EX-AMERICAN FOOTBALL STAR SAYS TIMING IS RIGHT FOR CAPITAL AS HE COACHES STREATHAM CHILDREN
Hepworth and Moore sculptures to grace St James’s Square before sale
RETIRED American football player Kyle Brady says “only logistics” stand in the way of a permanent NFL team in London.
The 45-year-old, who played as a tight end for the New York Jets, the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots, said there was an appetite for American football and the “timing was right” to create an NFL team in the capital.
The National Football League hopes to establish a team in London by around 2021 — a plan backed by the UK government. Earlier this year, Lord Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, told the Standard he believed London would welcome an NFL team “with arms wide open”.
Brady, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, said: “American football here is popular. You can see that by the turnout for the American football games when they are here. It is very possible that a more consistent presence or a team would work here. I think it is only logistics that might get in the way of it being a permanent thing.
“I know the Jacksonville Jaguars want to be seen as the London side, but I think there might be some logistical hurdles to overcome. The timing is right, the appetite is here, the market is here, awareness is high. What was a bit of an experiment [bringing American football to London] seems to have worked. Only time will tell.”
Brady, who played college football at Penn State before being picked to play for the Jets in 1995, was speaking as the annual NFL Draft kicked off. The event, which takes place over the weekend, sees leading amateur college players picked by each of the 32 NFL sides to become part of their team for the forthcoming season.
Brady, who retired in 2008 and is now a broadcaster and youth coach, said the draft was a big moment for young players across America. “For those who are picked, it is a big learning curve, going from amateur to professional,” he said. “They are learning to be a professional and the preparation they need for that is huge. It is a big time.”
On Saturday night, Brady and one London fan will be announcing which team one player is heading to via a live broadcast from Tower Bridge. It will be shown on the NFL Network in front of millions of viewers.
“I am sure that will be fun for the fan,” he said. “NFL is expanding in America. The draft used to be at their headquarters in New York, but it has been in Chicago and Philadelphia this year. Then now we have London giving that extra international flavour.” A WESTMINSTER square is being transformed into an open-air art gallery with £5 million worth of sculptures on show before they go under the hammer at Christie’s.
Work by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Anthony Caro are among the sculptures that will be exhibited in St James’s Square for more than a month.
The square, a short walk from Christie’s King Street offices, will become home to Hepworth’s Curved Form (Bryher II) which is expected to fetch up to £2.5 million.
Other casts of the sculpture, which dates from 1961, are held in collections around Brady was speaking as his old side the Jacksonville Jaguars started expanding their junior version of American football, called JagTag. The side hopes to have 55 London schools take up the sport as part of their extracurricular activities in the next 12 months. Yesterday, Brady visited children at Dunraven School in Streatham to run a coaching session. He said: “JagTag is American football at introduction level. I love teaching young people, I do it in the States. It is important to get the kids interested young. In the US, kids are exposed to it from a very young age. It is part of our culture like proper football is over here. If we can get young people in the UK understanding it more that is a good thing.” @LizzieEdmo the world including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Also in the garden will be Elisabeth Frink’s Horse, valued at around £1 million, which was originally commissioned by the Earl of March for Goodwood Racecourse in Sussex. Exhibition curator Nicholas Orchard said it offered art lovers the chance to see work by some of the world’s greatest sculptors “within the landscape surroundings that the artists intended for them”.
He said: “It is an honour to present these pieces within the prestigious garden setting of St James’s Square at a moment when the artworks will be complemented by the flora and fauna of this landscape.”
The show runs from May 23 to June 29 and the works will be auctioned at Christie’s Modern British & Irish Art Evening Sale