Another September means another Music City Food + Wine Festival in the books. This is one of our favorite Tennessee food festivals, because we get to sample dozens of delicious bites from restaurants all over the state (though mostly in Nashville and Middle Tennessee). The Tennessee Beef Burger at Fido, the charcuterie at Deacon’s New South and the tomato pie at 5th & Taylor were standouts in our book.

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But this year, the main event on Friday was a throwdown between chefs Tim Love and Anne Burrell – and more importantly to us Tennessee sports fans, the Tennessee Titans and the Nashville Predators. On Love’s team, Kevin Byard and Logan Ryan helped the Texas chef prep the food, while on Bullard’s side, P.K. Subban and Roman Josi stepped up to the plate.

The two teams had to make a dish that highlighted two ingredients: sweet potatoes and country ham. Though hockey’s preseason is just getting started while football is well under way, Preds fans seemed to outnumber Titans supports in the packed tent. Chants of “Let’s go Predators” continued throughout the 40-minute cookoff, and one fan even yelled Byard’s name as if he were the goalie on an opposing team. However, the safety got the last laugh, throwing a 66-yard touchdown pass on Sunday afternoon.

After Love put on a Titans jersey, Olympic gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn appeared with a yellow Subban jersey for Burrell. There plenty of other laughs, including when emcee Jessie James Decker asked the audience who traveled the furthest, and Josi, who hails from Switzerland, sheepishly raised his hand.

When it came down to the dishes, the Preds came out on top, with the judges selecting their crab, sweet potato and ham pappardelle pasta over the Titans’ country ham and okra stew with sweet potato biscuits.

But after getting to spend an hour watching Nashville athletes joking as they chopped vegetables and baked biscuits, we’d say everyone in the crowd were the ultimate winners.