For quite a while, Jack Crawford had no intention of playing football, particularly since he knew almost nothing about the sport while growing up in London, but now that he’s a Falcon the defensive lineman is in love with the NFL.
That may seem strange for a man who left home at 16 with the goal of playing college and professional hoops, but then again, Crawford hasn’t taken predictable paths.
“I came over to play basketball originally, my sophomore year I moved to New Jersey,” he said before fast-forwarding to his joy over now working in Atlanta in head coach Dan Quinn’s attacking style of defense. “It’s where I feel most comfortable to play and watch in this league. I think it suits me better.
“I think it’s the best game to watch, and this is the best style.”
Crawford played several sports growing up, most that you may know little if anything about, and as he was unusually big, he began to fancy himself as a professional athlete. Problem was, there were few opportunities to advance that career path in Europe, where there are no college athletics.
So he lit out with hoops dreams.
It didn’t all go well.
His first host family in the U.S. wasn’t so agreeable, and there were initial eligibility problems. Once he got situated with the family of Steve and Mary D’Andrea, who own a produce store in or near Vineland, N.J. things started rolling . . . toward an oblong rather than round ball.
“I started to go the [football] games after school, before varsity [basketball] started, and I was just watching the game,” he said of the football hook being set. “I played a little bit of rugby growing up, and just watching the physical part of it I thought I could do it. I was bigger than most people . . . and I could run.”
That he could, and can, so upon trying out for the high school football team as a junior, Crawford was made a wide receiver and defensive end. Obviously, he produced, and while he scored some basketball scholarship offers, he drew more in football, and from bigger schools.
He landed at Penn State, where former Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno told the Pittsburgh Tribune, "He's got really good natural ability. He's a long-armed kid. He can run. I think once he gets a little better feel for the game, he'll be pretty darn good."
The Raiders drafted Crawford in the fifth round in 2012.
Although he didn’t play a lot in two seasons for Oakland, Crawford landed on the radar of the Cowboys when the teams scrimmaged. Once he became a free agent, Dallas signed him in 2014, and in his first game with the Cowboys he had a sack and forced a fumble against the Jaguars – in front of family in London!
So there’s a bit of a fairy tale element in his background, not that Crawford’s always on top of it.
While in Dallas, where he had 7.5 sacks over the past two seasons, somebody figured out that he had attended secondary school with actor Daniel Radcliffe. You know, Harry Potter! Crawford didn't know.
“I honestly didn't know who he was because I hadn't watched Harry Potter at the time or read any of the books," Crawford told the Mirror. “He came up to me and said, 'my name's Daniel,’ but I didn't know who he was. Now he's a fricking global superstar. I feel stupid."
There’s nothing dumb about Crawford, who’s quite engaging and especially happy to be in Atlanta, where he’s likely to play multiple positions across the D-line.
He’s here for multiple reasons, including his love for Quinn’s style, the chance to be closer to his first and second homes, and:
“Money,” he said while thinking of the three-year, $8.8 million deal he signed with a $2.5 million signing bonus. “There wasn’t really much in sports in England that suited me. Basketball was my first love, but [football] was the most entertaining.
“It’s a very high-pace, attacking defense . . . We don’t have [any] big guys who can’t run. We’re all in shape and we can run. Every down is full speed. And it’s quite nice to be back in the Eastern Time Zone.”
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