Colt McCoy isn't exactly sure why the internet is obsessed with his milk-drinking habits.
"It's just milk, bro," he tells me on the phone, a day after his head coach Jay Gruden made public some not quite accurate statements regarding McCoy's calcium intake.
While speaking with media on Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meetings in Phoenix, Ariz., Gruden addressed the quarterback's recent surgical procedure on his fractured fibula before attesting to his commitment to drinking raw milk.
"I mean, this is a guy who works hard and drinks a gallon of milk every day for strong bones," Gruden said. "And I think it's the milk that's not pasteurized, either."
That, McCoy tells me, is only partly true.
"I grew up drinking raw milk because we had dairy cows and so it's what I've always preferred to drink," McCoy said. "I don't drink a gallon of it every day like Jay says, but I do like milk and I do drink it raw."
Instead, McCoy goes through a gallon in about five or six days, he clarifies, eating it with cereal and with his meals. "I don't know how much that totals out to but I've just always done it," he adds.
McCoy, who grew up on a farm in Tuscola, Texas, said he would milk his family's cows himself as a kid, "but that's not in my chores every day anymore," he said. His grandfather, or whomever is around the farm, takes on that task now, especially when McCoy is back in Virginia with the Redskins.
"[Raw milk] is hard to find in Virginia," McCoy said. "I can't really tell you where I get it from because there's a bunch of rules and regulations regarding raw milk, which is kind of crazy, I don't understand it, but they certainly don't sell it in stores because it's unpasteurized."
According to the FDA, "milk and milk products provide a wealth of nutrition benefits. But raw milk, i.e., unpasteurized milk, can harbor dangerous microorganisms that can pose serious health risks to you and your family."
When asked if McCoy would recommend drinking raw milk, however, he didn't hesitate.
"Of course, my kids drink it," McCoy said, quickly adding that his wife doesn't like milk. "Every time I drink regular milk it doesn't taste near as good, it kind of makes my stomach hurt, so raw milk is kind of the way to go I guess. [Pasteurized milk] tastes real watered down."
McCoy agreed with the timeline for recovery that Gruden addressed at the coaches breakfast, confirming that he would likely be ready to return to football action during OTAs. The surgical procedure on his fibula was necessary last week because the fracture site hadn't fully healed, a penalty for trying to rush back in case the Redskins made the playoffs last season.
"I was pushing for that, I think we pushed a little too hard and it resulted in that one site not healing," McCoy said. "They just had to go in a do a procedure to help that area grow back together. So I'll be non-weight bearing for a few weeks but it should heal pretty quickly."
McCoy, who was on some pain medication this weekend as the Grand Marshal for the IndyCar Classic ("I was just kind of floating around. It was good, I enjoyed it," he said), reached out to Case Keenum when the trade happened and is looking forward to working alongside the veteran, who McCoy has known for a while.
"[I] just told him I'm looking forward to working with him," McCoy said. "But I know what the team has been telling me and how to view this going in. I think the most important thing for me is I just got to get healthy. I think the stigma for me was just 'always hurt' or 'can't stay healthy,' which, that's never been the case for me for my whole career, but it seems like it as of late, the times I've had a chance, an injury has snuck up and taken it away from me. That's really my focus right now. I know when I'm healthy I'll be able to do what everybody plans on me doing."
