NFL Star Cam Newton Shares His Vegan Plan for Thanksgiving

Professional football player Cam Newton—who recently joined NFL team the New England Patriots as a quarterback—revealed his plans for a vegan Thanksgiving during an appearance on sports radio show The Greg Hill Morning Show on WEEI. “There will be some alternative meals, for sure,” Newton said. “Everything that you probably have for your Thanksgiving, I can still do outside of like turkey … You got stuffing [and] you’ve got collard greens.”

Newton’s family recipes are inspired by the Gullah Geechee (sometimes referred to as “Geechie”) culture, a term for descendants of enslaved West Africans who reside in coastal areas and the sea islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. “My family is kind of Geechie when it comes to having rice with everything,” Newton said. “My family does a great red rice with sausage but you can kind of [transform] that with either Beyond or Impossible Meat (instead of sausage) and mac and cheese—I found a way to do that, too.”

The 31-year-old athlete went plant-based in February 2019 and a few months later in September, told ESPN that he felt “like a rookie again.” After his Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Newton and the Patriots will take on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.