Football Star Terrell Suggs Got in Shape — by Cutting Down on Gefilte Fish

Image by Thinkstock
(JTA) — An NFL football player just gave Jewish mothers across the country another reason to worry about their children’s well-being. Gefilte fish is no good for those trying to maintain a healthy diet, suggested Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs.
“I like my fried chicken, my pizza, my peaches and my gefilte fish. I had to cut all that out,” Suggs said Thursday when asked about his recent weight loss, according to . “I still eat the peaches, though, and a little bit of the fish. But that’s about it.”
Following a decrease in his consumption of the traditional Ashkenazi dish, the 33-year-old football player is in better shape than ever.
“He’s in excellent condition,” said coach John Harbaugh.
While Suggs did not elaborate on how he got hooked on gefilte fish, the linebacker has a Jewish history. He considers himself “half-Jewish” and has a Star of David tattoo on his right arm, according to TMZ.
Suggs isn’t the only famous person with strong opinions about the ground fish patties.
Despite having eaten the dish at home and having lots of Jewish friends, Rapper LL Cool J never learned to love gefilte fish.
“My grandfather was from the Bronx,” the rapper told the Jewish Journal. “[H]e came home with gefilte fish every week. I didn’t like it, no disrespect, but I loved him, it wasn’t my thing, but I always had great Jewish friends.”
Comedian and talk show host Seth Meyers agrees with the hip hop hitmaker.
“Growing up, my father—whose father was Jewish—embraced borscht and gefilte fish. My brother and I thought it was disgusting. That is not gateway food if you want your kids to embrace Judaism,” the former “Saturday Night Live” writer told Bon Appétit.
The dish has also been on the agenda of none other than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. One of her emails released by the State Department last year caught the eyes of many Jews.
“Gefilte fish” read the subject of the 2010 email, sent to two top aides. Its body contained a simple question: “Where are we on this?”
Apparently the issue at stake was a shipment of carp (a crucial gefilte fish ingredient) to Israel that had been blocked due to tariff issues just before Passover, when Jews traditionally enjoy the pungent patties. Fortunately, Clinton was able to pull strings to get the cargo approved, ensuring that no seders in Israel would go without the beloved dish.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.