It’s tough and I give in occasionally. I just don’t take the whole thing. With the guys on Sunday–there’s Randy Moss, Matt Hasselbeck, Teddy Bruschi, and Sam Ponder. They are fitness freaks. They all eat like little birds. Bruschi will kill a croissant from time to time and I can blame him if I have one. We’ll even come up with names for things. There’s this big croissant that has almonds and all this different stuff. I call it the Big Nasty. So, stay away from the Big Nasty because I don’t need to eat that thing [laughs]. It’s so tough because you have pizza around and you’re watching all of the games. I’ll have a slice of pizza. I just won’t have five slices.
Say you did want to throw caution to the wind. What are you eating?
Oh man. I would go hardcore Mexican food. Pizza, I can get under control but with Mexican food—by the time you have the chips, salsa and queso, here comes your meal and margaritas. Here is the crazy thing, I have one of those days a week, where I have one blow up. But you look forward to that. There’s a little guilt sometimes. Maybe, you don’t have as many chips as you want to, but I think it’s good that you have something that you can look forward to during the week.
How busy is Sunday for you?
On Sunday, we’ll get up and [ESPN] will have a little spread for you. The show itself is three hours. It’s going from 10 to 1 p.m. Up until then, maybe I’ll have a tiny breakfast and one cup of coffee. Once you’re done with that, I have to watch all the games. All of the 1 o’clock games, I’ll watch every one of them. We have a large monitor with all of the games. I’m watching football for about six to seven hours after our show. In the meantime, you have food laid out for you. In the evening, you have the Sunday night games. That’s another three hours but on Sunday, it’s all football the entire day.
I’m going to put you on the sport here. Give me two of your current favorite places to eat at right now.
Man on man! In New York, Il Postino. It’s an Italian spot that’s off the radar a bit, but that’s probably my favorite Italian place to eat. There’s a little Mexican restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey called Red Cadillac. That’s my go to for Mexican food. I know the owner there, so that’s how often I go. I would call up [owner Joe Montes] and tell him I’m coming in and he’ll stay open. That’s my spot.
You’re the newest brand ambassador for Dr. Scholl’s. How did that come about?
When Dr. Scholl’s was looking for someone to partner with, they figured this guy here is uniquely qualified. I’m in expert in two things. I know football and I know feet, so what the heck? At first, I laughed at it, but it kind of makes sense. They’re trying to prevent athlete’s foot. They have two new products, and one comes in a spray and the other is a wipe. When they told me this, I was like, “Hell yeah! Send me some of the products and we’ll see how it works.”
It’s unbelievable, man. It cools immediately and it is clinically proven. I’ve coached for 30 years, head coach for eight years, and I’m known as the coach with the foot fetish [laughs]. I’m cool with it and when they called, I was like, “Let’s do this thing.”
With being in the locker rooms for all those years, do you think foot health is talked about enough?
I think anyone that has ever had athlete’s foot knows that you don’t want it—the burning, itching and all of that crap.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Christopher Cason
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