Subs Just in Time for Football Season
Football season is back, which means millions of Americans are preparing for the annual ritual of arguing with friends over quarterbacks, yelling at televisions, pretending they understand every referee decision and, most importantly, eating an unreasonable amount of food.
Publix is getting in on the action by bringing back its popular NFL team-themed Pub Subs for the 2026 football season. The limited-time sandwiches are returning for fans of the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons, giving football fans another reason to make a Publix deli stop before kickoff.
And because apparently a normal Pub Sub wasn’t sufficiently capable of carrying the emotional burden of your favorite football team, Publix has given each sandwich its own flavor profile designed around the team’s identity and regional tastes.
The Miami Dolphins Pub Sub
Dolphins fans get a crispy chicken tender sandwich featuring sweet sriracha sauce and Boar’s Head Three Pepper Colby Jack Cheese. It is a pretty serious departure from the Miami-inspired Dolphins sandwich Publix has offered in previous years, which featured ham, pulled pork, Swiss cheese, lemon garlic aioli and crispy jalapeños.
The new version brings the heat with crispy chicken, sweet sriracha and peppery cheese. For South Florida football fans, it may be the most appropriate sandwich imaginable for watching the Dolphins attempt to give their fans either hope or cardiac symptoms.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Pub Sub
The Buccaneers version goes with the always-reliable combination of crispy chicken tenders, bacon and cheddar cheese, topped with Publix’s spicy gold sauce.
Sweet and spicy is the theme here, and it sounds like exactly the sort of sandwich that disappears remarkably quickly at a football party.
The Jacksonville Jaguars Pub Sub
Jacksonville gets a decidedly Southern treatment. The Jaguars Pub Sub features crispy chicken tenders, coleslaw, bacon, cheddar cheese and barbecue mayo.
Basically, Publix looked at Jacksonville, looked at barbecue, and decided there was no reason to overthink the situation. The result is smoky, creamy, crunchy and ridiculously loaded. In other words, exactly what a football sandwich should be.
The Atlanta Falcons Pub Sub
The Atlanta Falcons sandwich might be the most unusual of the bunch. It combines crispy chicken tenders, sweet maple seasoning and bacon, then adds peach preserves and sriracha mayonnaise.
Chicken, bacon, peaches and spicy mayo sounds like something that should not work nearly as well as it apparently does. Yet this is the sandwich Publix is putting on the field, so apparently humanity has decided to see what happens.
The Pub Subs Are Back for a Limited Time
Publix says the NFL-themed sandwiches are available for a limited time at select locations. Customers should check with their local Publix or visit Publix to determine whether their store is participating.
The return is part of Publix’s annual push to turn its deli into a football-season headquarters. And honestly, it makes sense. You don’t necessarily need to spend hundreds of dollars going to a game to participate in football culture. Sometimes all you need is a television, a couch, a Pub Sub and a willingness to become irrationally angry about a holding penalty.
The sandwiches won’t be around forever, either. Like football itself, the window is limited and will be determined by city and location.
So if you’ve been waiting all year to eat a sandwich representing your favorite NFL team, congratulations. This is apparently where we are as a civilization. And honestly, there are worse traditions.
Publix Set to Offer Sixteen Limited-Edition Ice Cream Flavors
Football isn’t the only thing returning to Publix this fall.
While the grocery giant is bringing back its NFL-themed Pub Subs, Publix is also loading up the freezer aisle with 16 limited-edition ice cream flavors for the fall and holiday seasons. And this isn’t some tiny little seasonal experiment. There are nine flavors available in half-gallon containers and seven more in pint sizes, giving shoppers plenty of opportunities to make completely unnecessary but highly defensible decisions involving ice cream.
The seasonal flavors are only available for a limited time and availability can vary by store. So, naturally, if you find one you love, the safest strategy is probably to buy it before Publix decides humanity has had enough.
The Half-Gallon Lineup
Nine of the limited-edition flavors are coming in the traditional half-gallon size, which is good news for people who don’t consider a pint to be an appropriate serving size.
The half-gallon flavors are:
Bananas Foster – Banana-flavored ice cream with a brown sugar rum-flavored swirl.
Cinnamon Streusel Praline – Brown sugar ice cream with cinnamon streusel swirl, sticky bun dough and praline pecans.
Deep Dish Apple Pie – Apple-flavored ice cream with brown sugar-cinnamon sauce, real apple pieces and sugar-rolled pie crust pieces.
Eggnog – Rich eggnog-flavored ice cream with a touch of nutmeg.
Peanut Butter Pretzel – Peanut butter ice cream with chocolate-coated pretzel pieces and a fudge swirl.
Peppermint Stick – Vanilla ice cream loaded with festive pieces of peppermint candy.
Pumpkin Pie – Pumpkin pie-flavored ice cream with whipped-cream swirls and buttery piecrust pieces.
Rum Nut Bread Pudding – A holiday-inspired flavor built around the classic dessert.
Santa’s White Christmas – Barnie’s Santa’s White Christmas coffee flavor combined with cocoa espresso flakes.
Several of these are returning seasonal favorites, which is part of what makes Publix’s limited-edition ice cream releases such a big deal for regular shoppers. Some flavors have developed their own little cult followings, because apparently Americans can become emotionally attached to frozen dairy products. And honestly, that’s one of the more harmless things we do.
The Pint-Sized Flavors
Publix is also continuing its newer pint-sized limited-edition format, with seven flavors being offered in the smaller containers.
They include:
Banana Nut Bread – Banana bread-flavored ice cream with walnut pieces and banana sauce swirls.
Bourbon Eggnog – Rich bourbon eggnog-flavored ice cream with a touch of nutmeg.
Candy Bar – Vanilla ice cream packed with peanut butter cups, milk chocolate pieces, chocolate truffles, pretzel bark and honey caramel swirls.
Chantilly Cake – White cake-flavored ice cream with berry ribbons and almond-flavored cake pieces.
Maple Chocolate Chip Pancake – Buttermilk maple-flavored ice cream with chocolate flakes, cake pieces and salty maple caramel swirls.
Peanut Butter & Jelly – Peanut butter ice cream with grape swirls and PB&J cups.
Raspberry Elegance – White chocolate-flavored ice cream with raspberry sauce and white chocolate raspberry-flavored cups.
And Then There is Peanut Butter Pretzel!!!!
One of the more interesting changes this year involves Peanut Butter Pretzel.
Publix previously offered Peanut Butter Pretzel as one of its limited-edition pint-sized flavors. This year, it has moved into the half-gallon lineup.
That may not sound like a major development unless you’ve actually eaten the stuff.
The flavor combines peanut butter ice cream with chocolate-coated pretzel pieces and fudge swirl. In other words, Publix has taken three ingredients that already have absolutely no interest in helping you exercise portion control and put them together in one container.
Moving it from a pint to a half-gallon also means fans aren’t being forced to play the cruel game of deciding whether they should eat the entire pint in one sitting. Now they can make the same questionable decision with substantially more ice cream.
Publix is Flexing With All of These GREAT Ideas
Between the NFL Pub Subs and sixteen seasonal ice cream flavors, Publix is clearly making a major push into football-season and holiday eating.
And the timing is pretty much perfect. Football parties, tailgates, Thanksgiving, Christmas gatherings and the general human tendency to eat more when the weather gets cooler all create plenty of opportunities for Publix to sell us things we absolutely do not need.
The seasonal ice creams are available while supplies last, so shoppers shouldn’t assume a particular flavor will still be sitting in the freezer months from now. The big question is which flavor becomes the breakout favorite this year.
And considering the lineup Publix has assembled, the freezer aisle might end up being just as dangerous to your waistline as the bakery.
