Tonight in Dallas the annual Cotton bowl will take place and to the general public in the UK it may not be a big deal. Even the hardest American football fan may not know all that is to know about tonight's match up between Texas A&M and Oklahoma. However this match up is another small step in expanding the American brand of football over here in the UK.
This is because starting in tonight's game at inside linebacker is a young player called Tom Wort from the UK. Tom originates from Crawley and moved to the United States when 14 years old, he took up playing football at high school and soon became a star and now he is a star at the University of Oklahoma, one of the biggest football playing colleges in the country.
The best part of this is Tom is proud of being from the UK and happy to fly the flag. Last year he returned to the UK for a short period when he openly talked about his experiences and passion for football and the UK. This is great news for football fans in the UK, as the game ever expands this side of the Atlantic with two NFL games taking place this year at Wembley stadium, this is the next step. Having someone in the NFL that the UK fans can follow and someone who looks forward to playing at his home stadium Wembley.
In the past NFLUK have done a good job at trying to link players to the UK in order to help the game grow and sell tickets for the Wembley games like Osi Umenyiora from the New York Giants. The difference is Tom really enjoys flying the flag for UK and really in braces it when others have not.
Now Tom has a really long way to go before he is playing at Wembley Stadium in front of a home sell out crowd all screaming his name and the team he plays for. Currently Tom is a junior, he had a terrific sophomore year where he made plays all over the field and was the teams leading tackler. This year has had it's troubles which he has come through and in the long run I believe will make him a better player. He has a new defensive coordinator with a new system which perhaps does not suit his skills but it is allowing him to work on his weaknesses (pass coverage). He has had to fight through several injuries which slowed him down at the start of the year but is looking much better recently and close to full speed.
Tonight Tom plays in the biggest game of his career the Cotton Bowl against a pass happy Texas A&M. Tom will have all the scouts watching him as he has the option to declare for the NFL draft this year or next following his senior year. I hope Tom has a great game tonight, knowing that the UK football fan bases is all supporting you and we hope one day you can take the next step.
Good luck Tom.
Bowl prediction I was again correct last night selecting Oregon making me 8-3 in this bowl season. I have predicted Oklahoma to win tonight in yesterday's blog (how could I go for anything else) and a Tom Wort interception.
Tomorrows pick: Compass bowl Ole Miss beat Pitt in a tight ugly game with lots of turnovers.
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