UrbanUpdate

After winning the Heisman Trophy in 1991, Michigan legend Desmond Howard put up ten productive years as a wide receiver and kick/punt return extraordinaire in the NFL (including a 1997 Super Bowl MVP award—he's still the only special teamer to do that). But if you follow the College GameDay host on Instagram, you might notice that nearly three decades since taking home college football's most prestigious piece of hardware—and almost two since his retirement from football—the dude still looks like he might be able to field a kick and take it to the house. (He guesses he could still run the 40 in a sub-5.0 time.)

With College GameDay set to start its season tomorrow in South Bend—where Notre Dame will host Howard's alma mater, Michigan—we caught up with the football great to talk the post-workout "adult baby food" he makes; the best College Gameday sign he's even seen; and why you should really stop saying "I'm getting old."

Walk me through a typical day, in terms of working out and eating.

When I’m at home, I normally get up around, I’ll say, 4:38 A.M.

Why so specific?

It’s just a thing I’ve got about time. Like, “Alexa, set the alarm for 4:38 A.M.” It’s not 4:30, or 4:45. First thing I do when I wake up is drink water. A lot of people like to drink coffee right out the gate. Water is the best thing to drink when you wake up. I keep a bottle of water or a cup of water next to my bed on the nightstand too.

I go to Equinox. It opens at 5:30 A.M., so that’s as early I can work out. I try to go at least five days, Monday through Friday, for sure. During the season, I’ll have to go Monday through probably Thursday because I travel every Thursday for GameDay.

For my post-workout meal, I get this all-natural, organic almond butter, put it in a bowl with an organic banana, and I’ll smash them up. I call it adult baby food. I’ll sprinkle flax seeds and chia seeds in there. I toast a slice of Ezekiel bread and just spread my adult baby food on top of the Ezekiel.

I’ll eat that as a post-workout meal, or I’ll get egg whites. For those who struggle making omelets, they’ve invented the egg scramble. I just scramble that with sautéed mushrooms and spinach. I’m not big on using a lot of cheeses because I had a borderline cholesterol issue before—but sometimes I may put a little feta or goat cheese in there.

If I don’t eat something, I’m big on juicing and smoothies. I’m also big on drinking teas.

What’s your go-to tea?

My go-to tea is probably this matcha tea that I make. I really like mint tea, too, but I like to drink that after a meal or with a meal, because mint helps the digestive system. My tea is loose teas. I have a thermos that can accommodate loose teas. I travel with my own honey, too. I put it in little miniature jars. It’s manuka honey, which is really the best honey for you.

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I’m curious what your workout routine usually looks like.

I’ll do a certain routine for maybe two months and then I’ll change it—depends on what I have access to. Currently, I’m doing a routine that one of my former strength and conditioning coaches developed for me. I’m working full body—It might be something I’m doing that affects the chest, something I’m doing that affects the shoulders, something I’m doing that actually affects the legs too—and then I’m always doing core, and I always do cardio. But if I’m out of town and I have a friend who says there’s a great spin class they’d like me to go to, then I’ll do a spin class. I do like spinning.

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Do you get competitive?

When I was a professional athlete, I felt this way: I’m competing against myself. I’ve been like that since college, probably before that. These people, they may go two, three times a week, so their bodies are accustomed to whatever we’re about to go through. My thing is I know how and when to push myself.

I still feel like the people around you are like, “There’s a Heisman winner in my class, I gotta beat him.”

Oh, no doubt. And it’s not like I put my name. I’m under an alias anyway. I’m not putting Desmond Howard.

Do you have a go-to alias?

I may go [as] Prince. I’ll do places, like Wakanda, Zamunda. I play with it, it’s a fun thing for me. Malcolm X—different things just to throw people off.

What else is in the regimen?

I box, too. Jumping rope, speed bag, heavy bags. I try to hit the heavy bag probably two or three times a week. The cardio that I do—I travel with a jump rope. I jump rope, and I do an elliptical because a few years ago I had surgery on my meniscus, and at that point the doctor said, "Let's not run outside, especially on the concrete," because I would run like three to six miles. "That's just too much pounding on that knee," he told me. So that's when I just went, "Okay, I'll jump rope."

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When I do the elliptical or the spin bike, I do intervals. I do 40 seconds real hard and 20 second back up, back down for a little bit, 20 seconds. Then 40 seconds hard. I'll do at least 12 of those.

Now, I'm starting to get on the field to do more strides—my former strength and conditioning coach for one of my NFL teams, he incorporated that into one of my workouts. I should do that maybe twice a week, just to get on the grass.

And what do you do for core?

I have one of those ab rollers that I really swear by. You're kind of in a doggy position, and the roller goes out in front, and you have to come back. I like doing the Total Bar, too, where you're hanging in a pull-up position and then, depending on how strong your core is, you bring your knees or your legs straight up.

I put my toes straight up to touch the bar, and I work in the side-to-side version, too.

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When you’re doing Gameday, do you get up on Saturdays and work out?

I have so much to do on GameDay that I would have to get up really, really early. Now, after GameDay—we’re on college campuses, and hey’ll let us use their facility most of the time to work out—I’ll watch the noon kick while I’m on the elliptical or the spin bike or whatever they have available.

What’s one thing you do now workout-wise or diet-wise or both that you wish you’d started earlier?

I wish I knew more about nutrition earlier. I’ve got a sweet tooth.

I heard you like Krispy Kreme.

Love Krispy Kreme. Addicted to Krispy Kreme. It’s just a good thing there’s not one near the house, you know what I’m saying? There would be a problem. That wouldn’t be pretty, my friend. We probably wouldn’t be doing this interview.

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Like I said, I eat a lot more things like flax seeds, chia seeds, things of that nature, that help your cholesterol and stuff like that. I just wish I had better knowledge of more nutritional things earlier.

How much flax seed and chia seeds were you eating at Michigan?

They’re like, “Who’s gonna eat that chia seeds? Chia pet? You talking about the chia pet? What are you talking about?” That was the only thing we knew about chia back then—those little chia pets they sold on TV.

The signs have become such a fun part of GameDay. Do you have a sign that sticks out in your memory as the best sign you ever saw?

I think it was last season, we were up at Penn State, Penn State was playing Michigan and there was a sign that said something to the effect of, “Desmond’s such a homer that he helped write the Iliad.” It was really, really clever.

What do you think your 40 time would be right now?

I still think I could go sub-5.0. Like maybe 4.8, 4.9? I don't know. I may be thinking too highly of myself.

How much sleep do you usually get? I imagine it must be hard being on the road as much as you are.

That's the part that I need to get better at—and a lot. I don't sleep much. We've got so many teams we have to cover—the East Cast teams and the West Coast teams—and so much film to watch. I keep going and keep going, and then it's 1:00 or 2:00 A.M. Then next thing you know, I'm up at five. I get up early no matter what time I go to bed.

You would be impressed how fast I could go to sleep once I decide I'm going to go to sleep. though. Once I decide to shut it down, I shut it down and I'm gone. When I was at Michigan, I could actually calm myself down to the point where I could fall asleep before a game in the locker room.

You're 48 now. How old do you feel?

I feel like I'm in my late-thirties, man. I feel great. I do, I feel great. I hear people talking about, "We gettin' old." You shouldn't say that. First of all, everyone's getting old. That's a state of mind, and once you put that out there, then you're going to start to feel old. Especially my generation, that's what they say: "Man, we gettin' old. We don't like the music we hearin' now.” I'm like, "Listen, we're getting older, which is a great thing."

If you get that old mentality, you won't be able to run that sub-five flat 40.

Exactly. If that's your mentality, you start to feel old. You know what I mean? You think you're getting old? You'll start to feel old. That's not the goal here.

The interview has been edited and condensed.

Clay Skipper is a Staff Writer at GQ.XInstagramRelated Stories for GQReal Life DietFootball