‘Londoner’ Doug Marrone returns to his favourite city as Jacksonville Jaguars head coach

Back in town: Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone
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Ken Elliott22 September 2017

Doug Marrone of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars knows all about pubs in Bushey, darts, shepherd’s pie and he’s sure he’s played or coached in more American football games at Wembley than anyone else in the history of the sport.

The player who first stepped onto the famous turf of the old Wembley in 1988, as an offensive lineman with the Miami Dolphins, in an NFL American Bowl ‘friendly’ game, returns to London and the new Wembley as head coach of the Jaguars on Sunday to take on the Baltimore Ravens in the opening contest of this autumn’s NFL series of four games in the capital.

It will be the latest page of his personal history of London’s association with the sport which tells of some sweet moments, one of the highlights being a warm night in June 1991 in front of 61,108 fans when Marrone and the then London Monarchs, of the World League of American Football, beat the Barcelona Dragons 21-0 to lift the inaugural World Bowl at Wembley.

Back then, an NFL regular season game in London year after year was as likely as the Green Bay Packers franchise moving to the moon and I actually stood on the same pitch as Marrone and his fellow Monarchs that night, marvelling at the scenes of celebration and thinking this will be as ‘good as it gets’ in terms of regular pro football being played in London.

Not so. After a run of ‘exhibition’ NFL games in town, the NFL began playing regular season ‘games that mattered’ in its International Series in 2007, ironically with Marrone’s old team, the Dolphins, playing the New York Giants in front of 81,176 fans.

The 53-year-old is back, at the pinnacle of his career as an NFL head coach, and with some special memories of the old days with the Monarchs. No plush London hotels for the circa 1991 Monarchs. They lived in dorms and trained at the International University in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

Marrone, a native of the Bronx, in New York, said: “The first year I lived out in Bushey and I’m going to give a little pub a shout-out, my favourite pub, The Red Lion in Bushey.

“I became good at drinking pints and we played darts and for an American I can throw some darts. We would go to the Red Lion pub every night and they had unbelievable shepherd’s pie. To this day, I can never get the same kind of shepherd’s pie in the United States as I can when I’m over in England. I will be right at home back in the UK.

“Going into London, I love the city. Even though I’m from New York, and when you’re from New York and people say ‘What’s your favourite city?’ you’re supposed to say ‘New York’.

“I mean this — my favourite city is London — outside of Jacksonville right now! I’m excited to go to Wembley as head coach. I have good friends out there — the head medical doctor at Wembley is a very close friend of mine. I want to give him props for sneaking me in via ambulance to The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert which is probably the greatest concert I’ve ever been to.”

Did he ever think he would see the day when NFL teams played a ‘home’ game in London each season, as the Jags are when they come to town?

“I don’t want to say I saw that coming because I just don’t think of it that way,” he said.

“When I was in London, to see the fan base we had with the Monarchs, to see the people of London embrace our team. I remember our World Bowl, how excited everyone was, the after party we had, hanging out with the Moody Blues.

“It doesn’t surprise me. The people in the UK, and I met a bunch of rugby players — Ellery Hanley was there, and boxer Frank Bruno — they are very competitive, they like sport and winners. Going to watch something that’s competitive, the people of the UK truly understand that. To see where it’s going doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Marrone, who played at center for the Monarchs in the 1991 and 1992 seasons, learned his coaching trade in US college football with Syracuse University and now the former Buffalo Bills head coach — he won 15 games with the NFL’s Bills in 2013 and 2014 — is making a third straight visit to the UK with the Jags.

He served as assistant head coach and offensive line coach in 2015 and 2016 when they won both games.

If he completes the hat-trick with a win on Sunday, you may just find him in a corner seat in the Red Lion post-game, with a plate of shepherd’s pie, a pint and looking for a game of darts.

Subway is bringing the NFL experience closer to you. For more details go to nfluk.com

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