NFL Players Eat 'at Least 80,000 Uncrustables a Year' — See the Breakdown by Team

NFL athletes may be playing in the big leagues — but their snacking habits are still rooted in their childhood sports days.

When The Athletic reported on the NFL’s “secret,” snacking on orange slices at halftime a few years ago, The The New York Times sports outlet has learned that many players have decided to pass on the citrus fruit and instead munch on another favorite kid: Uncrustables.

That set The Athletic on a mission to find out how many closed crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the league eats each year.

After collecting data at the end of the 2023 season from 24 participating NFL teams (out of 32 teams), the outlet learned that players “easily go through at least 80,000 Uncrustables per year” — when games, practices and training camps are included. That number of sandwiches would cover more than 18 meters of a football field.

When broken down by team, the Denver Broncos topped the list, consuming 7,000 sandwiches per week.

Denver Broncos players on the field in January 2024.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

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The Seattle Seahawks are in second place with 3,200 consumed per week, followed by the Jacksonville Jaguars with 3,150 and the Miami Dolphins with 3,000. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Cincinnati Bengals and New Orleans Saints tied for last on the list, tied for 500 Uncrustables consumed.

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Coincidentally, Uncrustables — sold by Smucker’s and found in grocery store frozen food aisles — were invented by a retired football player, according to The Athletic. Len Kretchman, a former employee of North Dakota State University, went on to work with schools in the food service industry. In the 1990s, his wife, Emily, “suggested he make a mass-produced peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the crust,” according to the outlet.

The couple made the first Uncrustable in their kitchen, using a glass to press down on the bread and cut off the crust. They added sandwich edges. Four years after introducing the product, Smucker’s bought the company in 1999.

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Fast-filling portable sandwiches have finally made it to the NFL. Former Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday recalled that Uncrustables was part of the player food offerings during Super Bowl week in 2007, ahead of the team’s game against the Chicago Bears.

“We were all grabbing and scoring,” Saturday said The Athletic. “We caught five, six at a time.”

Even when thrown into a gym bag or backpack, they held up well, he remembers.

Travis Kelce 2016

George Gojkovich/Getty

“Uncrustables always found their way to the bottom and were broken by the book. But still edible. Still in one section,” Saturday continued. “It doesn’t matter. You could throw your passbook at them, it didn’t make any difference. Crushed, uncrushed, you’ll crush him.”

The NFL’s love affair with the Uncrustables continues nearly 20 years later. According to media reports, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle eats two Uncrustables during flights to away games and two to four on flights home. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce revealed on his podcast New heights last year that he eats more sandwiches than “anything else in the world”.

“We’re all creatures of habit, man,” Saturday said The Athletic. “Almost freaky. If you’re the kind of guy who gets two Uncrustables a day, that’s exactly what you do.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education