Work / Uncrustables in the NFL
Uncrustables in the NFL
A viral story from The Athletic surveyed 23 NFL teams about how many Smucker’s Uncrustables they eat and hinted that the sandwiches help win games. I checked.
- Type
- Short data story
- Published
- October 2024, University of Washington
- Tools
- Datawrapper, Flourish, Google Trends, USDA guidelines
The question
NFL teams go through thousands of Uncrustables a week, and a Travis Kelce podcast aside had people half-seriously crediting the sandwiches for a Super Bowl. I wanted to see whether the numbers backed that up.
What the data said
I pulled the survey figures and set them against passing yards and touchdowns. The teams eating the most, around 13 sandwiches per player per week, scored no more than the teams eating four to six. The survey numbers didn’t support the Super Bowl XLI theory.
A decade of Google search interest showed steady growth, but Uncrustables still trail comparable frozen breakfast products.
Each sandwich also carries added sugar above USDA guidance, more than 10% of its calories. That matters less for pro athletes, who burn far more calories than most people do.
The answer
The data didn’t show that eating more Uncrustables helped teams win. With 23 teams and one season, though, it can only show there’s no obvious effect.
The piece itself, with all of the interactive charts, is republished here in full.
Read the data story