NFL suits Neil to a tea!
One of our own will be guiding television viewers through coverage of the 57th Super Bowl this weekend. Kent man Neil Reynolds, the main host of NFL on Sky Sports since 2017, is in Arizona where he’s building up to Sunday’s showpiece between Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.
To be fronting one of the biggest sports events in the world is a privileged position but it’s one Reynolds has worked hard to achieve.
Growing up in Maidstone before moving to Medway, he started his career as an editorial assistant with the KM Group in 1994, working on the daily Kent Today title in Chatham. It was the foot in the door he needed and the start of a long road to fronting American football on Sky Sports. “I was effectively the tea boy,” said Reynolds, who lives in Walderslade. “I went from being the tea boy to sitting at the Super Bowl.
“It’s definitely something I don’t take for granted.
“I’m very fortunate to do what I do but I’ve also put in quite a lot of hard graft. I didn’t just pop up on TV.
“It’s been quite a journey and every Super Bowl I reflect on all the great people that have presented the sport in this country on TV and now I’m getting a go at it and helping to grow the game. “My job as editorial assistant was two things - make any tea or coffee the reporters wanted and file all their press cuttings. That was it. Then I started writing up little bits like weddings and bits from council meetings that no one really wanted to touch.
“I became a reporter for a couple of years, ventured into sport - I used to do the Medway Bears ice hockey - and then I left to go to an American football newspaper.”
Reynolds’ passion for NFL started in the 1980s, when Channel 4 started broadcasting games.
He became a fan of the Miami Dolphins and their legendary quarterback Dan Marino.
Reynolds took up the sport, playing in the British League for Medway Mustangs and the Invicta Eagles for 10 years.
He was close to playing professionally - trying out for the London Monarchs, where he made it to the final two kickers.
“A better journalist than a player”, Reynolds went on to work for the NFL and BBC radio before working his way up at Sky Sports.
He was initially invited on to promote an American football book he’d written after being made redundant by the NFL, entitled Pain Gang.
“I did one show in the middle of the night,” said Reynolds.
“I started at one in the morning until about four, so Lord knows who I was promoting it to, but Sky liked me and I did a couple of years of the overnight shifts that their main presenting crew didn’t want to do.
“I stopped that for a couple of years because I did NFL on BBC Radio 5 Live, which was really good.
“I became a full-time co-presenter on Sky in 2011 and then the full-time main presenter in 2017.
“I’m very fortunate and also glad, because I’ve worked hard to help it, that NFL has never been bigger in this country.
“We have all these regular-season games - two at Tottenham and one at Wembley - every year.
“There’s a Sky Sports NFL channel, so it’s definitely the right place at the right time.
“Each week of the play-offs on Sky Sports, we’ve set a record for the largest audience, so the game is growing on TV and the games that are played in the UK sell out in an instant.
“I think we’re at that point now where it’s a genuinely serious conversation and this conversation is had a lot in America - where they might one day put an NFL team here in London and play a schedule against the American teams.
“It’s grown that much. When I first got into it, there was a hardcore fanbase, it was a small, niche sport.
“NFL owners are saying we might consider London and the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, told me they’re looking at a European division. “They’re certainly looking at the UK as being a pivotal part of its international growth.
“There’s now an academy in the UK, based at Loughborough, which is sending kids out to colleges.
“So they’re laying roots, they’re not just playing games and disappearing. They have a real presence in the UK.” Reynolds is hosting shows all this week in the build-up to Sunday’s match between the Chiefs and the Eagles, with Sky’s coverage starting at 10pm UK time (kick-off 11.30pm).
There’s the added bonus of being based in America for the first time in three years since Covid wreaked havoc. A huge conference centre in Arizona is packed with the world’s media in the build-up to the Super Bowl.
For Reynolds, it will be nice to have one game to focus on.
During the regular season he has to keep an eye on every fixture in the NFL and provide voiceovers of touchdowns and major plays, while also focusing on Sky’s feature game during an eighthour show.
There’s nothing quite like the Super Bowl and what a contest NFL fans have to look forward to, with little between the sides.
“You’re looking at something that’s close to an Olympic Games-style pomp and ceremony but it’s every year,” said Reynolds.
“There’s the national anthem, there’s the singing of America the Beautiful, there’s flyovers, there’s the half-time show which is an event in itself and then the game as well.
“I think we’ve realised over the years that many people become fans of the NFL through their first experience being the Super Bowl.
“It’s going to be a great game, I think, because the two teams are very evenly matched.
“Coming to this point, they’ve both won 16 games each, they’ve both lost three games each.
“They’re the No.1 seeds in each Conference, they’ve both scored the same number of points - 546 - which is crazy.
“Philadelphia are a very powerful, very aggressive side, they’ve got a very good defence, but the Chiefs have the best quarterback in the NFL today in Patrick Mahomes.
“He’s an X factor who can make magic and create stuff out of nothing, so he’s going to have an answer for the Eagles defence, but I think Philadelphia will be just too strong.
“I’m picking Philadelphia Eagles to win it in a close one.”