Jonny Wilkinson is the inspiration behind the British NFL star looking to shock Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs
JONNY WILKINSON is the shock inspiration behind the last Brit standing in the NFL play-offs.
Cleveland Browns punter Jamie Gillan has a mammoth task of trying to defeat mega-star quarter-back Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
But the ex rugby union fly-half from Inverness admits that he still gets stick for modelling his game on England World Cup winner Wilko – because of his Scottish roots.
The 23-year-old, known as the Scottish Hammer, is part of a Browns side looking to pull-off what would be one of the biggest upsets in sport, after winning their first play-off game in 27 years to keep their Super Bowl dreams alive.
Huge Wilkinson fan Gillan said: “I still get grief from my pals, everyone asks: ‘Who do you think is the best fly-half?’ and I still say Jonny Wilkinson. All my research was Jonny highlights. I watched him, I read his book.
“I just loved his mindset, of balls to the wall and working his nuts off. Reading how he would just be out there just kicking and kicking and kicking.
“He wouldn’t leave until he makes ten in a row, that’s the sort of thing I would do, especially in college. You spend hours out there kicking, because you just want to be perfect.
“Reading about him, the level he got to was not by: ‘Oh shall I go out and kick today or sit on my couch’. Every time he was: ‘I’m getting up and doing this with a purpose’. I love that mindset.
“I also love proving people wrong. When people say you’re not going to do something, I think: ‘Right bro, hold my beer’. You get some inner drive from that.”
Gillan left the UK for the States when he was a teenager after his father, who works in the RAF, was posted to America.
After ditching rugby for American Football in high school and college, he said: “In rugby you don’t put everything on one kick, you’re tackling someone, running around, you’re not super-focused on one thing.
“So when I transitioned to football, I actually struggled a little bit with just sitting there doing nothing.
“I have taught myself to become calm and not think about the punt coming up until I am out there.”
The Hammer also a huge growing army of Scots fans back home – even though most of his games for the Browns can be in the middle of the night.
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He added: “All my mates are getting into football. I’ve got one mate texting me stats I didn’t know were a thing.
“My gran and granddad have been watching from Dunbar.
“Usually it’s tea and biscuits at 7pm and in bed by 7.30pm, but last week granddad said he heard my gran turning on the TV at 1am to watch because she couldn’t sleep.”
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