By Mark Eckel, Player Engagement Insider
If you see a big man wearing a No. 73 Minnesota Vikings jersey driving around your local Wendy’s don’t be alarmed. There’s no need to worry. It’s just Sharrif Floyd getting his fix.
Floyd, the Vikings defensive tackle and first-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft out of the University of Florida, laughs about his mild obsession with the fast-food chain while he has transformed himself in a nutrition-minded athlete.
“I’ve been gluten free for a while now, and that took all the carbs away,’’ Floyd said. “Since then I’m about 20 pounds lighter. More importantly, I haven’t felt this good, body-wise, in a long time.’’
It wasn’t as hard as you might think for the once over-300 pound Floyd to master his weight with a good, and nutritional, diet. Although he sometimes gets those cravings for a single, double, or maybe even a triple, some fries, and a Frosty for dessert.
“I find myself doing drive-bys next to Wendy’s,’’ he said with a laugh when asked what was the toughest thing he stopped eating. “Kind of stalking the place a little bit, but just that. I don’t go in there. That and WaWa (a Philadelphia-based convenience store). WaWa has the best sandwiches. I love them. It’s good for me to not have any WaWas around here.’’
Floyd, entering his fourth NFL season with the Vikings, has taken to cooking more of his own meals, instead of dining out on a regular basis. He says he not only enjoys it, but he has seen the change it has made in his weight and performance.
“That makes a big difference,’’ he said. “You learn yourself what’s good for you and what’s not good for you.’’
Floyd learned on the job. Growing up in Philadelphia and then going to college at the University of Florida, he didn’t treat nutrition the way he does today.
“(Florida) didn’t really emphasize it as much. If you had a weight problem, they would get on you to lose weight. But most of our guys were pretty good. With the heat in Florida you really had to maintain your weight, it wasn’t that hard.’’
Floyd usually sees his weight fluctuate between 290 and 295 pounds during the season. He gets down to around 280 during the offseason, which he was in March, and says when he gets to camp in July he’ll see what the coaches want him to do weight wise.
“It’s extremely important in the offseason to watch what you eat. No matter how you look at it, we go into a lesser load of working out and we’re not taking the pounding during the offseason, so you have to watch your diet more,’’ he said.
“For me, it’s easier to gain weight than lose weight. If they want me bigger I can get bigger. The way I look at the offseason, I want to get lighter and then if they want me heavier, I’ll get heavier.’’
While several teams and players around the NFL have gone the sports science route for their nutritional needs, Floyd says for him it’s just a matter of common sense.
“There’s no reason to get scientific about it. It’s just food,’’ the defensive tackle said. “Eat the right things. You know what’s right. Eat a lot of greens more than anything else, I go for a lot of protein and stay away from the bad stuff.’’
During the season Floyd, as most athletes, burns calories like crazy from the rigors of training camp and then the daily practices and the games. He still keeps his diet nutritional, but it’s easier to maintain his weight from camp until the end of the season.
“Keep the proper diet and understand what your body likes and needs,’’ he said. “It’s not easy, because there is a lot of stuff out there that you know you want, but you know you can’t have it. But it’s not hard, you just have to be disciplined.’’
Like driving around the Wendy’s and not pulling through the drive through window.