The Uber and Lyft driver competing on Jeopardy! said doctors doubted he would win his battle with COVID-19 last year.
And in case fans were wondering why he's been squinting on the show, it's because he forgot his glasses 3,000 miles away in Philadelphia."I have to give a shout-out to the wardrobe people because they did wonders with what I brought: two shirts and two sweater vests," said Long."That's all I had. That's all I could afford. I figured I wasn't going to be there longer than a day.
The George Washington High School graduate only did one year of community college, but he's an avid reader who's been studying his whole life. "I don't actually know what I know," he laughs."I read a lot of things, and stuff gets stuck. When I was a kid, I read the dictionary for fun." He also loves a good impersonation and showed off his best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice during the show.
On Thursday's episode, Long defeated fellow Philadelphian Bradford Pearson and Atlanta's Julie Ann Crommett, taking home $19,201 for the day.