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September 04, 2025

2024-2025 NFL press box food spread ratings

Which teams have the best press box spreads in the NFL?

Eagles NFL
111624CowboysPrime Jimmy/for PhillyVoice

Throughout the season, we'll be posting press box food spread rankings for each of the Philadelphia Eagles' road games. This is probably of no interest to you if you're a sane human being, and, well, I don't care. I'm doing this anyway. 

If you're fake-appalled by a sportswriter playfully complaining about free food, shut up, dork. Please note that we'll have the most recent press box reviews at the top.

Also, beginning in late November last year, I got a little swamped with my coverage of the team. These food spread reviews got put on the back burner, I never caught up, and when the season was over, I didn't have reviews of the Rams', Ravens', Commanders', Eagles', or Super Bowl spreads. Nearly 10 months later, we've updated our 2024-2025 press box food spread reviews with all of those spreads, except the Eagles', which I did not take notes on. (We'll have a review of theirs after their Thursday opener against the Cowboys in the new 2025-2026 season.

Anyway my sincerest apologies for the extremely delayed reviews.

090425SuperBowlLIX

Eagles vs. Chiefs, Super Bowl LIX

On the morning of the Super Bowl, I went down to the lobby of my New Orleans hotel, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to stroll over to the Superdome like five hours before kickoff. In the lobby, I ran into Jeff McLane of the Inquirer, whose game credential was around his neck, and like triple the size of mine. It was at that moment that my face turned white, and I had realized that at the Super Bowl there are two different credentials — one for the week of media access, one for the game. And I hadn't picked up my game credential.

I hadn't received any notification that I needed a different credential, but I also should have just known seeing as this was the fourth Super Bowl I was about to cover. Anyway, yada yada yada, I got my credential but during the period in between my non-pickup of the credential and the time I notified the NFL's PR staff that I still needed it, they had given away my press box seat, and I was instead placed in an auxiliary area in the stands. Turns out my gaffe kind of worked in my favor, as my seats were pretty far down, and at the 25 yard line.

090425SuperBowl

This was a major step up from the Superdome press box, which in my opinion is the second-worst in the NFL, only behind the Commanders. It's extremely high up, so much so that it feels like you're watching ants. So a word of advice for aspiring sportswriters — If you ever cover a Super Bowl in New Orleans, "forget" your gameday credential, and you'll get better seats. (OK, don't actually listen to that advice.)

Anyway, I have no idea what they served in the press box for the Super Bowl, but for the auxiliary folks, it was boxed food. Here was mine:

090425SuperBowlFood

That's it. But, whatever. It's the Super Bowl, and I was just relieved to have gotten in. 😂

Grade: I'll give myself an F.

031222CommandersLogo2022

Eagles at Commanders, Week 16

The Commanders used to have one of the worst spreads in the NFL under Dan Snyder. Under Josh Harris, it's merely below average, which is a huge step up. 

Pregame the Commanders had scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes as breakfast offerings. 

090425CommandersBreakfast

They also had hot dogs, a nacho bar, chicken marsala, broccolini, fettuccini pasta, mixed green salad, and a tomato and mozzarella salad.

090425CommandersSpread

Under Harris, at least the food seems semi-fresh. Under Snyder, it felt like you were eating food that he personally injected with COVID.

At halftime, they had "beer braised beef sliders with spicy cheese sauce."

090425CommandersBeef

That was gross. 

They do get bonus points for have a decent selection of candy and snacks. 

090425CommandersCandy

The food aside, my recollection of this day will always be that I couldn't see stretches of this game. As we've shown in the past, the vantage point from the press box at Northwest Stadium (formerly FedEx Field) is by far the worst in the NFL. You can't see what is happening on one side of the field. But it's made worse when there's some jabroni siting in front of the press box, holding up a sign and blocking your already awful view.

090425CommandersSign

Nobody cares about or can even see whatever your stupid sign says, you moron. I did knock on the window and kindly asked him to stop holding up his sign, but he ignored me. I do take solace in knowing that that guy had an absolutely terrible day watching the NFC Championship Game.

Grade: C- 

Ravenslogo2020

Eagles at Ravens, Week 13

The Ravens' review got off to a bad start earlier in the week, when we were informed that they did not have enough parking to meet the needs of the full Eagles media contingent. I was among those who did not make the cut, and was told that I had to pay for parking. If I recall correctly, it was like 50 bucks, and I'd be parking about a half mile away in some casino. Weeeeaaaaaak.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking. "Poor wittle sportswriter, has pay for his parking. Whaaaaaah! 😭"

Well, actually, I didn't have to pay for it all. I expensed it. So the money aspect had no effect on me at all. Also, I enjoy walking, so the half mile trek to the stadium wasn't particularly bothersome. It's just a bad look to be the only team in the NFL that doesn't accommodate parking for visiting media. Like, Dan Snyder never even pulled that shit, at least during my time covering the NFL. OK, so, whatever, no free parking. But we'll come back to that.

Pregame, the Ravens had hot dogs, some penne, meat lasagna, and some chicken dish, shown below:

090425RavensChicken

And some cookies and brownies:

090425RavensCookies

I had all of it.

090425RavensPlate

It was all bad. HOWEVER... what the Ravens' food spread is really known for — like the state where they play — is their crabcakes, which are served at halftime. So at least there was that to look forward to. Except, when halftime rolled around, a loooooong line for the crabcakes formed, except, no crabcakes. They weren't ready in time. With the third quarter about to resume, the line for sportswriters hungry for crabcakes dissipated, and everyone went back to their seats.

It wasn't until about midway through the third quarter that the press box PA guy made an announcement that the crabcakes were ready. It went something like this:

"Three-yard run by Derrick Henry to the Baltimore 33, tackle by Zack Baun. Also, the crabcakes are now ready in the food area." Lol.

Postgame, upon the return to my car on like level 7 or 8 of this Baltimore casino, there was a massive traffic jam because 50 Cent had been performing there. It took like 45 minutes just to get out of the parking garage.

The only redeeming quality from the Ravens that day was that they had lemon-scented hand towels.

090425RavensTowels

I did like those. Still...

Grade: F-

051020RamsLogo2020

Eagles at Rams, Week 12

This was the second straight year the Eagles played the Rams in L.A., and the spread was familiar. The Rams earned a B+ last year. This year, they took a small tumble. Let's first just lay out what they had in full before I comment on the lower grade.

They had salads:

0711225RamsSalad

Mac and cheese, and green beans:

011225Ramsmacandcheese

Beef and fried chicken:

011225RamsChicken

Cereal:

011225RamsCereal

Milk, some Uncrustables, and apples with peanut butter:

011225Ramsspreaduncrustables

Iced tea, and some nitro cold brews:

011225RamsCoffee

Water infused with lemon and blueberries (terrible photography here by me): 

011225RamsWater

Fruit and veggie cups:

011225RamsFruit

Some little cakey snacks, and you can see some cookies and mini cupcakes in the background: 

011225RamsCake

And finally, some healthy snacks, and some candy: 

011225RamsSnackies

I had some beef, some chicken, some mac and cheese, some Skittles, and a Kit Kat.

011225RamsPlate

That was all fine and good, but the Rams had the disadvantage of being the team reviewed immediately after the Cowboys' ridiculous spread (below), so it felt a little weak, even if better than most spreads around the league.

There's nothing the Rams can do about the Eagles' schedule. However, this spread was lighter than last year's. If you go back in the archives, the Rams had a full breakfast spread, in addition to lunch. This year, there was no breakfast, obviously because it was a Sunday Night Football game, but nothing else took the place of the breakfast foods. Half grade deduction. 

What I will say about the Rams' spread is that they are fantastic in two areas: Foraging, and alcohol.

Foraging: On the road, it sucks waking up in the morning at your hotel after a game and having no bottled water, no snackies, etc. You have to throw on some clothes, trudge down to the lobby with bed head, and grab whatever you need, assuming they even have it. The Rams were fully stocked with packaged foods that one could take with them, like the Uncrustables, candy, the apples and peanut butter, and the cereal. Hell, even the cold brews would be good on the go.

Now, to be clear, I would never promote the practice of removing press box food for future consumption, but if one were so inclined, they could, in theory. In theory.

Alcohol: The Rams have cans of beer available after games. Generally speaking, if someone offers me beer while I write up my postgame "10 awards" column on the road, I'm going to accept it nine times out of 10.

But in this particular case, the beer was especially appreciated because I had a red eye out of L.A. after the game, and was pressed for time to medicinally imbibe before my flight. The Rams' inclusion of alcohol during their postgame spread allowed me to multitask. 

Plus, some airports have restrictions on when alcohol can be served for no good reason. Like, some airports won't serve alcohol until like 9 a.m., or they'll close later in the evening. WHY ARE THERE ANY RESTRICTIONS AT ALL? I don't think LAX applies, but it was nice to know that I could knock back a few beers before I even got there, just in case.

Anyway, they had Modelo, Stella, and Bud Light. I chose Modelo, but not because I'm some intolerant weirdo who is boycotting Bud Light. 

Grade: B

051020CowboysLogo2020

Eagles at Cowboys, Week 10

In advance of my yearly Cowboys food spread feast, I made sure to get a lot of extra exercise in the days preceding the game. My step counts:

• Wednesday: 29,064
• Thursday: 20,828
• Friday: 25,755
• Saturday (travel day): 13,889

And then on Sunday morning, I just had a small snack when I got out of bed and didn't eat again until my arrival at JerryWorld.

I probably needed to double those step count numbers, as you'll see shortly.

The spread was already up and running more than three hours before kickoff. They had a carving station, with prime rib, and a buffet table. The carving station:

111624CowboysPrime

And here's what they had on the buffet table:

Spinach Caesar and Strawberries Salad: Romaine hearts, baby spinach, strawberries, onions, spiced praline pecans, baby heirloom tomatoes, infused currants, pecorino Romano cheese, orange zesty Caesar dressing.

Black Bean, Corn, and Avocado Salad: Charbroiled corn, black beans, serrano and lime avocado chunks, roasted jalapenos, red onions, cilantro, marinated Roma tomatoes, queso fresco, tajin agave vinaigrette.

111624CowboysSalad

Neapolitan Mozzarella, Pepperoni, and Sopressata Sandwich: Sliced pepperoni, sopressata, mozzarella cheese, carmelized onions, baby spinach, cherry pepper relish, garlic aioli, Italian dressing, rustic baguette.

111624CowboysSpread

Pan Fried Chicken Thighs Vesuvio: Fresh garlic, green peas, herbs, white and butter sauce.

111624CowboysChicken

Skillet Fried Potatoes: With green peppercorn gravy.

111624CowboysPotatoes

Italian Sausage Stuffed Zucchini: With a cheese blend melt.

111624CowboysZucchini

I didn't try the zucchini stuffed with sausage. I honestly just forgot. But they were a hit. Jeff McLane of the Inquirer was particularly complimentary of them. He was not immediately available for comment, but we'll update if and when he responds.

Update: "Never had before but was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it," McLane said. "Combination worked."

Cowboys Mac and Cheese

111624CowboysMacAndCheese

Artisian rolls, creamy butter

Dinner plate, Part I:

111624CowboysDinner1

I started to eat my slice of prime rib before I took a picture of it, so I tried to patch it back together for the photo. It would've looked more photogenic otherwise, but it was delicious. And as always, the Cowboys Mac and Cheese (with truffle breadcrumbs) is my all-time favorite mac and cheese. 

OK, so that spread alone is worthy of an A, but the food just never stops coming. They also have desserts available three hours before kickoff:

• Cannoli Fried Rolls
• Apple Crumble Tart
• Orange Cheesecake, with Cherry Jell-O
• Texas SheetCake Shooters, Caramel Ganache
• Cake balls (not pictured immediately below, but there's one on my Dinner plate Part II)
• Ice cream bin, with ice cream sandwiches and some other stuff
• Assorted cookies

I had all of that, lol. The cannoli fried rolls were the MVP of the dessert offerings, in my opinion. They're in the middle in the pic below:

111624CowboysDessert
111624CowboysDessert2

They also had a candy station, with Snickers, Airheads, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Warheads, Hershey Kisses, and Jolly Ranchers.

111624CowboysCandy

Think we're done? NOPE. At halftime the Cowboys rolled out an entirely new spread.

Nacho Bar: Queso, pulled pork, ground taco beef, guacamole, Pico de Gallo, sour cream, jalapenos, yellow corn tortilla chips.

111624CowboysNachos

Wing bar: Naked bone-in wings, buffalo sauce, lemon pepper seasoning, ranch dressing, blue cheese dressing, celery, carrot sticks.

Spicy Shrimp Empanadas: With poblano ranch.

Cajun Shrimp and Sausage Rolls: With sweet chili sauce.

111624CowboysEmpanadas

Kosher Style Hotdogs

Dinner plate, Part II:

111624CowboysDinnerPartII

After I ate that plate, I was told they also had Philly cheesesteaks tucked away in the corner that I had missed. So, uh, I ate one of those, too.

Dinner Plate, Part III:

111624CowboysCheesesteak

Cheesesteaks just generally speaking aren't very photogenic, but that was actually really good. I would go as far as to say that that was the best cheesesteak I've ever had outside of Philly or the Jersey shore, which is particularly impressive considering that I didn't really even have any room left in my body for more food at that point.

To keep from going into a food coma, I had also had a couple of coffees from their gourmet brewing station. (I didn't get a picture of that, but it's the second-best coffee setup in the NFL, after Seattle.)

And, as always, post-game they had a couple of kegs on tap. I may or may not have had two big cups of beer while I wrote my "10 awards" post.

Grade: This spread is better than like 98% of what they serve at wedding receptions. There's just no comparison whatsoever between what the Cowboys roll out every week vs. any other team in the NFL. If I were to cover another team other than the Eagles, the Cowboys would be high on the list just so that I could eat this food a minimum of 9 times per season. A+++.

Bengalslogo2020

Eagles at Bengals, Week 8

The last time the Eagles played in Cincinnati was in 2016. I started writing these press box food spread reviews in 2018, so this is a rare team that I have never reviewed. Bengals ownership has the reputation for being extremely cheap, so my expectations coming in were low.

To my surprise, the Bengals came out of the gate hot, serving breakfast and lunch at like 10 a.m. 

They had salads:

  1. Green salad with assorted dressings
  2. Creamy pasta salad
  3. Fruit salad
110224BengalsSalad

And breakfast (they called it brunch):

  1. Spinach and cheddar fritattas
  2. Turkey sausage
  3. Bacon
  4. Biscuits and gravy
  5. Cinnamon rolls
110224BengalsBreakfast
110224BengalsCinnamon

It's funny to me that the Bengals listed the cinnamon rolls with it's "breakfast" offerings, and not with the desserts. That got me wondering which NFL cities had the highest obesity rates, and yep, Cincinnati was near the top. To my surprise, Philly wasn't in the top half of the league for obesity 💪. From fattest to fittest:

  1. New Orleans
  2. Dallas
  3. Detroit
  4. Nashville
  5. Cincinnati
  6. Indianapolis
  7. Cleveland
  8. Kansas City
  9. Houston
  10. Charlotte
  11. Phoenix
  12. Las Vegas
  13. Milwaukee (subbing in for Green Bay)
  14. Atlanta
  15. Baltimore
  16. Philadelphia
  17. Los Angeles
  18. Tampa
  19. Pittsburgh
  20. Jacksonville
  21. Washington, D.C.
  22. Miami
  23. Chicago
  24. New York
  25. San Francisco
  26. Minneapolis
  27. Denver
  28. Boston (representing the Patriots)
  29. Seattle
*There are two New York and L.A. teams, of course, and Buffalo wasn't included.

Anyway, continuing on, they also had a lot of pasta:

  1. Tortellini with spinach, garlic, roasted tomatoes, and olive oil
  2. Gemelli pasta with basil, pomodoro
  3. Bruschetta chicken
  4. Beef meatballs with red sauce and pesto
  5. Garlic bread sticks (not pictured below)
110224BengalsPasta
And desserts:

  1. Cannoli
  2. Assorted cookies
  3. Brookies
  4. Smartfood (bagged popcorn)
110224BengalsCookies

Again, they rolled all of the above out at the same time early in the morning. This overload of food led to some oddball plates of breakfast and lunch foods, like mine. I came in hungry, and ate a hell of a lot of food, pregame. 

110224BengalsSpread

For those of you scoring at home, that's two different kinds of pasta, a meatball, chicken, bacon, a sugar cookie, a cannoli, a cinnamon bun, and a brookie. The general verdict is that it was all just basically OK-ish. The MVP was the meatball, so I made a specialty meatball biscuit with cheese shavings sandwich.

110224BengalsBuscuit

My meatball biscuit creation was actually really good. Serve those 👆, Bengals.

I ate almost all of it except for like half of the cinnamon bun, which was good, but I simply had no room left in my body for it. I also gave my brookie to NJ.com's Bob Brookover (AKA "Brookie"), because they ran out and he wanted to bring one home as a memento. I'm very kind.

At halftime, they had Skyline Chili and some very sus hotdogs. 

110224BengalsChili
110224BengalsHotdogs

Pass.

They didn't have anything post-game, which was fine by me.

Correction: The Bengals served pizza post-game in some sort of super secret pizza room.

Grade: Better than expected, at least in terms of volume and variety, but not necessarily quality. C-.

051020GiantsLogo2020

Eagles at Giants, Week 7

The Giants' review will be brief, because we review them every year and I more or less know what to expect. Pre-game they served breakfast, as well as some sandwiches:

• Omelet station
• Scrambled eggs
• Bacon
• Belgian waffles
• Pre-made and wrapped "Taylor Ham," egg, and cheese sandwiches
• Fruit
• Turkey and Swiss with green leaf lettuce on ciabatta
• Black Forest Ham and Swiss with green leaf lettuce on a croisssant
• Vegetarian wraps
• Italian chicken cutlet

I respect the Giants serving pork roll and cheese and calling it "Taylor Ham" before an Eagles game.

Here's the omelet station: 

110124Omelet

And the sandwiches: 

110124GiantsSandwiches

And here was my pre-game plate: 

110124GiantsBreakfast

If you'll notice I have a bagel on my plate. Have you ever been to a diner and they served rock hard, cold butter? Of course you have. Well, so did the Giants. I got a little anxiety re-watching this video of myself trying to spread that butter.

At halftime, they served lunch:

• Chicken Fritters
• Mozzarella sticks with marinara
• Waffles fires
• Vegetable crudité and dip platter
• Rice pudding

Just call them chicken fingers, guys.

They also had an ice cream bin with Strawberry Shortcake bars, Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie sandwiches, etc., and a candy station. I didn't get a pic of the candy station, somehow. Bad job by me. Here was my halftime plate: 

110124GiantsLunch

Post-game they didn't have any additional food, but they left the coffee on for the drive home, which is really all I ask.

Grade: B-.

051020BuccaneersLogo2020

Eagles at Buccaneers, Week 4

I was originally going to head down to Florida on Friday, and soak up some sun in Clearwater Beach, but Hurricane Helene had other plans, so I instead stayed at an airport hotel. If you've never been to an Eagles-Bucs game, it's about as convenient a trip as you can make, at least among the cities that require a flight. Raymond James Stadium is right by the airport (directly east of it, as shown below), and there are a buttload of hotels and restaurants in that area.

100924Tampa

I made the mistake of walking to the stadium from my hotel. Generally, getting in a little exercise pregame is a good thing, but when you have a 20-pound computer bag pressed flush up against your back and you're walking two miles in a Florida heat and humidity, you're going to be left with a lot of back sweat and regret.

Upon arriving at the stadium, the Bucs had a breakfast spread ready to go. They had chicken sausage links, biscuits, and farm egg frittatas. The chicken sausage links didn't look very appealing, so I skipped those.

100924TampaSausage

"It wasn't bad," Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer said. "It was fine."

Here were the frittatas: 

100924Frittatas

Then, at like 11:30 a.m.-ish, they got rid of the breakfast spread and served an entirely new lunch spread. Impressive.

They always have Cubans, and this year was no different. 

100924Cubans

I've had them many times, and they're always good, but I skipped them this time around. Eliot Shorr-Parks of WIP is a big fan. He had three main points on the Bucs' Cubans, which he texted to me: 

  1. "They are restaurant quality."
  2. "They are just as good as the mac and cheese in Dallas."
  3. "I look forward to eating them days in advance (sad life)." 

I agree with points 1 and 3, but point No. 2 is a bad "surface of the sun" hot take.

Instead, I dove into the "chicken annatto." What's annatto? Per Wikipedia: 

Annatto is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree (Bixa orellana), native to tropical parts of the Americas. It is often used to impart a yellow to red-orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its flavor and aroma. Its scent is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg" and flavor as "slightly nutty, sweet and peppery".

Oh, OK cool. I had some. Here's what that looked like.

100924Annatto

Very good. 

They also had salads and a carving station, with ribs:

100924Ribs

Much like Chris Rock in "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," I asked for one rib. 

I did not ask them to pour soda in my hand. Here was my one rib:

100924TampaRib

The Bucs also had a lot of side treats. They had pretzels nuggets: 

100924BucsPretzels

Those weren't very good, but in past years they served gigantic pretzels that also weren't good, but if you grabbed one you either had to choke it down or feel bad about throwing most of it away. At least in this case you weren't required to make a big commitment. But certainly, the Bucs need to step up their pretzel game, especially when Philly reporters come to town.

They also had cookies and brownies:

100924Cookies

They were fine.

Oh, and hey, what's this? A soft serve ice cream machine?!? Oh hell yes. That's new, and welcomed. Good job, Bucs.

100924IceCreamMachine

Ooh, and a bunch of fixins, too? Boom.

100924fixins

They only had one flavor (vanilla), so they have to step that up a bit, but still, I thoroughly enjoyed my vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce, mini M&M's, and Oreo crumblies, with a side of Skittles.

 
100924icecream2

At halftime, they had hot dogs. I had one, and it was actually pretty good. And as always, they had their signature Bananas Foster, which I skipped because I had already had the above soft serve. But here's a Bananas Foster pic from a previous game: 

093023BananasFoster

Grade: Traditionally, the Bucs have always had a solid spread. I gave them a B both in 2023 and 2021, and a B- in 2018. 

In 2020, The Athletic blatantly ripped off my food spread review bit, and somehow ranked the Bucs' spread the best in the NFL, which is laughable. Nobody can touch the Cowboys' spread with a ten foot pole. 

Anyway, the Bucs stepped their game up this year, and I think they deserve an A-.

051020SaintsLogo2020

Eagles at Saints, Week 3

When I woke up on the morning of the game, I did a little a 5K and for some dumb reason I chose Bourbon Street as the first leg of my route, after a Saturday night. It was, uhhhh...kinda dirty.

Bourbon Street smelled like the basement of a frat house, and I got to witness the town's method for cleaning up after a party. The shop owners sweep the trash off the sidewalk into the street, and hose off the sidewalk. The trash is then sucked up off the street by a street sweeping vehicle, but it was not evident to me that any further efforts are made to clean the street beyond, I dunno, hoping that it rains at some point? But until then, a layer of grime just kind of lingers. My sweet new Pegs took a beating. 😡

092224Pegs

I should note that there are other much prettier areas of the city, including the waterfront.

Later, on the way to the stadium, the press box entrance is notoriously difficult to find, tucked away on the second level of a parking garage, with no signage whatsoever. Then once you're inside the bowels of the stadium, good luck finding the only elevator that goes to the press box among the 15 others that go elsewhere.

Once you find your seats, you need a telescope to see the game:

Oh, and they blast noise for hours before the game. This video doesn't really do the noise justice, but it is loud.

In summary, New Orleans is very fun, and the location of the stadium is right by the fun areas of the city, but it is also an outdated dump.

Anyway, the Saints had the following, pre-game:

• Fresh fruit

• Yogurt dipping sauce

• Carved pecan smoked beef brisket with chipotle orange BBQ sauce

• Salmon La Louisianne: Roasted salmon topped with blackened shrimp and creole beurre blanc

• Wild rice pilaf

• Roasted jumbo asparagus, red pepper, and vidalia onions

• Dinner rolls with butter

• Assorted cheesecakes

They also had a small candy dispenser with Skittles (👍), M&Ms, and Peanut M&Ms. 

092224Skittles

And finally, they have Tostitos with a nacho cheese dispenser. 

092224Tostitos

You couldn't pay me to eat that nacho cheese when I have to work a game for the next 9 hours.

I should note that they made the spread available at like 9:00 a.m. CST, which is pretty early for brisket and salmon. I had the brisket, and some rice. 

092224Brisket

The brisket was OK. The BBQ sauce was good.

At halftime, they had hotdogs that were not uniform in color, which to me was an immediate red flag. They also had a vat of chili that some beats mistook for baked beans. Needless to say, that didn't look appetizing either. Eliot Shorr-Parks of WIP tried a hotdog. "It was fine," said ESP. "Very average. A little rubbery." I don't know how "rubbery" = "fine," but whatever.

A Saints media guy overheard our conversation, and said, "Yeah, don't eat the hotdogs." He requested anonymity. 

They also had some frozen ice cream bar options, which I appreciated. I opted for a Drumstick. I also had a chocolate chip cookie that was dusted with powdered sugar.

092324SaintsCookie

In theory, I like the idea of dusting almost anything sweet with a little powdered sugar, but the cookie kinda sucked. There was no putting lipstick on that pig.

Postgame they didn't have anything, which is fine, whatever, but they also took away the coffee, which is a big no-no.

Grade: I think there's an assumption that if it's a good food city, then the press box food will be really good as well. Not so, at least in New Orleans. C-.

121219Patriotslogo2

Eagles at Patriots, Preseason Week 2

The Patriots hosted the Eagles for joint practices on Tuesday, and then a preseason game on Thursday. They fed the media in the press box both days. 

On Tuesday, they served Korean BBQ chicken, Mongolian beef, vegetable stir fry, and vegetable fried rice. For dessert, they had coconut macaroons, as well as pineapple and orange cheesecake. Impressive!

The chicken was actually really freaking good, as was the orange cheesecake, which I've never had. The beef was just OK.

The Eagles used to feed us after most practices. It was typically Papa John's or Little Caesars (whichever crappy pizza chain was an NFL sponsor at the time), and that was really a no-win situation. You could either eat the bad pizza and feel like garbage the rest of the day, or be forced to exercise will power, when hungry. 

So I'm actually glad that's gone. We do still have the option of partaking in Rita's Water Ice after practice, which is nice on blazing hot days. Anyway, the point here... good on the Pats for going above and beyond.

At the game, the Pats had all the same food they had after the joint practice, plus some additions:

  1. Honey teriyaki salmon filets
  2. Mac and cheese
  3. Cold noodle salad
  4. New England clam chowder
  5. Mixed salad
  6. Apple cobbler with ice cream
  7. Candy station

They also had cold wraps at halftime. Nothing after the game. I like having Ross Tucker around as the Eagles' preseason color analyst, because he unabashedly shoots video of each of the spreads, while I'm a little more undercover in my approach. 

There's a reason Ross is the second-best food spread analyst in the big leagues.

The Pats had a solid spread, and I'll bump them up a bit because (a) they fed us after practice, and (b) expectations are a little lower during the preseason. B+.

Press box food spread grades, to date

Team Grade 
Cowboys A+++ 
Buccaneers A- 
PatriotsB+
Rams 
Giants B- 
Bengals C- 
Saints C- 
Commanders C- 
Ravens F- 


Two notes: 

• I did not travel to Brazil for the Eagles' game against the Packers. My apologies, I have failed you all.

• I did not review the Ravens' spread during the preseason because the Eagles play there during the regular season. I'll review after that game.


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