PB&J and Sports

I read a great article by Baxter Holmes on ESPN about The NBA's secret addiction - the PB&J Sandwich. Baxter wrote about all the NBA teams that have PB&J sandwiches for their pregame meal/snacks.  The idea is that the Boston Celtics in the 07'-08' season with Kevin Garnett started this addiction. In that same article I came to learn that Lebron and the Cleveland Cavaliers also eat PB&J sandwiches as Pre-game meals.  So I was right, the PB&J was one of the secrets to their success; having Lebron helps too).  The ESPN article gives some great insight on what NBA teams do to feed that PB&J need the players want. Heck the Golden State Warriors battled their team nutritionist because he banned PB&J's as pregame snack/meal. The team pushed back and got their coach to go to ownership to demand their PB&J sandwiches back as a pregame meal option.

I will say that the addiction to PB&J started way before playing professionally for athletes and coaches.

We can thank John Harvey Kellogg (yes the cereal king) for this addiction.  He was the first person to patent the process for making peanut butter.

From my research the first written reference of PB&J was in 1901 in the Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics.  However it did not explode in popularity until bread slicing technology made it popular in the 1920s.  Kids were now able to safely make their own sandwiches, thus skyrocketing PB&J's popularity.

PB&J can be a snack or a meal.  It's filling and is enjoyed by social classes due to it's tasty and inexpensive cost- its no wonder why everyone including athletes love this classic.  You grow up eating them.

You grow up loving them. Studies show that Americans eat enough peanut butter in a year to make more than 10 billion peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  A majority of that consumption comes as a child.  Where they say the average child will eat 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before he/she graduates high school and about 3,000 in their lifetime.

It's not just NBA players who enjoy them.  Sportscasters like Erin Andrews enjoys a PB&J before going on air. Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots and Dustin Johnson, #1 golfer all enjoy the PB&J. Even the very tight lipped NFL Coach of the New England Patriots has no problem sharing his PB&J secret:

That is a tip and one I share often to avid PB&J eaters: To avoid a soggy PB&J - just spread the peanut butter on both sides of the bread.