Why playing for Alabama football ‘ruined’ peanut butter for one legend: ‘It scarred me’

AJ McCarron left Alabama football with multiple national championships rings and a disdain for peanut butter.

The former Crimson Tide quarterback shared recently on his new podcast called the Dynasty how then-strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran put him on a peanut butter regimen.

“I was skinnier,” McCarron said. “Coming out of high school, I was 6-3, 180 pounds. I remember the big boys having what they called fat camp. They’d go in early morning, 6 a.m. and have to go workout. Get in the sauna. All types of stuff to lose weight.”

Then McCarron had to do the inverse. He and receiver Kenny Bell.

“Cochran started a skinny camp,” McCarron said. “We had to go in and every morning, me and Kenny Bell, we had to eat a jar of peanut butter. Every morning. We had to finish it. There wasn’t no days off. A jar of peanut butter. You could put it in a protein shake. You could put it on PB&Js. You could just grab a spoon and just eat it. But you had to finish a jar of peanut butter every morning. I did this. I ended up getting to about 200 pounds at the end of that season. It ruined me from peanut butter. I couldn’t eat peanut butter. It scarred me.”

But it worked. McCarron gained weight and went on to become Alabama’s starting quarterback for three seasons, winning two national championships over that span.