Sports

Saints RB Jamaal Williams Is Making No Friends In NOLA With His Hot Take On Beignets

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New Orleans Saints running back Jamaal Williams sparks Funnel Cake and Beignets debate

Getty Images / Nic Antaya / iStock / jenifoto


Veteran running back Jamaal Williams joins the New Orleans Saints this season, second on the RB depth chart behind Alvin Kamara.

Williams has a 3-year contract with the Saints for $12 million that included a $3.9 million signing bonus for the 2023 season, a contract that keeps him in The Big Easy for the foreseeable future.

One might think that moving to a proud city like New Orleans, an athlete might try to ingratiate himself with the locals. In New Orleans, where Food and Music are two pillars of culture, it might be advisable for the new guy in town to at least avoid bashing a local favorite. In this case, we’re talking about beignets.

But this Jamaal Williams we’re talking about and he wasn’t going to relent when asked about beignets. He said “yeah, not impressed” and compared beignets to nothing more than funnel cake at the fair. Repeating “it’s just a funnel cake” and mispronouncing ‘beignets’ repeatedly.

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I saw this clip over the weekend and my first thought was ‘he’s not wrong’ but I also wouldn’t hop on a podium in New Orleans and bash a staple of the local food. Beignets are far from the most popular dish in New Orleans but they are also a staple of the French influence on the city, and the roots of that run very deep.

Also, in France there are TWENTY different types of beignets or ‘benyatis’ as Jamaal Williams calls them. While Cafe du Monde might have one style that’s world famous, bashing their famous food isn’t going to help him get any checks picked up by restauranteurs around town.

A quick Google search of ‘San Bernardino beignets’ reveals zero options in town for the French dish. It’s not surprising at all that Jamaal Williams is a beignets hater.

Jamaal Williams and the New Orleans Saints are the current NFC South favorites at +130 to win the division (on most books). My Buccaneers are dead last in the predictions at +750 or worse to win the South…

At the end of the day, Williams is an incredibly likable guy. He’s even called out the NFL for robbing players of their personalities. I suspect that clowning on beignets won’t cause him any trouble with the locals.