Former Cal Bears Lineman Mitchell Schwartz Indulging His Passion For Grilling During NFL's Virtual Offseason

(KPIX 5)- NFL players, like many of us, have had their schedules upended by the coronavirus pandemic. With facilities closed league-wide, teams have moved to virtual meetings and OTAs for the time being while players are at home with their families.

All players are training in one form or another as they prepare for a new season in 2020. How they do so may differ, but the end result is the same. They want to be in shape for the upcoming season. It's how players are spending their time outside of the hours of training where the hobbies and interests begin to come out. For former Cal Bears and current Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz, that has meant indulging a lifelong passion: cooking.

More specifically, Schwartz loves to grill. While the passion for making food began at an early age watching Emeril, Wolfgang Puck and Alton Brown on TV, mastering the art of grilling piqued his interest as he grew up and left college to start his NFL career in Cleveland.

"Got to Cleveland, lived in an apartment and there wasn't a great kitchen there," said Schwartz. "I was able to do some things in the kitchen and practice a bit but I wasn't allowed to grill on the balcony or anything of that nature so that was one of the big things I wanted after free agency was a place with more space. I would say in the last four years it's really taken off because I have been able to experiment with more techniques and figure out which I like."

For Schwartz, he enjoys grilling the most. Contrasting it with the barbecue style of "low and slow" that Kansas City is famous for, Schwartz likes the high heat, live fire aspect of grilling because, "there's nothing like using true wood to get a nice sear on a piece of meat."

Though loves grilling, he's still tinkering and mastering the art of grilling steaks. He's learning as he goes but says the best part of grilling in general is the atmosphere that it provides him.

"It takes a lot of time. It's really fun just being out there looking around at your environment," said Schwartz. "You can go at your own tempo and the flavor is just really a whole other level from anything that you can cook inside."

Schwartz's most consistently used grilling recipe at the moment are his fajitas, saying that the marinade that he uses for them is "fantastic". He makes that about once a week and enjoys it because you can make more of it than you need and have some leftovers for another time. He is consistently posting recipes for his favorite dishes to his Mitch in the Kitch blog. That has since turned into a new cooking show on the Chiefs social media accounts with the same title.

The favorite recipe he has? Smashburgers.

"They're so much fun to make," said Schwartz. "I throw the Baking Steel on the grill and let it pre-heat for about 30-45 minutes and it gets to 500-600 degrees. The burgers cook in less than a minute per side. It's quick, it's easy. It's the best home burger I've ever made. That's the most fun thing because you are working with the hotter temperatures you get that sizzle and that smoke and it's crazy tasty."

As with any home chef learning their way around the grill, Schwartz has had his share of mistakes or misfires. But his advice for anyone looking to begin their grilling journey or get better at it is simple:

"The biggest thing is what kind of grill you're using. Obviously, there is a little more user error when you're using charcoal or wood just having to maintain the fire and make sure the vents are opening to control the air flow," said Schwartz. "If you're new to it, propane is probably you're best best because you hit a few buttons and you'll get a pretty consistent heat. But the main thing is, you just have to try it. You're going to screw up. I still screw up all the time and people consider me a pretty good cook. For the most part people know what they like in food. You know how you like your pizza or your steak and so being able to tinker with it and find that method to produce the flavor you're really looking for, that's the fun part of cooking. There's also nothing like cooking for other people where you're making people happy and it's a fun environment."

The time away from the normal offseason has been beneficial in Schwartz's mind because its allowed for a more gradual build to his offseason training regimen. After winning the Super Bowl, in a normal year, the Chiefs would have had a more compressed timeline to get back into game shape prior to OTAs had this been a normal environment.

Still, despite what has been a decidedly non-normal offseason, Schwartz is preparing himself for the upcoming season as if it will start on time. As he puts it, there is too much money involved for all parties to think that they won't come up with a solution.

"It's been a gut feeling that there is just so much at stake in terms of financials across the board that we're going to be able to find a solution," said Schwartz. "The other thing is, that's another three months (before training camp) of research, of technology of development towards understanding the virus. It's a big wait and see. But, in terms of preparation, all you can really do is just assume everything is going to be normal and then just adjust from there. The worst thing you can do is get behind physically or mentally and then have to try to catch up. That's physically when you get hurt and mentally it's real tough to catch up."

The preparations for Schwartz and the Chiefs may be a bit easier due to the fact that the team returns 20 of 22 starters from last year's Super Bowl squad. There aren't many rookies expected to play key roles. Even the one that is, 1st round pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire, ran a similar offense at LSU. When the 2020 season does come around Schwartz feels confident the team will be ready to defend their Super Bowl title.

In:
• NFL
• Coronavirus
• Cal Bears