In the past week or so, we have learned more about Jim Nantz than most of us ever wished to know. Take, for example, the legendary broadcaster’s borderline obsession with burnt toast.
Nantz recently revealed in an interview with Golf Digest that he is a big breakfast guy who enjoys his toast burnt. One thing led to another and he now carries around a laminated photo of burnt toast so he can show it to waiters and waitresses.
“I’m a breakfast guy: three eggs scrambled, with bacon and wheat toast, burnt. The problem is, it never came back burnt,” Nantz explained. “For years it would arrive limp and tan, which brought breakfast to a standstill when I sent the toast back. It was costing me 10 minutes a day, which, multiplied by six days a week, is four hours a month. That’s 48 hours — two full days—per year. My friends, time is currency.
“My wife, Courtney, got tired of hearing me complain about it. She found a photograph on the internet of a kitchen toaster ejecting two slices of burnt toast. She minimized it, printed it out and had it laminated. She insisted I put it in my wallet. When I order, I present the photo to my server. I get some strange looks, but I can assure you, the toast now arrives black and scary, just the way I like it.”
Can’t make this stuff up. In an interview with “The Dan Patrick Show” Wednesday, Nantz laughed about how much fun people have had with the toast story. He even admitted to having a “toast fetish.”
“The fun part of it is you put it in the hands of a server and they look at you like you’ve just gone crazy,” Nantz said. “They laugh, they take it back to the kitchen, and you’re really just kind of having some fun at that time. Invariably, the chef comes out of the kitchen to see who is this crazed person in our restaurant.
“OK, so I have a bit of a toast fetish. Really, more than anything, it’s done in jest.”
If not for Nantz awkwardly giving a Villanova player his necktie earlier this week (see the video), we’d probably let this slide. But between the tie tradition and the laminated photo of burnt toast, I think we can conclude that this is one complex individual.
