyone to copy her emaciated look. She did note that she “just had to stop eating for a total of 13 days shooting,” however. And at one point, her bones became so frail that she reportedly broke her arm.
Matthew McConaughey's portrayal of Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club, a man with HIV/AIDS, was spot-on, earning him the title of best actor at the Oscars. But it also required a serious physical transformation. Matthew McConaughey said he lost 38 pounds for the role. During filming, he said he lost a lot of energy from eating so little — and he hit plenty of plateaus along the way. Finally, with a strict diet, he got down to 143 pounds. And while he did cardio to help with the weight loss, he said it was 90% what he was eating and portion size.
Hilary Swank had to put on 23 pounds of pure muscle for her role as a boxer in Million Dollar Baby. The process doesn’t sound easy, however. “I started working out five hours a day — I had to eat 210 grams of protein a day,” Swank said. She also mentioned that she had to consume 60 egg whites per day, and when that proved too difficult, she had to drink them. And to keep the muscle on, she would get up and drink protein shakes in the middle of the night.