On Friday, the Minnesota Vikings announced the hiring of Ben Hawkins as Head Performance Dietitian, Joe Distor, Jr. as Head Strength Coach, and Chad Bari as Assistant Performance Coach.
Hawkins, who previously served as the assistant team dietitian for the L.A. Chargers in 2023-24, will lead the Vikings’ nutrition services, focusing on creating player-specific nutrition, performance, and recovery plans.
Distor joins the Vikings after working as a strength & conditioning associate coach for the L.A. Rams in 2024. Before that, he served as the associate head strength & conditioning coach for the Houston Texans from February 2019 to March 2024.
Bari, who spent over a decade at Wake Forest (2013-24), is now stepping into the NFL after a long career in college athletics.
Hawkins, a Purdue University graduate, previously worked as a sports nutrition fellow with the Chargers in 2022. In his new role, he will collaborate closely with Minnesota’s Health and Performance Department to develop optimal nutritional strategies for players, potentially including Head Coach Kevin O’Connell.
Notably, Hawkins was featured in a recent video by the Chargers called “Everything An NFL Dietitian Does On Game Day,” where he shared some interesting insights, such as L.A. coach Jim Harbaugh’s halftime meal — a plain hot dog.
Hawkins’ past responsibilities with the Chargers included overseeing nutrition operations, managing day-to-day logistics like menu planning and meal preparation, implementing nutrition protocols for injury recovery, and creating educational resources for players.
- Ben Hawkins
Before moving to the professional ranks, Hawkins earned bachelor’s degrees in Nutrition and Dietetics and Nutrition, Fitness, and Health at Purdue. He also gained practical experience at Purdue Sports Nutrition from 2019-21, assisting with student-athlete fueling stations, and later worked as a dietetic intern with Duke University’s sports nutrition team during the 2021 football season.
In February 2024, Hawkins was featured by the Chargers’ digital team for Black History Month.
For Hawkins, the most rewarding part of his job is helping athletes reach their full potential through optimal nutrition. “I work with players to help maximize their health, development, and performance,” he shared. Inspired by his own experiences as an athlete, he pursued a career in sports dietetics after noticing how much his performance was impacted by what he ate.
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