Programming note: Watch "49ers Pregame Live," with Carlos Ramirez, Donte Whitner and Rod Brooks, at 4 p.m. on NBC Sports Bay Area for a complete preview of the Thanksgiving showdown with the Seahawks, and come back for "49ers Postgame Live" immediately following the game.
Football and food are synonymous with Thanksgiving, and nothing unites the three more iconically than the turducken, which the late, great John Madden made famous.
Turducken is a Cajun dish consisting of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, further stuffed into a deboned turkey, creating one of the more bizarre food combinations imaginable.
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As 49ers fans dig into their Thanksgiving spreads this year, they might want to watch this 2020 video of recently signed guard Ben Bartch famously concocting what only can be described as the turducken of smoothies, which he drank to help him add weight during his college days.
Bartch's daily smoothie recipe called for a combination of grits, bananas, peanut butter and scrambled eggs that's then topped off with a healthy Gatorade pour.
The strange creation allowed Bartch to gain the necessary weight to transition from tight end to offensive line, where he thrived at St. John's Unversity in Minnesota before the Jacksonville Jaguars picked him in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
San Francisco 49ers
In addition to his visionary smoothie skills, Bartch brings a considerable amount of NFL experience with him to San Francisco, logging 20 starts and 41 games played over parts of four seasons in the league. So, with the 49ers' interior offensive line depth being tested as the 2023 season progresses, Bartch's arrival can quell San Francisco's concerns about injuries to their front-line starters while providing additional confidence should it ever need creative consulting on alternative ways to bulk up.