What Does an NFL Player Eat? with Joe Thomas

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know if you can hear that. My stomach is actually growling. I am so hungry and this probably not the episode to listen to if that's the case. Welcome to NFL explain. I'm like, yeah, she's a d D Kickablalla, I'm feeling very bad for you. The Cereal is not cutting it from this morning, and people are like, why are you talking about food right now? Well, that is actually today's episode how to Feed an NFL team. We should be

doing the episode on how to feed broadcasters. Although I think I'm the only person add that needs to listen to that episode because it looks like you're fueled up for the show. I feel like that's a knock right there. Well, no, it's very rare for me to actually miss a meal a but b I do eat on the run. That's why there are crumbs everywhere. That's why you actually just saw my daughter picking things to eat off of my desk, because there are always things to eat at my desk.

Well done. It's a good strategy eat on the run. You're burning the calories while you're in taking them. Although I don't know if that's the exact way to do it, but for some NFL players maybe that's their strategy. In fact, when it comes to snacks during the games. That's actually something we're gonna learn a little bit later in this episode that I found out based off of one of

your conversations. But I'm excited for today's episode of d D because food, I think is something that is just it's always on my mind, and I think I'm not the only person that would agree with that assessment. Well, and it's not just what's on someone's mind. It's a cultural thing. Often. You know, when NFL teams go on the road, they do their best to maintain their same general food options, but most teams will offer something that's

very particular to where they are. So, for instance, I'll give you as an example, when the Cleveland Browns go to Baltimore, there's always crab cakes on the menu in addition to everything else that is usually available. When the Cleveland Browns go to Cincinnati Chili, you'll get some Skyline Chili in addition to everything else. So food is about places, Food is about culture, food is about family, and to

some people, food is only about sustenance. I mean, we'll get into this later, but I talked to the head of nutrition and the head dietitian with the Cleveland Browns, Katie Messick, and she told me that there are guys that will eat the same exact thing every single day creature of habit my routine. I would be one of those people that Katie is referencing, not to mention sis, Yeah, I do eat a lot of the same foods pretty boredom out of that, like food boredom, that's a thing. Yeah,

And I'll break it up. I don't eat the same thing literally every day, but generally speaking, I'm I kind of fall into a certain path, Like I won't eat spicy foods because upsets my stomach, and I won't do that on a show day, right, like just kind of

like game day. I would imagine a lot of these NFL players, In fact, you had an opportunity to talk to one and Joe Thomas, who I don't think missed many meals when he was playing three d plus pounds on the offensive line, Like those dudes probably are eating for sustenance and maybe less about the taste. Well, and Show is going to tell us that eating actually became part of his job, because Joe was one of the roughly let's call it, of NFL players that actually had

to eat to maintain their weight. And I will tell you, Mike, I took a major hit for the team and talking to Joe because if he sat there and talking about how painful and brutal it was to have to eat a whole pizza and how terrible his life was that he had to eat ice cream every night. I really kind of just wanted to to know, Yeah, the ice

cream thing would not be an issue for me. I do think we should set the stage here because once again, your conversation with Joe Thomas is coming up, and I think it'll be fascinating to hear what he had to tell you about what it was like to force food down his mouth, to make sure that he was maintaining.

Not to mention what it's like for a lot of chefs, but I think in a world where maybe not everyone is doing the calorie counting, I just wanted to set the stage for people a duty on what generally is recommended for what I will call general population or not pro athletes, generally speaking from a female and a male perspective, females roughly about two tho calories a day, males hundred calories a day. I am certainly above that number, which

is probably not necessarily a good thing. But I think the other thing to highlight here a D is the type of athlete that you are. And I know genetics plays a factor here, but an NFL players probably doing

it a little bit differently than a swimmer. And I automatically think back to a guy like Michael Phelps, who clearly is one of the greatest athletes this country has ever seen, and when he was training for the Beijing Olympics, that is eating ten thousand calories a day, ten thousand calories a day, and he was sitting with eight percent body fat because he's burning a thousand calories every hour

that he's working out. NFL players generally a d D sitting in that three to five thousand range, unless we're talking about it Joe Thomas on the offensive line, maybe up to six thousand. In fact, even some of your

bigger guys or six thousand. Katie Messick was telling me that you know a dB who might have a ridiculously fast metabolism, A linebacker room might have a fast metabolism, may have to get to five thousand calories a day, but it's almost more important whoever you are, whether you're Michael Phelps, whether you're Michael Yam, whether you are I can't think of another Michael. Why can I not think of another Michael Jordan's. I mean, first of all, that

is the one I was thinking of. But at this point, does Michael Jordan really matter like what he eats. This is a random aside and I'm totally digressing, But you remember hearing that story that he drank eight beers after every game for him, like he lost so many fluids that he just down the beers got a high trade.

Once again, that's probably my post show diet. I'm not eating spicy foods before the show, but after, you know, mine's usually a tall glass of wine for clearly not going to ever get to go you together, because I love spicy food. I need spicy food. I need some spice in every meal. Yeah, I eat pretty bland. You know.

Actually that's an interesting thing because how about this, Like even from an athletic standpoint, there's been a push recently, Aditi and I don't know if you got into this with Katie about this, but just people who don't eat meat. You got the vegetarians, you got pescterian, you've got the people who like it when it's bloody on their plate. And it's more probably wrong me. There's a strategy and a philosophy behind what people are consuming as they're preparing

for workouts or just their games. And that's what we're seeing now as more NFL teams are taking a greater interest in nutrition, is that you don't necessarily you know, I'm a vegetarian. I don't like people telling me, oh, well, how do you get your protein? Obviously I get my protein. I've been getting my protein. I'm a healthy person and I have healthy children and whatever. It's this idea that you can cater to what you like, be it spicy

food or not, and still get the necessary fuel. And it's important that you put things in your body at certain times so that they can be used for certain things and that the things that you put in your body are serving a purpose. And I think that that's what athletes are really focusing on more. Now, why do you eat a banana pre practice? Why do you have that shake post practice? Those are the things that are

really going into what they eat now. I'm so glad you said that you get annoyed that people ask how you get your protein. I was about to ask you that question, so mental note, Glad you brought that up and I did that off at the past. Well, because just think about it. I don't know if people necessarily think about non meat now, certainly I get it. You, I don't know if you eat fish or kind of where you land on the springs laos Greek yogurt. You

know how much protein Greek yogurt has. No, I'm not a yogurt guy unless it's frozen coming out of the machine and I throw M and m's on top. Oh, when I used Greek yogurt, I mean I don't eat sour cream. I use Greek yogurt. I don't need mayo. I use Greek yogurt. I mean you can use Greek yogurt for anything. Basically, I got a cookbook for you. When we're done, Mike, I'm going to send you this cookbook.

It's how to make anything using Greek yogurt. I definitely will scan that adity because no one boils water better than I do. If that expands my cooking prowess. I use the phone like no one's business and toward Dash and ubert Eats and all those there wonderful apps on my phone to make sure that I am getting my protein, even if it's not coming in the form of yogurt.

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Ultra wide band available in select areas. Most reliable based on rankings from the Root Metrics US Roots Score report dated first half excluding C band and not specific to five G networks. Your results may vary. Not an endorsement speed comparison to Media and Verizon four G LTE speeds downloads very based on network conditions and five G content optimization. Build the team that will build your business with upwork.

You can find top developers, designers, project managers and more who can start today so your business can succeed tomorrow higher at home or in a hundred and eighty countries around the world. To find the right talent for whatever your business needs. Up work the world's work marketplace. Learn more at www dot up work dot com. Katie Messick, the head of nutrition and the head dietitian with the Cleveland Browns, told me that there are guys that will

eat the same exact thing every day. I want to actually ask you this question just as it pertains to your conversation with Katie. Just covering a lot of college football over the last few years, I can't help but notice how a lot of the dietitians and people on college campuses have felt for the last ten years or so that they're head of the NFL when it comes to nutrition. Which is kind of shocking, right because you think about the millions and billions of dollars towards professional athletes,

and I don't know if they're necessarily wrong. Well, it's actually not shocking if you think about this. And Mike, this is where I get to say, as a mother, if I leave my children with a babysitter, I always ask how did they eat? What did they eat? So think about it. If you are a parent dropping off your eighteen year old son to college, aren't you going

to be concerned what he eats? And this is great because Katie actually came to the Brown six years ago from Florida State, and she's hypothesized that This is why the major college programs have sort of been ahead of the curve of the NFL IS because all these parents were coming in on recruiting trips and every parent worries about what their kid is eating. And that's why these programs have to sort of focus on that and think

about that. And also those are formative years where you're kind of helping set habits and practices such as eating, you know, four times a day, or if you're in training camp, you should be eating six times a day, things like that. I talked to a multiple coaches about this, and some of them would complain about training table at the college side and saying, look at what's happening in pick. I'll just say the sec because I covered the Pack twelve.

Look at what they're feeding their dudes compared to what we're feeding our guys you switch in development. I would imagine that there are, depending on your position, this idea of maintaining or actually gaining weight, and that affecting what some of these dietitians are putting together. Well sure, but I think that the whole idea is that you have to have options for everyone. You know, you can't send

home anybody feeling hungry or unsatisfied or unheard. But when you feed a football team at their home facility, you're also feeding another I don't know, a hundred and fifty potentially two hundred other team employees, be their coaches or staff, or just front office executives, marketing people whoever, or they maybe when you're on the road, you're also feeding a lot of support staff. So you are looking to not only satisfy but fuel all sorts of people who have

different jobs and need to do different things. And I think when it comes down to it, healthy eating is healthy eating. It's just the quantities in which you do it. What again, we keep saying sort of the same thing, the same specific thing. What are you trying to do at what point of the day? You know, Like I love to say, Mike, um, I've this is one of the very crazy things about me. I have like recently

just stopped loving breakfast food. So I don't understand, like, why can't I eat lunch food at breakfast I know exactly, but you know what, like I just I'm not into break breakfast there, so I'd rather eat lunch food at breakfast food. And it's this idea of what difference does it make? What difference does it make what time you're eating it. If you're going to eat your meal and then have a cookie, does it really matter if you eat the cookie before you eat your meal, as long

as you finish your meal. It's sort of that question. But when you are an elite athlete and you are fueling your body for performance, it actually does matter what you eat when you eat it. But look, I got a ton of super fun facts from Katie, so let's throw some of them out there, all right, Mike, Let's get into some of my favorite part of NFL explained. And that's when we get to play the quiz game.

You ready to the music Cleveland Browns, And we chose the Cleveland Browns because you know, they did have a tremendous year and they did perform above expectation. And because Joe Thomas spent his entire career with the Browns, why not let's go to the Cleveland Browns. And because they're really fabulous to work with, and so it was easy to get someone on the phone. Here we go. How many pounds of peanut butter did the Cleveland Browns go

through every week of the season? Okay, so I'm thinking snacks, peanut butter and jelly. I'm thinking about all the shakes that they were probably consuming. Because I'm a big chocolate way peanut butter shaped type of person. So how many pounds every week? Uh, I don't know, pounds higher? Lower? Okay, this is a kid I play with my son. Actually, thirty five pounds of peters? Okay? How many pounds of

strawberries a week? How many pounds of strawberries? I put that at a higher number, So let's say fifty, keep going way higher. Four hundred pounds of strawberries. How many pounds of chicken a week? Chicken has got to be just an insane number because I would imagine most people on football teams are not vegan. You probably want to

go chicken as opposed to red meat. Generally speaking, I'm trying to flash back in my head on some of the conversations I have people on college campuses, and then just make that number high for such a good stall. When you don't have an answer, you just sit here like this should be a lightning round. Come on, the pounds of chicken. Let's just we'll go three hundred seven seven hundred pounds of chicken a week to feed the Cleveland Browns organization last year. It's a lot of birds.

You know what, here's another little chicken nugget and that Katie Massik told me, well done. How many chicken nuggets do they eat? Well? Chick fil A is one of those treat meals that apparently they really enjoyed. But I asked, what are the two favorite meals? Like, what are the meals that you know guys are coming back for seconds, whether they should or they shouldn't. What are the ones that they might be packing up to take home? Number one is general sALS chicken and number two is what

I am actually cooking for my family tonight. Tacos. Oh, okay, we eat tacos once a week in this house. Yeah. I ordered tacos at least once a week, and my house so yeah, we're on the same diet plan. I like it all right, since we did peanut butter, Can I give you a fun peanut butter fact too, Yeah,

of course. Okay, So the Browns make about fifty peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day, and they obviously make those sandwiches on whole wheat, and peanut butter and jelly is a good it's a good snack like in between a meeting or whatever, like you might get an energy bite, you might get trail mix, you might get a p PNJ whatever. So fifty of those a day. But on game day, the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which again are a really good pregame or halftime quick thing to grab,

are not made on whole wheat. They're made on a white bread. Do you know why on game day peanut butter and jelly is made on white bread. No, that's fascinating to me because my doctor told me go whole wheat. My a one C number higher than it should be as I'm turning forty, so I feel like I'm ready to be armed with AMMO and say I want it

on white But maybe it's not appropriate for me. Why white. Yeah, you're not playing a football game and you're not going out for a second half because white bread doesn't have the fiber that wheat bread does. And so if you have to go back out onto the field, you don't want to have any tummy trouble. And the white bread is easier to digest. So you're saying we don't want like a Lamar Jackson Monday night situation that we relived. And I said it wasn't the bathroom and he said

it was crams. Okay, well look still the Tommy ache. Right, you were there for that game, right, I was there anyway. Okay. So broccoli and green beans are the two vegetables that always go, and NFL teams always make an effort. As someone who has eaten in NFL headquarters, I can say this, they make an effort to cook these vegetables differently, flavor them differently, show that they come in different flavors. Corn f y, I Mike, As I tell my son, as I tell my husband, and as I am now telling you,

corn is not a vegetable. What are you talking about? It's more of a starch alright. When it comes to fuel, it's not as good as a broccoli or a green green or a brussel sprout. I love corn. I always thought I was making the right call when I had corn. That's like a that's like a carb more than man. This is all right, Well, I'm glad you're educating, because I felt like the education was in process. By the way, for anyone who missed our Monday Night episodes, still one

of my favorite episodes of NFL, explain highly encouraged. You'd hear a d D story about Lamar Jackson on that episode. Uh and if you enjoy corn, I guess switched to broccoli is the other thing that I'm learning in this episode. I am so disappointed. Make sure you have enough green stuff on your plate. Which really is the perfect segue to be When we talked to Joe Thomas, he will tell us the same way that NFL teams are evolving

in the way they look at nutrition. Joe evolved over the course of his career somewhat, but really once he retired and wanted to drop a ton of weight and drop it healthily, well, we'll get some of those stories from him. He is also one of our colleagues at NFL Network. He's a guy that was a regular fixture in Pro Bowl games and clearly never had an upset stomach because he just didn't miss a single snap until

his eleventh and final season in the NFL. Add your Conversation with Joe Thomas Coming up next on the NFL, explained former offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns, Joe Thomas, and I'm gonna explain to you what I ate when I played in the NFL. This podcast is sponsored by Kindrel. Kindrel Designs builds, manages, and modernizes the mission critical technology systems that the world depends on every day. Working side by side with their customers, they imagine things differently by

forging new strategic partnerships. They unlock new possibilities, creating a world powered by healthy digital systems alive with opportunity, oxygen to innovation, and energy to change the world. Kindrel the heart of Progress. Kindrel Designs builds, manages, and modernizes the mission critical technology systems that the world depends on every day.

Working side by side with their customers, they imagine things differently by forging new strategic partnerships, they unlock new possibilities, creating a world power by healthy digital systems alive with opportunity, oxygen to innovation and energy to change the world. Kindrel the heart of progress. Here we go, Joe. When you were drafted, you wait, what, I was three three or five and you showed up to Cleveland and were they happy with your playing weight? Yeah, overall they were happy

with the playing weight. They said, Hey, if you gain a little bit of weight, it's okay, because most guys, when you're in the NFL, they give you a maximum weight and then if you go over they find you. So a lot of guys were kind of in that ballpark where they were trying to lose weight, whereas me, I think the weight they gave me was like three twenty and I was constantly weighing at like three. So it was like the subtle like, hey, if you wanted to get a little bit bigger, we wouldn't be mad

about it. Obviously, you don't want to lose your athleticism and the quickness. But definitely it was always a battle. Like if I came in after a practice and I was like two nine two or two, the coach would definitely mention it in a meeting in like a passive aggressive manner like Tammas, what are you doing out there today, you're only two ninety two. Make sure you're not missing

any one of those meals. And he's like he would always have like some old man thing like make sure you get some of that protein shake in your body after you're done with the practice, and then like coach like of protein shakes like two calories. I just burned like seven thousand of your practice, So I think that's kind of a drop in the bucket. So for you, Joe, it was always an effort to actually keep the weight on.

It was a struggle my entire career, probably until I hit my thirties, as most people experienced, where I was really battling, Like every day I was thinking about I was stressing about it. Really, I was like two every two hours. Got to get a big like heavy carb, heavy sugar meal to be able to basically walk around bloated so I could be over three so I could get my coach off. But did it affect the way that you felt? Like? Could you sleep all right? Could

you move? Did you you know, in the off season, if you didn't have to eat that way, did you feel different than you did during the season when you had to eat that way? No, I still had to eat like that in the off season. So I was eating like that constant. So I didn't know any different, and it was a chore and a stressor. Like my wife and I would go on vacation, we went to Asia to visits and friends. One time was and we went to like Tokyo and Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia. Was

an amazing trip right before we had kids. It was like the two day tip of our life before kids. But um, I remember I would get stressed out when we'll be walking around the city because I knew I was burning a lot of calories walking around. When you're three ten and it's nineties something, you're burning calories just existing. And so I remember stressing like every two hours a big they've I gotta eat. And if you've ever been

to especially in Tokyo, it's a lot of fish. There's not a lot of like really dense food places that are fast and easy, and so i'd be like stressing out. As soon as we walked past the McDonald's in Tokyo, I'd be like, we have to stop. I need a double cheese burger, I need a big back, let's go. I need the galories because I was just like losing weight eating sushio. Okay, so can you talk us through it? Yes, So we'll go through like a typical Wednesday, because that's

kind of like the beginning of the NFL week. That's your first day where you're really all coming in together as a team, getting ready for your Sunday opponent. And so for me, I would get into the building around six thirty and then first thing in the morning, I would have like a big bowl of oatmeal, and then I would have yogurt, like a yogurt parfait, so yogurt, granola,

chia seeds. I'd put like flax seed protein in their berries, and then I put honey on top because it's delicious for one, but also because it was extra calories, right, So I was always looking for ways to kind of infuse more calories into my meal. And then a lot of times if we didn't have practice for a little while, I knew, Okay, I can also go over and I can get pancakes, I can get scrambled eggs, I can

get some bacon because bacon's really calorie dents. And then with the pancakes, i'd put peanut butter I'd smother them in peanut butter, and then smother them in butter also above that, and then tons and tons of syrup because once again it's easy and cheap calories, and then I had time to digest it, you know, if we came in and we were practicing earlier in the day, because sometimes during my career I had nine head coaches, so

we had a lot of different schedules. Sometimes if we were practicing like around lunchtime or earlier or lifting, I couldn't have as many calories early in the morning, and then I had to shift, like some of my bigger meals to like post practice, where I would be like pizza, let's go, because pizza high carb, high fat, high protein.

And so there was this place called Jets Pizza and Cleveland that we would order like after almost every practice, and everyone was always astounded with how many pieces I would eat, because even on days where I wouldn't practice, I was like I had to have those calories, especially right after a practice because I burned so much, and then I so then back up right before practice, I would still try to get like a hamburger or cheeseburger in me, and then during practice, I would make sure

I was drinking a lot of gatorade because it's just got a lot of sugar and it kind of helps keep your energy up but also keeps those calories in your system, so you're not burning through your fat reserves during the practice and you're in a huge deficit once you come out of practice, when I'm going to reach for that pizza again. And then when you went home, what would you eat? So my wife's favorite story. She was the one that cooked every single meal in my

entire football career. I didn't even know how to boil water. And so I would come home and we do to get about six and she knew, like, hey, Joe's gonna be hungry. He's got to eat. It's like his job, right, So she would always have usually like a pasta or lasagna, or like meatloaf and tons of mashed potatoes with gravy, or like a lot of butter and sour cream and

like just pour on the fats. But one time she was like, all right, I'm gonna try making a stir fry, because you know, you can make a big stir fry lots of vegetables, lots of rice, tons of stuff in it. And she made it for me and it was really good and I ate like two plates of it. But then she noticed I was like really mad that, and she was like, what's wrong? And I was like, well, honey, your sturfry was really good, but it just didn't have

enough calories. And I'm probably gonna get in trouble tomorrow because I'm gonna weigh in it like to and they're gonna be like, what the hell is going on with Thomas. This wasn't too much weight. We need to bulk up up. And I didn't realize it didn't feel a couple of years later, but she was like, that really hurt me. Like I sipped a lot of time, had a lot of thought. I like, making you this nice meal and your only comment was it wasn't enough calories. Joe, did

she eat with you? She would, and she was like, she was like, do you know how hard it is for a woman to like sit there and watch you eat four thousand calories at dinner and not eat with you, like for every bite. And I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry, I feel bad about that now. And I had said, but I didn't know, you know, I just didn't know any better. Because that had been my life for four years in college and then for eleven years in the NFL.

But the thing before we get off that quick, the thing that people always find the most amusing is what I did before bed. So like during the day, I'm eating all these calories, and then the only way I could actually gain weight in season, because I was usually trying to gain weight, especially the first half of the season when it was it was hot, because you just burned so many more calories at practice. Later in the year in Cleveland, when I was fifty, it wasn't as

hard to gain what it's called outside. Everybody had that winner jacket on with a nice layer of fat. But before bed, I would buy a bunch of girls Scott Cookies.

And I was a big thin mint guy, and so we would keep him in the freezer during the season, and so I would go out with a sleeve of thin mints, a glass of whole milk, and then I would get a huge like bowl of ice cream, or either just take the whole point upstairs of like Ben and Jerry's or Mitchell's ice Cream, which is a famous place in Cleveland, or Whoever's Custard, another famous place in Cleveland.

I bring the whole point with the giant like it was probably a thirty two ounce whole milk and the sleeve of thin mints, and we'd sit there and we'd watch TV at night with my wife and it was glorious. Would she eat any of the ice cream or the sin mints? She would eat some of the ice cream, but obviously her bowl was like two scoops and mine was like or the whole court. Do you know how many calories you consumed today when you were in the NFL.

I don't. And that was one of the things that in hindsight, as I reflect back, I'm kind of mad I didn't because at that point in my career, I didn't know a lot about diet. I didn't know a lot about nutrition and how it affected me. I just knew that I needed to eat a lot, so I needed a walk around feeling super full every meal. I had to feel like I had just finished Thanksgiving dinner.

And I knew it had to be very very heavy carbs or I was going to lose weight, Like I couldn't do the vegetables and the proteins like it had to have a lot of breads. Imposts like or just

straight sugar like that. Um, And I wish I would have counted because now that I'm retired and I do pay attention and I do understand that and nutrition a lot more, I'm like, holy crap, I was probably at like ten thousand calories a day easy, because like, right now I could go out and have a good lunch and feel like relatively full and it's like three thousand galleries.

So back then it had to be it had to be ten thousand at least, right, So we hear about coaches who you know, like are all about the specific smoothies and what everyone's too taking in any of those

nine head coaches really very specific about nutrition. Most coaches they don't really understand diet and nutrition that much, but I think they understand that sports performance is important and it is kind of a way to get an advantage, and so those guys are now hiring really good nutritionists, really good sports scientists that are bringing in that whole

side of it and then educating you. For the most part, the coach just wants to see that your participation was checked off on the attendance sheet he gets every day from the weight room coach, and that you aren't getting too heavy during the season. Like they got so much other stuff to worry about during the season they don't

even really think about it. But I do think most NFL teams now have a good sports science team that has good nutritionists, and I think most players that have come out of college recently are getting that education in college because everybody finally understands how big and how important nutrition and diet is for professional athletes. If you were to have to pack on pans now, do you think you'd do it differently? I probably would do it a

lot smarter with the things that I ate. I would probably eat the same amount of calorie ease, but I would do it with food that was maybe better and would make me feel better, maybe a little less bloated, maybe a little cleaner, maybe a little less processed foods, probably a little less ice cream. But I still think I probably would have a lot of ice cream too, because it's delicious and it's high calories. Is there anything that you ate a ton of during your NFL career

that you just can't eat anymore? Like? Do you still like pizza? Do you still like bacon? Love pizza? I love it even more now and The thing is like at the time, I didn't like it all that much. It was it was good, don't get me wrong, but I was eating it constantly, so I didn't appreciate it. Now that I don't eat like crap all the time, the times that I do, like kind of let myself go and have some pizza and ice cream and you know, treat yourself, right, I really appreciate it and I really

enjoy everybody. Do you ever have any teammates like a wide receiver just to yell at you, like, why do you get to eat that? And I, yeah, Well that's the funny thing is. And I think this is the reason why you see a lot of NFL linemen when they retire, they get skinny because they've been fighting like the diet in nutrition, I don't want to say battle, but they've been paying attention during their career because it

was important. And we're not built like a receiver, like genetically to be able to go out and run seven miles on McDonald's breakfast, and a lot of the linemen they have to think about it and they understand it, and so when they retired they realized, hey, dropping some weight is going to be healthy. For the long term. Having a healthy lifestyle is going to help me feel

better when I retire. And receivers and skill players by and large, because they're sprinting seven to ten miles in a practice, they didn't have to think one bit about it. And like Chad Johnson was famous, he ate McDonald's all the time, Like every day he was going and getting like McDonald's drive through for breakfast before practice, and that's just what they knew. Like Hawk, my co host and good friend on my podcast, he was mountain dew and

pizza like during the season, that's all he had. And So when you retire, if you don't know anything about diet in nutrition, you don't and you stopped running seven to ten miles of sprints every day, all of a sudden you start packing in those towns. And I think I see a lot of those guys that first like five or six years they retire, they gain a lot of weight, and then all of a sudden it hits in there like holy crap. One day they wake up

and they feel like garbage. They got no energy, and they don't look like they used to when they were playing, and they're all right, I need to learn about this. I need to get serious. I need to start living a healthier lifestyle and eating better. And it seems like that's like in their forties. So you know what it really is true, Joe, I'm thinking about it. Offensive linemen get skinnier when they retire, and skill guys a lot

of them get a lot bigger. Okay, So you know, we sort of had this uncertainty your final year until free agency, until March that you announced yes you are indeed retiring. Was there any withdrawal? Like you said when you were in Asia, it was actually hard. It was a chore to make sure you ate. But then when you had trained your body to be hungry every two hours,

was it hard to not eat every two hours? So that's I think one of the challenge and playing in the NFL are playing football and having that mindset where food stresses you out all the time because you have to eat it, or on the other side of it, if you're a bigger guy that's always trying to lose weight, Like, if it's on your mind all the time, it's something that you you kind of obsess over, And so teaching myself to eat when I wasn't hungry was one of

the bad things that I wish I wouldn't have learned when I played football, because now I have to consciously think about after I'm done with the meal, like I am full, I do not need to keep eating. I should stop where everyone else is at the tables like, oh, I'm stuff I can't have another bite, And I'm like, man, I'm a little full, but I could honestly eat another pizza. Should we order another pizza? Guys? And They're like, no, stop,

get up the walk away from the table. Is there any part of the way that you had to eat that you do miss? Yeah, So what I miss is just not thinking about it. Like the only thing I had to think about when I was playing in the NFL was like I just have to be eating, and

I didn't think about like feeling full or anything like that. Now, obviously, if you have to pay attention to what you're eating, you me personally after my fifteen years of trying to eat everything, I just have to have that consciousness about what I'm eating and just slow down sometimes take a breath. Okay, I don't need to go wake up and have breakfast tomorrow morning after a huge meal tonight just kind of flipping. That mindset has taken a conscious effort. It's still even

a few years out. It's just a consciousness that I have to have about my food because, like I said, I love to eat a lot. I'm a big foodie. I feel food is such a great way to experience

friendships and conversations and new cities and travel. And so because we have this amazing job of working for the NFL and NFL Media as an analyst, we go to all these amazing cities, all these amazing stadiums that now food is so much a part of that experience, and I always have fomo of like I don't want to miss out, Like when's the next time I'm going to be in Houston that Nancy's hustle and get to enjoy their pancakes like Nancy's cakes, Like I gotta go and

have another round of it. What about the athlete that you are right now, I mean you look like a tight end, maybe a wide you were, Actually I think you might look like a wide receiver more than a tight end. Thank you. I try to stay lead, try to for the health side of it, certainly for my knees. Like I said, doctors like keep yourself, lean, your kneeds will feel better. He's absolutely true. So feeling crappy when you eat crappy is a big motivator to not do

it all the time. But do you think you have more explosion now? Do you think that you're actually maybe a little bit faster or more athletic? I can assure you that I am not even a quarter of the athlete of what I used to be because I just don't train like that and I'm an old yogi that goes very slowly through life. And I'm okay with that. In that thousand calories syrup drink, was it like eggna? Was it good? Or was it? It's kind of like it was kind of gross because it was too thick.

It was, like I said, it was just cream with basically like chocolate syrup, and so you definitely small powder. I don't miss that at all, No that I missed the ice cream. I don't miss that sirrup cream drink. Was there another teammate that had to maintain weight as well? That would do something even more over the top? And we had a player Carlos Stansby in Cleveland. He was a linebacker and played a bunch of years for the Cardinals.

We had him, and he sent his blood off to this nutritionist in Florida who was going to give him like the best things for him to eat for like energy and recovery and performance. And I'll never forget because he ate lobster mashed potatoes like that was what he was supposed to eat from this doctor. And so that's what he ate for like four meals a day every day.

So he would come into the locker room where he would come into the cafeteria with this like pre made big py Rex dish and it had lobster mashed potatoes and he ate it for breakfast at eight am. And then he would eat the same thing at lunch. After practice, he would eat the same thing for dinner. And it was amazing to me to think that some nutritionists thought the best thing for your body would be the eat the exact same thing for three or four meals every

single day. That actually doesn't sound fun. Can you imagine how boring? Like one side dish of lobster mashed potatoes. I'm like, that's good. The lifelook. It was great with a steak, but after that, I'm good. Add awesome job with Joe and super grateful for him for given us a couple of minutes here. I don't know if I

am hungry or don't want a meal. Ever, again, a DD, I couldn't get over there was one thing that you had asked him about, and I thought the answer was going to be an easy Yeah, of course I'm not eating as much in the off season. But the fact that Joe was still consuming food throughout the course of the entire year, not football year, like the entire year struck me as just really overwhelming. I mean that goes to our whole previous episode about a player's work week

and work schedule. Well, it is indeed a twelve month job, even though there are some folks that think it's not. And the way he was talking about gorging on a whole pizza every day, it was like that might be the one thing, Yeah, that turns me off to pizza. Pizza is one of my favorite foods though it really is. And a D next time you and I are in the Northeast together, I'm going to drag you to the Boogie down Bronx. Here's a couple of pizzerias that by

the people talk about. Manhattan Pizza, No no no, No, the best pizza is in the Bronx and it's not Brooklyn for all the people in the b K saying that, And I think the best pizza is actually in Jersey. I really do. See Jersey does great bagels. And I know where your brother lives, very close to where I grew up, and there is a bagel shop that I actually told you last time you were in New Jersey you had to go to and I did and I didn't make it. But you know, maybe we'll take Joe

Thomas there. If he eats carbs again, I would be staying away. If that's the case. I'm trying to cut my carb consumption in a big way, but add the awesome job with Joe Thomas. Uh and by the way, I just want to remind some folks too, we are going to be doing a mail bag episode down the road. A d D. You have gotten some questions on social media, as have I, so do encourage everyone. You can tweet at us at Mike Underscore, Yam at a King Kawaala, make sure you follow us wherever you get your podcast

with fire off those questions. We're putting them together. Uh DD. I have a document with some great questions. You and I will go rapid fire. I know you've been adding to that document as well, so keep the questions coming. We will get to some of those answers. Uh, and don't forget give us a rating and a review. And now it's having me to go and get my stack. It's always fun, Mike, but never never hold off on

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