When I left Los Angeles in 1982 I stopped in New York on the way home. For about a month. Lived with my mate Joey. It was on Long Island but it was like being in Saturday Night Fever. Everyone had Italian names. Everyone had real, Italian grandmothers who wore black and looked like retired olive pickers from Tuscany. And everyone was ‘connected’ and spoke of their ‘connections’ with pride.

The morning I arrived Joey picked me up from JFK, after the all-night ‘red-eye’ flight, and took me straight to a park. Where a bunch of his friends (Bellucci, Vespucci, Fabrisi, Tagliatelli et al) were going to play ‘football’. Great. I love football. Oh, not that football. The other one. The one normally played in armour. But we instead opted for shorts and t-shirts. And yet, because they were Italian, and young, and still pretty drunk/stoned/wasted from the night before, and definitely a bit stupid, it was decided to play ‘tackle’ as opposed to ‘touch’. The latter meaning that to stop you all they have to do is touch you and you have to stop, the former; you tackle. Proper. Stop me IF YOU CAN!

It’s worth pointing out that these were Italian Americans. Real Italians would definitely have played ‘touch’ so as not to crease their suits.

I scored a touchdown. Everyone did. At least 5. There were only 10 of us playing. But mine felt so good. I’d seen it on the tv (you simply can’t avoid NFL in America, it is on EVERYWHERE) and now I’d caught the ball and run it in to score. Outrunning half a dozen drunk Italians. I was very proud.

Tonight is Super Bowl 55. (Just FYI, the FA cup is 149 this year). And it features the one and only Tom Brady. He’s the quarterback (it really doesn’t matter) of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And he’s married to Gisele Bundchen. But the incredible thing (ok, Gisele is pretty incredible) is that Tom is 43 years old. And the most highly decorated player in NFL history (decorated with those ridiculous and revolting Super Bowl rings they get). And playing his 21st season of the most injury-prone sport in the world. And the focus of the game, the focus of the injuries, the focus of every defensive player, is the quarterback. Put him down, take him out, kill him, whatever it takes. Yet Tom has survived that pounding for 21 seasons. The NFL average career is 3.3 years.

So whatever you feel about American Football (probably not much) you have to have a thought for Tom Brady as he vies to win his 7th Super Bowl.

Because I’m the biggest NFL fan now that I’ve given up ‘football’ football because it is hateful and horrible. My malaise is so bad that I barely enjoyed Arsenal losing to Villa yesterday. That bad.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday

A xxxx