Vernon Kay interview for The Super Bowl

31 January 2014

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You don’t expect to bump into the cheerleaders from the Jacksonville Jaguars on a wet Thursday morning in central London. But they have exchanged the sunnier climes of Florida for our own slate grey skies for an NFL press conference at Channel 4 ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Ever the professionals, we turned our backs on the acres of pneumatic flesh on display, and instead caught up with Channel 4’s NFL host Vernon Kay, over an all-American brunch of waffles, streaky bacon and maple syrup. Here are his thoughts ahead of Super Bowl XLVIII.

 

In this country, everyone’s nuts about football, rugby, cricket and so on. How did you end up being such a big American Football fan?
For me it was because it was something different. At school we played football, rugby, we did cross country – we used to do that for hours, I think the PE teacher used to send us out when he was bored. I was pretty good at them, but I just got bored of turning up on a Saturday morning playing football. I used to go and do my Christmas shopping in April instead. Then I got into American Football because it was on just before or just after The Wonder Years on Channel 4. It was Channel 4 that ignited my love for NFL because it was so different. That’s what Channel 4 does so well, things that are different. The BBC tried to cover American Football, but it didn’t work – it just didn’t fit properly. It feels like its natural home on Channel 4.

I used to make my mum stay up and record the Super Bowl. We only had three-hour VHS tapes, so she’d stay up and pause it for me when it got to the ad-breaks. As a result, she knows the game more than I do. And my dad’s a big fan of it as well. It’s really nice when the family sees that their son is into something, and they follow his passion and commitment to it. It was really nice.

 

You’ve played a bit of American Football in your time. What’s that experience like?
I’ve always played Free Safety – it’s a bit like being a full back in rugby, where you stand at the back and analyse the game going on in front of you, and just hope that no-one gets past you, because if they did, they’d score. I loved rugby league at school, and  was a full back, just constantly running around, and this is similar. I like the physicality of it. I don’t worry about getting injured – if you worry about getting injured, you’re going to get injured. If you go into a tackle fearless and do everything right – head up, back arched – you’re not going to get injured. I truly believe that.

I play for a team called the London Warriors. They’re an urban American Football team, and we have lads from all sorts of different backgrounds – some former gang members, and then, on the flip side, some guys who work in the city, who make a lot of money for themselves and their family. It’s a really good atmosphere, all of the boundaries just disappear – race, religion, money, it just disappears, because you’re all striving for one goal. That’s why sport is so important for young people to play – because they learn all the disciplines of life in a game. I love it, I absolutely love it – and now we’re national champions, it makes it even better.

 

Obviously as Channel 4’s anchor, you’re strictly impartial, but who’s your NFL team?
I followed the Bears, like many people, because when it was at its peak in this country in the 1980s, the Chicago Bears were a great team. They won the Super Bowl in 1985, they had players like Walter Payton and William ‘The Refrigerator’ Perry, Jim McMahon, and their defense was called The Monsters of the Midway. It’s the third-best ever defense in NFL history. But that’s moved on now, I just like individual athletes. The pressure on these guys week-in, week-out is massive. Contracts exist, but you could get cut by a tam off one bad performance. There’s no “Give him another couple of weeks, let’s see how he goes.” For most players, a career only lasts four or five years. So now, it’s the skill and dedication that these guys show.

 

Who are your all-time favourite players?
My favourite all-time player, the one I idolised, was a guy called Ronnie Lott who played for the 49ers during the 1980s. He was a complete physical specimen – fearless, he was known for his hard tackling, lots of interceptions – he played in the position that I play in. There’s a story about him that halfway through a game he got his finger caught in another player’s face mask, and it tore his finger badly. And instead of going into the locker room and wrapping it up he just pulled it off on the sidelines. So now he’s got only half a finger. Then he just carried on playing. I also loved Lawrence Taylor, Joe Montana, John Elway, Dan Marino, those iconic players who were the faces of the NFL.

 

It’s the Super Bowl on Sunday, with the league’s best offense (Denver Broncos) against the best defense (Seattle Seahawks). It’s a pretty exciting match-up, isn’t it?
It really is. You’ve got the Seahawks defense, whose defensive backs call themselves the Legion of Boom. I love that. Any part of a team that has a nickname should be commended. They’ve got great defensive players all over their team, and that’s why they’ve conceded so few points over the season – an average of just 14 points per game. But I think the experience, the leadership and the discipline that Peyton Manning shows on the field will carry the Broncos home, and I think they’ll lift the Lombardi trophy. But, saying that, if the defensive line and the putside linebackers put pressure on Manning, he doesn’t like getting hit – he’s a fragile quarterback, he’s had four spinal injuries in the last three years, he’s not going to want to sit in the pocket and take a pounding. So it’ll be interesting to see.

 

What advice can you give to people who’ve never watched a whole American Football game before?
People say it’s quite long, but then they’ll go and watch a game of cricket for four days! American Football is a really strategic game. It’s like chess, only with really, really big pieces! But if that’s not enough for you, there’s a lot of talk about Payton Manning ahead of the game, and about how one of the calls he makes at the line of scrimmage is Omaha. And if you go to Twitter, there’s a fantastic Omaha drinking game. It’s one way of entertaining yourself during the game. Not that I’m encouraging drinking during football, of course. But it’s very funny!

 

The Super Bowl is live on Channel 4 on Sunday February 2nd at 10:30pm