NFL superstar Travis Kelce has enjoyed sweet success thanks to his love affair with French toast.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end has eaten the custardy breakfast food for every pregame meal since joining the NFL team in 2013.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce loves french toast
“On game day, you want to carb up, so I have the energy I need for the game,” he told Men’s Journal in 2020. “French toast [gets] my blood sugar going [and gets] some carbs in.” The ritual has worked with Kelce, 34, becoming a three-time Super Bowl champion and one of the best tight ends in league history.
Now the Chiefs sports dietician Leslie Bonci has told The U.S. Sun exactly why Kelce has stuck with the same pregame meal for over a decade. “Football is not a comfortable sport – it’s a very uncomfortable sport. “So you want to have something in your body that makes you feel good, it doesn’t upset your stomach, it sits well. “And so French toast for him satisfies all that.”
Bonci added that there are numerous nutritional benefits to the breakfast treat. “So what is French toast? Well it’s toast, so that’s the carbohydrate… the fuel source for the muscles and also for the brain so you know what you need to do when you’re on the field,” she said. “And the protein in the French toast with the egg and the milk gives you a little bit more longer lasting energies.
“French toast is also not something that rests that heavy on the gut so you don’t feel like you’re carrying around a cannonball or a football in your stomach when you are running up and down the field.” Bonci revealed that Kelce is not alone among Chiefs players in eating breakfast foods before games.
She said that the Super Bowl champions seek comforting and familiar foods before they take the field – and often in small portions. “If you’ve never eaten sushi before, you’re not trying sushi before a game,” Bonci said. “There are some players who like to have a more meaty meal before a game. Some guys like to have steak, or chicken and potatoes before a game.
“Usually the meal is three hours ahead of time, it’s not like half an hour before. “There are some guys who really prefer breakfast-type foods even if it’s going to be a late afternoon game because that feels comfortable to them before they are on the field.” Bonci recently told The U.S. Sun that she is leaving the Chiefs after a 10-year run due to the burdensome commute from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she lives.
“I actually will not be there anymore, I have tendered my resignation because it’s too much travel for me,” Bonci said. “It was just too much between Pittsburgh and Kansas City. It was two flights and there’s not a lot of flight options anymore. “It could be two full days of travel which is a little crazy.” Bonci has described her role at the Chiefs as “an honor and privilege.”
