By Nick Shook
NFL.com
Read full post on NFL.com

Their last name might be Apple, but don’t get it twisted — Friday’s controversy was all about fried foods.

Second-year corner Eli Apple of the New York Giants told NFL Network’s Kimberly Jones that the key to his 10-pound healthy bulk was cutting down on the artery-clogging-yet-delicious culinary options served up by none other than his mother. Typically, we could accept this at face value. Mom cleans up cooking, son sees benefits, which translate to the field and inspire a lighthearted story behind the success. Move along.

But this isn’t just any NFL mother we’re talking about. This is Annie Apple, Twitter’s favorite football matriarch, and she’s not here for her son’s embellishment.

So who, in this game of mom says, son says, do we believe? Eli, who put the fried-food claim at “100 percent true,” said he gained the pounds to avoid getting pushed around in physical meetings with opposing wideouts. Annie elaborated in her Twitter defense that rice is a staple of her cooking. Anyone who’s attempted a healthy bulk has turned to the complex carb at one point or another. But was it steamed or fried?

Annie reiterated her innocence as the family chef, but we might need a sit-down with the two Apples to settle this once and for all. We can wait and wonder. It’s cutting season, anyway.