Last Brit in NFL, Jamie Gillan, ready to shock Super Bowl star Mahomes after park training sessions with girlfriend
AMERICAN FOOTBALL'S last Brit standing has prepared to take on Super Bowl star Patrick Mahomes by training with his girlfriend in a park.
Cleveland Browns punter Jamie Gillan from Inverness, who is known as the Scottish Hammer, is hoping to pull-off one of the biggest upsets in sport by shocking the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
The huge underdogs take on quarter-back Mahomes' defending champs just days after suffering a Covid crisis that caused them to close their training ground.
But ex-rugby fly-half Gillan, 23, said: "I was just driving to the local field and my girlfriend would be throwing me the football to simulate a long snap.
"I’ve got this garage gym I’ve built, it’s freezing in there, but I get to workout in there so it’s awesome.
"We understand for everyone outside of the facility that this is a huge game and potentially history-making.
"But we can't think about it like that. Everyone knows the history, let's go out there, take it to them and come out with a victory. We're not done, we will keep going - balls to the wall.
"And when Patrick Mahomes has the ball in his hands, it's a bit scary, so hopefully we can hold on to the ball more than they can."
Gillan, who gets stick for idolising England World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson, moved to America when he was a teenager.
And he got the nickname the Hammer after POPPING American Footballs with his huge boot when he was trying to break into the NFL.
He added: "They're about $100 bucks a piece, so I got three and that tapped into my monthly allowance.
"I think it was just because it was freezing down in Arkansas. I was out in the morning because I had to go before classes and I'd be kicking in like -7 degree weather.
"So I think just a mixture of it being super cold and trying to kick as hard as I can. The whole bladder on the inside was completely burst. At the time they didn't reimburse me in any footballs.
"Then the team sent me a bunch of footballs, it was like Christmas and they showed me how I'm supposed to treat them before I take them. So I learnt all that stuff!"