TMI: What does Brandon Zylstra do in his free time?
We’re all just like Brandon Zylstra. Yep, seriously. We are.
No, we’re not all 1,000-yard receivers who have been named a Shaw Top Performer of the week twice and a top performer for the month of September. And no, we’re not former competitive water skiers from Minnesota.
We’re like him because when Brandon has free time, he eats. You’re laughing but I’m not kidding. Eating is his hobby – his words, not mine. But really, when you think about it, isn’t that the goal in life? Play football by day, eat all of the food by night?
I think so.
Zylstra’s pre-game playlist is an eclectic mix. He also would choose his roommate to be stranded with him on a deserted island. He also has a superstition, that he doesn’t really think is a superstition, that he does before every game.
Find out all of that, and much more, in this edition of TMI!
Kristina Costabile: Tell me something that fans might not know about you.
Brandon Zylstra: One of my passions is water skiing. That’s something I grew up doing because I’m from Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. I was on the lake five days a week and I actually competed on a ski team as a kid, regionally and nationally and stuff. That’s something that as I got busier with football I haven’t been able to do. I only go maybe once a year. The last two years I haven’t even really gone out. It’s something I definitely miss.
KC: Where did you go do ski back home?
BZ: So the county that I live in, we have the most lakes per capita or something like that. From my house I can drive 20 minutes in any direction and run into two or three lakes. There’s an abundance back home.
KC: What do you like to do in your free time in Edmonton?
BZ: I live a pretty boring life up here to be honest. Football is pretty much my own focus. But if I’m not doing that, (I’m) eating. I’ll say eating is a hobby of mine just because we have to take so many calories. I spend a lot of money on that and a lot of my time on that. Other than that, bowling or something.
KC: Do you cook?
BZ: (Laughs) I try to. When I first got up here I told myself (I was going to) because this off-season I did meal prep, I was religious with it. And then when I got up here, I told myself that I was going to do the same thing but after practice you’re not trying to sit down and cook. So it’s been a lot of going out to eat.
KC: What’s on your pre-game playlist?
BZ: I listen to such a variety of music and a lot of the music I listen to I’m sure a lot of people would be like, ‘wait, how does that get you pumped up?’ I listen to anything from Tyga to old school 50 Cent. It’s honestly a super random playlist that doesn’t make any sense.
KC: If you were stranded on a deserted island, which one of your teammates would you want with you?
BZ: That’s gotta be my dog Bryant Mitchell.
KC: Why him?
BZ: We pretty much do everything together. We’ve lived together for the last two years. That’s just somebody that I know I could put up with and if I didn’t want to put up with him, I know he’d just leave me alone if I told him to.
KC: If you weren’t a football player, what would you be doing?
BZ: That’s kind of one reason why I’m playing football because I don’t know what else I want to do with my life. My brothers are big into water skiing too and one of them always talks about how he wants to ski professionally. You can’t really make much money off of it but you can get different sponsorships and stuff. That’s kind of the path that he says he wants to do so maybe I’d go do that with him.
KC: What’s your favourite football memory?
BZ: In high school, in my junior year, we went 14-0 and won state. We got to play in the old Metro Dome in Minnesota where the Vikings play. That was a pretty cool experience. We came back from 14 in the fourth quarter to win it so that was a pretty special moment. It was the first time in our school history too.
KC: Do you have any pre-game superstitions or routines?
BZ: No, I try not to believe in superstitions because that just gives you another thing to worry about on game day. But one thing I do catch myself doing all the time is always putting the right sock on first. Right sock, right shoe on first. I don’t know if I’d call that a superstition but that’s just what tends to happen most of the time.
KC: Is there a reason why you started doing it?
BZ: No, but I noticed it last year. I was trying to decide if it was a superstition or not and I just kept doing it ever since.
KC: Are you binge watching anything on Netflix?
BZ: I started Suits earlier this year and I got almost to the end of Season 4 and I turned it off. That would be the most religiously other than that it’s pretty much random.
KC: If you could have any super power in the whole world, what would it be?
BZ: To be able to control time because then everything is on my schedule.
