Tremendous Bowl 2026: How London’s Aden Durde reached Tremendous Bowl milestone with Seattle Seahawks as face of British soccer

Aden Durde will take a second to himself on Sunday. A second of calm amid the chaos.

Because the US Nationwide Anthem rings round Levi’s Stadium, because the Tremendous Bowl lurks seconds from kickoff, as Lombardi legacy engulfs the NFL’s final males standing, because the eyes of the world pan to Santa Clara, the Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator will shut his eyes and rely.

When the tune finishes, he’ll say ‘thanks’. Then, he’s prepared.

It’s a respiratory train that has turn out to be one thing of a pre-game ritual, routine even.

“It just helps me focus on the moment and understand,” Durde tells Sky Sports activities NFL.

Dusted-off scripts instruct a ‘simply one other recreation’ narrative for these concerned, solely till it is not simply one other recreation. It’s THE recreation. Durde is aware of that, the Seahawks know that. However for all that the pre-game circus could toss their method, they know little else issues between the white traces. That is their protected place, that is the place they’ve stormed to the No 1 seed, that is the place Durde and Mike Macdonald’s protection has been plain, unstoppable.

Durde will make historical past this weekend as the primary ever British-born coordinator to educate at a Tremendous Bowl when his Seahawks face the New England Patriots, stay on Sky Sports activities.

He’s recognised as the primary ever full-time NFL coach to develop his taking part in and training profession solely outdoors of the USA. In doing so Durde has established himself as one of many UK’s biggest gridiron exports, and a bridge-gapping beacon of inspiration for the league’s period of worldwide enlargement.

A lot of what the NFL has achieved abroad stems from Durde, however it’s a must to shout about it for him.

“It’s flattering, to be honest with you,” he stated. “I don’t necessarily think about that. You have to be aware that those things exist. But I’m so kind of tied into what I do, it’s hard to see outside sometimes. But it is flattering, and I don’t take any of it for granted.”

Durde began his taking part in profession within the UK with the Hayes Courageous and London Olympians earlier than competing in NFL Europe with the Scottish Claymores and Hamburg Pink Devils in addition to having fun with spells on the Carolina Panthers and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs follow squads.

He later spent six seasons as defensive coordinator of the London Warriors upon shifting into teaching, and have become the founding father of the NFL’s Worldwide Participant Pathway programme.

It was there the place he found a sure Efe Obada, who would subsequently embark on his personal unlikely journey to the NFL and in flip accompany Durde as one of many prized faces of British soccer.

“I remember my first meeting, I remember he gave me a pair of cleats,” Obada advised Sky Sports activities NFL. “I didn’t have a pair of cleats. And he gave me these green and black Jaguars cleats.

“For me, that was enormous as a result of no one’s ever given me something with out anticipating something from me in return. That had a huge effect on me and made me purchase in a bit extra as properly into the sport, into the game.”

Obada can be joined by Tremendous Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles left sort out Jordan Mailata among the many IPP’s notable success tales, taking part in for the Panthers, Buffalo Payments and Washington Commanders amongst others during the last decade.

“I think he was very instrumental in the early stages of my career, he was a coach that I resonated with,” stated Obada. “He saw the potential and then took time out of his life to invest and pour in me in terms of coaching me up.

“When Dallas came to visit to London he was somebody that was concerned in getting me an unofficial exercise with them. I had the exercise with them, which the next 12 months led to them signing me to their follow squad. And that sort of put me on that trajectory to the place l’ve been capable of have a profession within the NFL. In all of the instances right here, he was the go-to coach.”

Durde’s time with the Warriors was adopted by teaching internships with the Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons, the latter of which employed him as a defensive high quality management coach underneath Dan Quinn in 2018.

A top quality management coach is famously the quintessential fly on the wall publicity to something and every part inside a soccer programme, tasked with charting and absorbing the intricacies and wrinkles of their whole scheme. It’s deemed the proper schooling and a pivotal basis from which to launch one’s personal profession. Nevertheless it had been right here within the UK the place Durde cultivated the artwork of empathy and understanding, as a lot fuelling his rise by way of the ranks.

“I think one of the biggest things I got from coaching at the Warriors is just how to like work with people,” stated Durde. “And like a lot of people, they have the same patterns. They have different personalities, but they all have dreams, they all have aspirations, and how you uplift them, how you help them set their goals. And it kind of translates into this league.”

Durde ultimately grew to become outdoors linebackers coach with Atlanta earlier than spending three seasons as line of defense coach in Dallas having adopted Quinn to Texas. Come 2024 he was employed as Seahawks defensive coordinator, teaming up with first-time head coach Macdonald as a part of a franchise refurb in life after Pete Carroll.

“He’s not afraid to challenge the status quo,” Will Bryce, head of the NFL Academy Asia-Pacific and Durde’s former colleague, advised Sky Sports activities NFL.

“No one wants a room full of yes-men telling them how great they are. That’s not how you get to the Super Bowl.

“You simply take a look at shifting from Dallas to Seattle, from a profession perspective, he did not know anybody in Seattle. Whenever you take a look at the element, and I am certain it has been documented about how coach McDonald constructed that employees as properly, I do not assume there’s anybody that he’d labored with earlier than immediately.

“It goes against the grain because you see all the flow of people going with other people. But for Adam to back himself and go that, he pushes himself outside of that comfort zone.”

Between them Durde and Macdonald have orchestrated one of many league’s most damaging, versatile and cussed defenses, which ranked No 1 in factors allowed throughout the regular-season.

It’s a unit constructed on protection disguise, simulated pressures and bundles of subterfuge, however so too a protection that exemplifies violent, full throttle soccer. Durde’s males harass the ball in gangs, at an unrelenting charge. Their reward is a shot on the final prize.

“I think the way the guys play, they treat every play like they can win it,” stated Durde. “I think those things are, I don’t think they’re rare in this league, but for what we’re trying to build, that’s something that all of the guys are proud of, the way they treat every play like it’s an individual play, and they run, they try and attack the football, they try and be as physical as possible.”

Communicate to Durde and it is troublesome to think about something rocking the equilibrium, not even the burden of a Tremendous Bowl. He’s as calm, as collected as you’ll encounter within the NFL, tranquil instructing proving a defining trait to the benefit at which gamers reply for him.

“I think it’s been an incredible amount of hard work, resilience. He’s extremely intelligent,” Bryce continued.

“I think what allows him to be the coach that he is, the communicator that he is, the leader that he is, all those traits, all those things that he possesses, he’s just real.”

Obada added: “It’s the human aspect that people resonate with, that transcends the game.

“Somebody like him positively values and pours into that facet as properly, into the friendships, into the relationships.

Bryce additionally credit the affect and assist of Durde within the progress of the UK and Asia-Pacific’s respective NFL Academy setups, courting again to his days working within the NFL UK workplace. His work lies prominently on the root of the growing variety of worldwide athletes securing life-changing alternatives in school soccer and past.

“This is a monumental thing for the UK, but he also brings so many people along with him,” Bryce continued.

“It just so happened he got hired by the Falcons and that was in April. Then we launched our Academy that September, but obviously he’d put in all the work prior with it.

“So many children are benefiting from that now everywhere in the world, however they will not know that. Nobody would know that.

“He probably wouldn’t want people to know that, but directly and indirectly, he’s influenced so many peoples’ lives and so many people have benefited in the game of football.”

Bryce places himself within the footwear of Durde on Sunday, mimicking his outdated buddy’s routine of standing immediately alongside his line of defense.

“He’s got a certain posture when he’s standing in the game,” he laughs.

A milestone awaits, forward of which Bryce has been texting Durde’s sons. He solely needs he might be in attendance with Obada, Mailata and Osi Umenyiora in assist of the person they’ve seen assist pave the way in which for thus many.

“You’d say it’s surreal, but it’s also very real,” stated Bryce. “You can very much believe it because of the type of person that Aden is.”

“He obviously deserves this moment and he deserves to be the one putting a big spotlight on what’s possible. It doesn’t matter where you start or where you come from. You just work hard, do the right things, be the right type of person and the results take care of themselves.”

A Tremendous Bowl win wouldn’t solely mark a crowning second to Durde’s glittering journey, but additionally that of the shut household and mates which were with him for the experience.

“I think some of the sacrifice is mine, but a lot more is theirs,” he stated. “I’m away and I do a job that I enjoy and I love every day. So like don’t get me wrong, I miss them and everything, but the sacrifice they’ve made to allow me to get into these positions, like the birthdays I’ve missed, the time away from home, I can’t thank them enough. It’s hard to put those things into words.”

Watch the New England Patriots in opposition to the Seattle Seahawks in Tremendous Bowl 60 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on Sunday February 8, with protection underneath method at 10pm stay on Sky Spots NFL forward of kick-off at roughly 11.30pm.