Cooking Colts opponents at Zesco restaurant supply (WIBC.com photo: Ray Steele)

Football season is here, and that means a restaurant supply store has started cooking the Colts' opponents again.

Listen to Ray Steele's extended report:

For the third year, Zesco at Capitol and Walnut in Indianapolis is placing a jersey from an opposing player inside the giant stockpot that sits atop the awning outside the store. Leading up to Sunday's home opener between the Colts and the Minnesota Vikings, the jersey of Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has been stewed in the pot all week long.  "We actually bought all these jerseys off of NFL.com, and that's how we do it," said Chad Johnson, sales manager at Zesco.  "Our warehouse manager purchases them online, he sees what the schedule is, and every home game we'll have them on there. Even some of the away games we'll do."

Johnson says no one noticed the jerseys when they first started putting them up.  "We've got the clock, time and temperature, people would see that. But they'd never look the extra six feet up there and see that stock pot. Then, it really caught on. We have Facebook and Twitter - people are Tweeting us all the time," said Johnson of the public, regardless of whether they were buying a heavy-duty frying pan or industrial-sized mixer inside.

If you look closely, you'll see the jerseys aren't going anywhere.  "This has got double sided tape on the back side to hold the jersey down so it doesn't blow away, and then we've got a couple of other holes we've put in to zip tie it to the handles," said Johnson.

Johnson says Zesco's warehouse manager buys the jerseys of the best known players from the opposing team at each Colts game.  Zesco also put up a Super Bowl sign on the pot leading up to the big game, though they went through some licensing issues with the NFL and the city's Department of Code Enforcement.

Though the Peterson jersey is in a stock pot that some refer to as the boiling kettle, Johnson believes there is a better way to cook A-P. "We'd probably sear it off real quick, get it nice and crispy on the outside, then stick in the pot and let it simmer for a while, so it just falls apart."  Figuratively, of course.

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