The Cleveland Browns will need to prove plenty of people wrong to keep their NFL season alive beyond this weekend, but for Scottish punter Jamie Gillan that is nothing new.
Last Sunday’s upset over the Pittsburgh Steelers gave the Browns their first postseason win since 1994, but the task gets no easier this weekend with a trip to face the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Playoffs.
With Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce putting up eye-popping numbers the Chiefs are overwhelming favourites to advance after wrapping up the AFC West title and enjoying a first-round bye, but that does not worry Gillan.
“I love proving people wrong,” said the 23-year-old. “When people say you’re not going to do something, I think, ‘Right bro, hold my beer’. You get some inner drive from that.”
It is an attitude which has served Gillan well in his unlikely journey to the NFL.
The ‘Scottish Hammer’ grew up playing rugby as a fly-half – attracting grief from his friends as he tried to model his approach on England star Jonny Wilkinson – before his family moved to the United States in 2013.
Gillan played college football at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, hardly noted for sending players to the NFL, and was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Browns in 2019, earning his way on to the pro football writers’ all-rookie team last season.
Now he is part of a young Browns roster – led by Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb and Myles Garrett – trying to rewrite the team’s long history of underachievement.
A franchise that had not previously reached the postseason since 2002 did so this year despite seeing a string of key players sidelined by Covid-19 in the crucial final weeks of the regular season.
Sunday’s 48-37 win over the Steelers came with head coach Kevin Stefanski, four position coaches and four players all in self-isolation.
“We lost our starters, which sucks because they’re phenomenal players, but it’s next man up,” Gillan said.
“We’ve got guys playing their butts off and now we’re getting guys back so it adds fuel to the fire for us.”
The main impact of coronavirus has been that, having waited so long to see their team in the postseason, Browns fans have mostly been locked out of the building the year they make it.
Much-reduced crowds of between 10-12,000 are the most that have been allowed in to the FirstEnergy Stadium this season, but Gillan said the backing of the fans is still there.
“There are lots of messages,” he said. “When I’m out walking the dog people are saying how happy they are in this amazing year.
“People are just going bananas watching the highlights and stuff, it’s crazy. I can’t imagine it if there was no Covid how nuts this place would be.”
Support is also coming from back home where Gillan’s exploits have turned a whole new group on to the game.
“All my mates are getting into football,” he said. “I’ve got one mate texting me stats I didn’t know were a thing.
“My gran and grandad have been watching from Dunbar. Usually it’s tea and biscuits at 7 and in bed by 7.30 but last week grandad said he heard my gran turning on the TV at one in the morning to watch because she couldn’t sleep.”
This weekend’s game has a more UK-friendly kick-off time of 8.05pm on Sunday, but Gillan and the Browns will need all the support they can get against the Chiefs.
“We know this is a huge game, but you don’t make this game any bigger than any other,” he said.
“You go into every game, every snap, every throw like it’s your last because you never know. We’ll just keep going, not overthink it and stay ice cold.
“Treat it like every game you’ve played. Let’s go out and get a dram.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here