Saints learning from BAMA

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That’s especially true in New Orleans, where Sean Payton made a confession Monday: Much of what he and his staff know about nutrition, they learned, ironically enough, from the Alabama coaching staff.

Payton was asked how nutrition has evolved in the last 10 years. And here’s what he said, according to a press release from the Saints:

“Quite a bit,” Payton told reporters.” Typically, in a lot of cases, the college game is a tick ahead because their budgets and their recruiting (puts them) constantly in an arms race with facilities, nutrition bars, and things that they can do. A lot of times, that flows up. In our case, we had been to Alabama for a workout and saw the recovery station they had, with protein shakes for if you were trying to cut weight or if you were trying to gain weight. (They emphasized) proper nutrition during the day, after a practice, or leading up to a practice.”

That is in stark contrast to what the Saints were doing just a few years ago.

“I think in the last, probably five or six years—I’m sure there are some teams that did it a little bit earlier than that—that’s like a double challenge in New Orleans. The way you prepare the food and what you’re eating—it wasn’t too long ago that on Saturday you traveled to you away game and you’re eating Popeye’s chicken on the plane. The nutritionist comes in and says, ‘Well, that’s the most important meal! They’re going to be playing on that the next day!’ A lot of times, not just in football, we all do things because that was just on the itinerary before us. So, I think it’s changed quite a bit in the last six years.”