What goes on a Thanksgiving plate? We know the turkey standard, but what do you build around that? The sides are important. Debating that could create turmoil, which is exactly what happened in the early morning hours of Good Morning Football Thursday:
Akbar and I were about to draw swords over Mac n Cheese ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/31Dz3uy5Bb
— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) November 28, 2024
The question was “One Thanksgiving side has to go.” The debate was over mashed potatoes or mac and cheese. Kyle Brandt gave us a complex answer, and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila was prepared with a fiery response.
Let’s start with Brandt.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here,” he said. “Do you ever get the impression that there might be some—I don’t know—cultural differences in what people put on their Thanksgiving table that maybe we should be respectful of?”
To that point, the answer here is easily for me, and honestly, don’t freak out, because the worst part of these Thanksgiving discussions is when someone says they don’t like one food, and someone’s like, ‘WHAT?!’ Let’s just have a calm conversation.”
Couldn’t agree more. He’s right—nobody ever has a relaxed food take.
Mind you, you can see Gbaja-Biamila physically reacting to every word Brandt is saying through this rant.
“The easy answer here for me is mac and cheese because, of course I love mac and cheese,” Brandt continued. “Everybody loves mac and cheese.”
He said he wasn’t raised with mac and cheese during his traditional Thanksgiving meal, so he is used to having it year around. Brant also compared it to nachos, which — hmm OK.
“Mac and cheese, I’ll eat it tomorrow and yesterday, but not today,” he said.
Gbaja-Biamila did admit for his response he was going to be calm in his response, so points for him right off the bat. Even though Brandt admitted during his spiel he did his best not to get his co-host “triggered.”
“What do you eat instead of mac and cheese? Like pierogis or something?” he asked Brandt.
“I care about what you eat, and I just want you to come to my home, and I will prep you mac and cheese, and I guarantee you, it will change your life,” Gbaja-Biamila said. “You’ll never be the same anymore. I guarantee you.”
Brandt said he would love to have mac and cheese at his home. But just not on Thanksgiving, of course.
