Running back Todd Gurley has had a pretty interesting NFL career in his first two seasons in the league. He’s in the strange position of having played in two different cities … for the same team. Drafted as the No. 10 overall pick to the St. Louis Rams in 2015, he’s helped close down the franchise in the midwest and move it out to Los Angeles, which has been starved for a football team for decades.
While his football journey has been strange, we wanted to know about his perhaps-even-stranger food journey. Born in Maryland, raised in the South, playing college football in Georgia, and now splitting his pro career between St. Louis and Los Angeles, we sat down with the Rams star to find out where he’s found the best food, and what food he dearly misses.
If you think this line of questioning is strange, need I remind you that Gurley is one of the latest NFL stars to be a Campbell’s soup spokesperson? We met at a Campbell’s event, the man himself positioned behind a bowl of fresh, hot soup … certainly not his first of the day.
UPROXX: How’s the soup been treating you?
Todd Gurley: It’s been good. I tried the new clam and corn chowder with bacon today, that was my first time trying it. I’m usually trying the original clam chowder.
That’s your favorite?
Yeah, that one and the chicken noodle. Can’t go wrong with those two.
We’re talking about food, talking about Campbell’s, when you’re in the football season what’s your diet like?
The Rams do a pretty good job as far as providing food at the facility. They do breakfast, lunch and dinner. Whatever they have up there we eat it and then if you want to go home at night and cook something up, which most guys do, some guys don’t because they’re more tired. You eat what’s given.
Do you ever go home and cook stuff up?
Yeah, sometimes.
What do you cook?
Pork chops, chicken. Something simple. I don’t want to be taking all night to cook because I got to get right back up in the morning. Just get on the grill or make something real fast.
What about the offseason, what’s your diet like? Do you go a little crazy in the offseason or do you try and keep it reined in?
No, I go crazy. You go on a streak, I’m going to eat good. You have meal services, they’re pre-cooked meals and stuff like that. I kind of did that when I was in this offseason, I was training at the XO, that was easier for me. I did that to get the prepared meals and it was pretty good.
I try and stay away from all the fast food, but you still eat it. Yeah, cook yourself and if not, get a chef or get the pre-cooked meals. You can never go wrong with pre-cooked meals.
You have a chef yet?
I don’t. They’re pretty expensive, man. I’m thinking about getting one though. I don’t like cooking all the time, I’m tired. Go home and call your chef over and he cook it up for you. You can relax.
Coming from St. Louis and now LA your first two seasons, how’s the food different from St. Louis to Los Angeles? I don’t know if in both cities you’ve been around and eaten a lot.
Yeah. I’m from the South, I’m so used to soul food everywhere. You have it here but not as much.
A little bit.
More in the city, the inner city areas.
You been out to Roscoe’s yet?
I got done eating there before I came [here]. [laughs]
Is everything in St. Louis …
BBQ.
Yeah, that’s better than here?
Yeah. You can’t eat no BBQ from California, man. I’m from North Carolina. That’s trying to eat some seafood in Missouri. There’s no ocean there.
Besides the BBQ in St. Louis and the South is there anything you miss that you can’t get out here besides a good BBQ?
I miss so much from the east coast it’s crazy. You grow up off of Waffle House, Zaxby’s, freaking all that stuff… Longhorn. Don’t get me started on food.
Let me ask you since you been in L.A., you miss all the food over there, what’s the best thing you’ve eaten since you’ve been here?
Mastro’s. [And … ] What’s that sushi place at L.A. Live? Katsuya, yeah. That joint good, too.
You like sushi?
From there.
What’s from there that you like that’s good?
The king crab rolls, yeah. Then whatever, the other stuff they have, but most definitely got to get those.
What’s it like to get a soup endorsement? What’s that process? When Campbell’s came to you was it a little surprising? Was it weird for you?
No, definitely surprising but like growing up and to be able to watch these commercials. I’m eating the soup growing up, having it in your house and then for a company as big as Campbell’s chunky soup to come endorse me was a pretty big thing for me. Then to have the other four guys on set with me was pretty cool. It was a long day, a 10-hour shoot, but we had fun on the set and knocked out the commercials. Now we here. It’s a dream come true from eating soup to endorsing me. It’s been a good thing.
