Gophers football: Players give thanks for dinners they share this season

One of the first rules of Thanksgiving is to not talk politics while passing the gravy around the family dinner table.

And the first rule of Max Brosmer’s weekly dinners with the Gophers’ offensive line is to not talk football while eating wild mushroom mac and cheese at The Freehouse.

Minnesota’s quarterback started bringing his O-line to a small on-campus restaurant when he was at New Hampshire over the previous five years. And thanks to a name, image and likeness partnership, he has kept the routine alive at a Minneapolis restaurant this fall.

On Thursday nights, Brosmer and a group of 300-pound lineman and a few tight ends will break bread. They are grateful to have each other. It is one of the many examples of Brosmer’s leadership in his sole season at Minnesota. One small crumb of that is how Brosmer brings true freshman Drake Lindsey, as if to say, this is how it’s done.

As part of the NIL deal, Brosmer has gifted each player on the roughly 115-player team a $50 gift card to The Freehouse. That’s more than $5,700 for the guy who protects Brosmer’s blindside to the walk-ons who will never see the field.

“Max has been the biggest piece of that glue to put everybody together,” head coach P.J. Fleck said this week.

The verboten discussions on football is an effort to bond outside of the game; they talk shop enough the way it is.

“We are talking football all day long and for those two hours … that we are there, football is completely off the table,” Brosmer said. “I think that is a good thing to kind of get away from football and talk to each other as human beings.”

So, what do they talk about? “Just guy stuff,” guard Quinn Carroll said.

Sometimes it’s ranking the best TV shows and movies. Guard Tyler Cooper often shares a movie recommendation. Other times it’s how their families are…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/gophers-football-players-thanks-dinners-003700679.html

Author : Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Publish date : 2024-11-28 00:37:00

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