Akili Smith and Scott Mitchell fix their plates at lunch. (Steven M. Herppich photos) | ZOOM |

        GEORGETOWN, Ky. — The training table legend of former Bengals defensive end Bob Maddox lives on.

        In 1974, when the Bengals trained at Wilmington College, Mr. Maddox took a family-sized box of corn flakes, poured it on his cafeteria tray — never mind the bowl — layered on the milk, ate the cereal right off the tray and followed it up with seven T-bone steaks.

        Linebacker Bo Harris almost won a bet with teammates that he could drink five gallons of chocolate milk during one meal. He lost the wager and his lunch.

        Then there was running back Boobie Clark, who was forced to eat gelatin in the dining room to cut weight, but couldn't resist his nightly 16-piece bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

        Bengals players these days, like athletes around the NFL, are less prone to gluttonous training table displays and generally more aware of diet and nutrition.

John Lankford cooks hamburgers for the Bengals. | ZOOM |

        “You've got guys who are, to some degree, better educated at least as far as dietary issues and nutrition,” says Bengals trainer Paul Sparling, who has been with the team 25 years — long enough to remember 259-pound full back Pete Johnson sneaking pizzas into his Wilmington College dorm room in a briefcase.

        But with the average Bengal weighing in at 248 pounds, players still can pack it away. An NFL player is likely to consume 40 ounces at one sitting, compared to 20 ounces for the average man, dietitians say.

        The Bengals spend $100,000 to feed some 80 players and another three dozen staff members during the five-week training camp at Georgetown College.

        Chefs at the Georgetown conference center must come up with four meals a day — breakfast, lunch, dinner and a 9:30 p.m. snack — for 35 days. And the directions are as plain as the food.

        “I'm not interested in fluff,” says Bengals business manager Bill Connelly, who relays the club's guidelines to chefs. “It doesn't have to have garnishment. They're not doing a restaurant presentation for these guys. These guys burn a lot of calories. They need a lot of calories.”

        The Bengals contract with a dietitian, who helps them come up with the menu.

        There's a low-calorie option — the salad bar — for players trying to lose weight. Pasta and tomato sauce are served with every meal.

BELLY UP

Here's one training camp dinner former executive chef Kevin Dorr remembers being eaten by 80 Bengals players and another 30 club employees:   • 300 20-ounce bottles of water and Power-Ade (in addition to fountain drinks and milk)   • 180 16-ounce pork chops   • 100 baked potatoes   • 25 pounds of salad   • 20 pounds of mixed vegetables   • 10 pounds of pasta   • 5 gallons of cookies 'n' cream ice cream

        Meat is the main course each time — beef, chicken and pork. Half-pound hamburgers are served with a white meat, usually chicken. Even if players eat, say, 90-plus burgers, they'll also polish off two dozen whole chickens.

        “There aren't a whole lot of ways they'll let us prepare the meat, and there's not a whole lot of meat choices,” says Kevin Dorr, the executive chef for the team's training table from 1998-2000. He was promoted before the season to district chef for Sodexho, the Maryland-based food-service company that has the Bengals' contract.

        “I tried chicken breast with shiitake mushrooms and Dijon mustard sauce,” said Dorr, who worked as a sous-chef in his native Nashville, Tenn., at the award-winning French restaurant, Wild Boar. “They about threw it back at me.”

        He snuck in some seasoning on the Bengals, even if they didn't realize it. The steaks were marinated all night before they hit the grill. Instead of just making plain mashed potatoes, the chefs would spike them with garlic. Soups, the favorite of team president Mike Brown, are restaurant quality.

        Occasionally, something regional will be added to the mix. Running back Corey Dillon and linebacker Steve Foley love the red beans and rice. Wide receiver Darnay Scott likes the Mexican spread. Head coach Dick LeBeau will top off lunch and dinner with double-dip cookies 'n' cream cones.

        The deli spread has a lot of fans because of its variety. It's also a light meal that's available to players before night practices.

        The most popular menu item is the 16-ounce pork chop, although players seem to have a love-hate relationship with it.

        Love. Dorr remembers the night the Bengals ate 180 chops — “They smoked me,” he says — about two per player.

        Hate. “You can only fix pork so many ways,” says Rich Braham, the 309-pound starting center.

        From Braham's perspective, it's the “little guys,” not the super-sized linemen, who eat the most.

        “Sometimes, because you're so tired, you can only eat so much,” he says. “The bigger guys, we have to maintain our weights. We can't go nuts eating. But we drink a lot of water to stay hydrated.”

        That's particularly an issue today, in the wake of Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer's fatal heat stroke in training camp.

        The kitchen staff estimates that Bengals players go through 20 cases of 24-count, 20-ounce bottles of water and 12 cases of 24-count, 20-ounce bottles of Power-Ade every day.

        With the focus on staying hydrated, guys will fill up on beverages, and there are few stories about over-the-top eating.

        But here's one. Last year, Braham went out to dinner with line coach Paul Alexander. There's a Georgetown peanut-shells-on-the-floor roadhouse that tempts big eaters with a free 64-ounce steak — provided it's eaten within 30 minutes.

        “Paul ate it, set a record in like 21 minutes,” says Braham, who sat across from Brock Gutierrez, his 304-pound backup. “None of the players could do it. Brock got the closest. But he had six ounces left and looked like he was going to throw up. I didn't even attempt it because I knew we had practice the next day. That's a lot of meat to be sitting in your gut.”

        Linebacker Takeo Spikes, a four-year veteran, agrees with Braham that just because a player weighs more doesn't mean he eats more.

        “The biggest eaters are the rookies,” Spikes says. “It's all new to them. For the rest of us, the food is just there to keep our energy up.”

        The players trying to lose weight, Sparling says, have to be careful not to undereat as well.

        It's hard to imagine anybody trying to lose weight while surveying the dining room at 9:30 at night, especially after a 7-9 p.m. practice.

        Buffalo wings are so popular, Dorr is staggered by how many each player can eat that late at night.

        “It's like a pound and a half per player, 20 per person,” he says. “I guess when you're young and in shape, you can do that.”

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