So much tireless preparation goes into every NFL game that it sometimes feels more like science than sport.
Teams consider every potential scenario. What to do on second and 5 while backed up to your end zone? What’s the expected field-goal range when kicking right to left? Do we want the ball if we win the coin toss?
Advertisement
Meanwhile, players must learn their opponents through and through – their likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses.
When the Colts and Texans meet Thursday night, so much of the groundwork will have been laid long before the ball is kicked off. And yet, one very important decision is not addressed until the proverbial 11th hour:
What in the world to eat on game day?
As it turns out, a survey of the Colts’ locker room suggests pregame meals are a lot more complicated than you might have imagined. The answers run the gamut, ranging from predictable to stunning.
“For a 1 o’clock game, we get up kind of early, so I just eat cereal,” safety Malik Hooker said. “Maybe a couple of bowls.”
His answer begged for a follow-up. Exactly what kind of cereal, Malik?
“Um, Cocoa Puffs,” Hooker muttered, hanging his head in shame. “I know, I know. Who the hell wakes up and eats Cocoa Puffs before a game?”
The answer: One of the best players on the Colts’ roster.
As if you needed any more evidence that your average NFL player is a biological marvel, we now know the guy roaming sideline to sideline on the back end of the Colts’ secondary last Sunday against the Jaguars likely did so powered by two bowls of a cereal typically marketed to elementary school-aged children.
Defensive end Justin Houston is a very serious, a man of few words. He doesn’t do small talk. Turns out, even his pregame meal choices are no-nonsense.
“I really try to listen to the advice we get,” Houston said of the team’s sports performance staff. “It just depends on how I’m feeling that morning. Most of the time, I’ll have a bowl of cereal and some fruit and two boiled eggs.”
Surely, Houston isn’t downing a bowl of Fruit Loops before heading out to terrorize quarterbacks. Or is he?
“Just low-fat granola,” Houston said, offering a very on-brand answer.
Advertisement
Told of Hooker’s gameday nutritional choices, Houston laughed and said, “Hey, to each his own.”
Left guard Quenton Nelson has a simple routine each game day morning: An omelet with spinach, mushrooms, onions and cheese, paired with an English muffin and two slices of bacon, all of which he combines in the form of an open-faced sandwich.
“That’s probably my favorite thing to eat for breakfast,” he said.
Linebacker Darius Leonard, who plays an emotional brand of ball at breakneck speed, seemingly without ever getting tired, had nothing substantive to offer when asked.
“Man, I don’t eat,” he said. “When I do it just sits on my stomach and I feel it throughout the whole game. So, just don’t eat. If I eat anything, it might be a couple of slices of French toast – if that.”
This is a common complication. Think about it: Do you eat when your emotions are running at their highest? When your mind is racing and your adrenaline pumping, who’s thinking about food?
“It’s actually not easy to eat on game day,” left tackle Anthony Castonzo said. “You have everything kind of churning inside you.”
Still, when you have Castonzo’s job, battling speed rushers for four quarters without ever taking off a single offensive snap, your body must be adequately fueled. Castonzo couldn’t estimate how many calories he burns during a game, but he’s always had a high metabolism, so much so he can lose several pounds during training camp practices in the summertime sun.
For Castonzo, you’d best believe pre-game meals matter.
“I’m typically just trying to get carbs in me,” he said. “I have to kind of shove some food in my mouth. Whatever I can, really. The emotions are getting going so it’s really a challenge. Sometimes, I’m sitting there for like an hour just trying to force food down.”
Castonzo offered an example of his pregame intake before an early-afternoon game. A stack of pancakes, an English muffin with butter and jelly and a bottle of Gatorade Endurance. The number of pancakes can vary depending on how much his stomach can accommodate.
Advertisement
The seriousness of players’ approaches to game-day meals can vary, but invariably, players do give a great deal of consideration to what they put in their bodies. The team assigns weight targets to each player and provides dietary guidance. And while at the team facility, meals are provided to players who are keeping with the team’s nutritional priorities. Typically, breakfast and lunch are available to players during the week.
The message has even gotten through to Hooker. Fortunately, he doesn’t scarf down bowls of Cocoa Puffs every day.
“Hey, the day before games, I eat like shit,” he said. “But throughout the week, I’m on a diet. I have my own chef and I get meals prepped to make sure my calorie intakes are right and all that stuff. So, I do eat healthy throughout the week. But as soon as that day before the game comes and game day, ooh! I eat badly on Saturday and Sunday and then maybe a couple of days at the beginning of the week.
“But I also steam-room every day, twice a day. I’m just trying to be a professional. I feel like the more you take care of your body, the more your body will take care of you. I try not to get too crazy with it and eat badly every day. But I definitely have my days.”
Said linebacker Anthony Walker: “I’m really structured. I feel like it’s more about what you eat during the week than on the day of the game. I don’t think that affects you as much as what you eat on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It’s like hydration. I try to do it right during the week. I try to make sure I eat before 7 every night. I do go to Benihana every Friday. That’s my cheat meal. But that’s about it.”
But there are moments when it becomes obvious athletes aren’t that different than the rest of us.
“You should see us when (reporters) aren’t around,” Hooker said. “Me, I’m supposed to be at 216 (pounds) with 9 percent body fat. I’m at 212 and 9 percent body fat right now. When I get on that scale and I see I’m underweight? Oh, it’s over. I’m going to Chick-fil-A. Quincy (Wilson) used to be fat. So, he’ll get on the scale now and, if it looks good, he’ll say, ‘Oh, I’m going straight to Chick-fil-A!’ Guys work their ass off not to be light, but so they can eat badly. It’s funny, really.
Advertisement
“We’re just regular dudes.”
As if to further prove his point, Hooker added something we can all relate to: “Eating healthy sucks.”
With Thursday night’s game being an evening affair, the prime-time contest creates another layer of issues as it relates to pregame meals: There not only is the question of what to eat but when to eat.
Defensive end Jabaal Sheard can attest. The Colts’ Week 10 game against the Dolphins kicked off at 4:05 p.m., meaning players’ pre-game meals might consist of more than just breakfast. Sheard didn’t get the memo. He ate breakfast around 9 a.m. but wasn’t hungry before heading to Lucas Oil Stadium around noon. By pregame warm-ups, his stomach began growling. By late in the first half, he could no longer ignore it.
“I knew by halftime, I gotta get something in me,” Sheard said. “I’m not gonna lie. I ate a whole meal at halftime. Thankfully, they had kept it warm for me.”
Sheard is not exaggerating when he describes what he ate as a “meal.” It consisted of salmon, rice and broccoli. So much for the pregame meal.
Who knew? Perhaps you’ll soon read a story in The Athletic Indiana about players’ in-game meals.
Hopefully, none of those will consist of Cocoa Puffs.
(Top photo of cereals: Jeffrey Greenberg / Getty Images)
