Justin Jefferson's Pregame Meal Is a PB&J — on the Days He Eats at All

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Justin Jefferson may be the best wide receiver in football, and he prepares for games like a man skipping lunch on purpose. "To be honest, I don't even really love to eat before a game," the Minnesota Vikings star told PEOPLE. "I more love to go more on an empty stomach. I hate kind of running on the heavy stomach. I feel like I have to throw up sometimes." But there is one food that makes the cut when the schedule demands something in the tank — for an early afternoon game, Jefferson says, he'll simply have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The Empty-Stomach Philosophy

Light Is a Performance Choice

Jefferson's reasoning is the mirror image of the carb-loading gospel. A receiver's game is built on cuts, jumps, and full-speed releases; a heavy meal is ballast that sloshes. Where Jordan Stolz fills the tank to the brim with rice and Josh Hart grazes on concession snacks, Jefferson runs nearly empty — and the PB&J is his compromise position: just enough fuel to matter, not enough to feel.

Why the PB&J Is the Perfect Exception

Look at the sandwich through his requirement — light, fast, gone — and the PB&J is almost engineered for it. The bread and jelly deliver quick carbohydrate. The peanut butter adds a modest amount of fat and protein, enough to smooth the energy curve without turning the sandwich into a project for the digestive system. It is eaten in two minutes, requires no kitchen, and has never once made a player feel like he swallowed a brick. There is a reason it is the one pregame food that appears in locker rooms across the entire NFL: it is the meal for people who do not want a meal.

The League Runs on This Sandwich

Jefferson is a solo act, but his sandwich belongs to an economy. The Athletic's league-wide investigation of Uncrustables — the sealed, crustless PB&Js stocked by the thousands in NFL facilities — found teams consuming them on an industrial scale, with nutritionists conceding the logic: quick carbs from bread and jelly, a little fat and protein from the peanut butter, easy to digest, and a comfort food players genuinely love. Jefferson just reaches the same conclusion without the team cafeteria: of all the foods in professional sports, the PB&J is the one that never asks for your attention.

The Other Justin Jefferson: Big Snacker

Do not mistake the empty pregame stomach for discipline. "I'm a big snacker," Jefferson admits. "I love my ice creams, love my cookies, brownies. So that's definitely one of my cheat meals — but I'm not really a big person on diet. I can pretty much eat what I want. I run so many miles every single day at practice, so I just burn it off." The snacking is famous enough that Insomnia Cookies sells a combo literally called "The Usual by Justin Jefferson" — a six-pack of cookies and a pint of ice cream. And when the work is done, the food gets serious and goes home: Jefferson is Louisiana-born, and the post-game meal he waits for is his father's crawfish étouffée. "I got to have the crawfish étouffée," he said. "That's the big, big meal that my Pops loves to cook for me after a big game."

Postscript: The Sandwich Goes to London

The PB&J even has a diplomatic incident on its record. On the Vikings' 2024 London trip, Jefferson sat for a "Snack Wars" segment pitting America's PB&J against Britain's Marmite. His verdict on the yeast spread's smell: "Something you don't put on bread." The trusty sandwich, as the British coverage conceded, won the day.

FAQ

Q: What does Justin Jefferson eat before a game?
A: As little as possible — he told PEOPLE he prefers to play nearly on an empty stomach because he hates running on a heavy one. For an early afternoon game, his one concession is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After games, the menu flips entirely: his father's crawfish étouffée is the meal he waits for.

Q: Why is a PB&J such a common pregame food in the NFL?
A: Because it threads the needle between fuel and lightness. Bread and jelly give fast carbohydrates; peanut butter adds staying power in small, digestible amounts; and the whole thing takes two minutes to eat and never sits heavy — the exact profile players like Jefferson, who dislike eating before games, can accept. The league's mass adoption of packaged Uncrustables is the same logic at industrial scale.

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