Laura Rutledge outs Dan Orlovsky eating Mentos like an absolute weirdo

It’s been long established that Dan Orlovsky is weird, but his latest bizarre eating habit proves “weird” doesn’t do the ESPN NFL analyst enough justice.

To sort of steal a line from Bob Costas, to say that Dan Orlovsky is weird understates it. I think unearthly is an appropriate adjective. We have to either thank or fault Orlovsky’s NFL Live colleague Laura Rutledge for bringing this to our attention. But apparently, Orlovsky consumes Mentos as if he’s a mama bird preparing food for its baby.

Umm guys. @danorlovsky7 has lost his dang mind 😝 pic.twitter.com/fWdvdQ94pL

— Laura Rutledge (@LauraRutledge) October 13, 2023

“I just got to the NFL Live set and I saw this on the desk,” Rutledge said while pointing to what looked like a pieces of chewed up gum that you might find under a chair or desk at school. “I said, ‘Are those seashells? What is that?’ What is that Dan? What would that be?”

“I only want like that initial taste of the Mentos without the sugar inside,” Orlovsky said nonchalantly, as if there’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing. “So I just take the initial covering off of them. I don’t want to put that in my stomach, I just want almost like a mint.”

They make mints, Dan. It’s not clear whether these are pieces of Mentos gum or Mentos candies, it seems like they are the candies, which only makes it weirder.

“I’m nauseous,” Rutledge said, appropriately speaking for nearly everyone who has now been made aware of the way Dan Orlovsky eats Mentos.

I get that we’ve all eased up on COVID protocols in the last three years and I’m certainly not about to say we should revert to only eating outdoors while isolated in a bubble. But if you’re eating habits entail chewing up and spitting out a pile of Mentos on a workplace desk, then maybe a couple of protocols need to be reinstated to appease even the mildest of germophobes.

Ketchup on steak, unseasoned chicken, bland nachos, ice in red wine, empty spice cabinets, these are just some of the strange food takes Orlovsky has innocently revealed since ingratiating himself to ESPN’s audience. And we haven’t even ventured into his personal hygiene takes. But none of the past reasons for labeling Orlovsky weird come even remotely close to this Mentos thing.

The only defense of Orlovsky’s Mentos habit is that he was doing it on the anniversary of his infamous self-imposed safety. Anything to redirect attention away from showing more highlights of him running out of the back of the end zone.

[Laura Rutledge]