INTERVIEW: This guy is an ‘NFL Football Fanatic’

As the NFL postseason gears up, and fans begin praying for a Super Bowl berth, USA Network is set to release a new reality show that honors and celebrates football fandom. NFL Football Fanatic, which premieres Monday, Jan. 1 at 11 p.m., follows Scotland-born Darren McMullen, who has been an American football fan ever since he was a child.

“It began when I was 7 years old,” McMullen said in a recent phone interview. “I was a little kid growing up in Scotland, and I became fascinated with NFL football. I used to have to go to bed early on a Sunday night because it was a school night, but I had one of these old televisions that you had to tune in using the rabbit ears. And I would pick up NFL football.”

In Scotland, there’s probably a greater likelihood that a child will be interested in soccer (or “football,” to the rest of the world) rather than American football, but McMullen kept his passion going all throughout his formative years. Now he finds himself at the helm of NFL Football Fanatic, which travels to different fan communities each week and documents their unique food, rituals and obsessions.

The goal of the series is to find McMullen a team that he can follow. By looking at fanatics, McMullen hopes to become a proper one himself.

“I fell in love with the chess of it all, the physicality, the spectacle, the anthem and the fireworks,” he said. “I think now looking back at it, it’s what started my dream to be an American one day, but I couldn’t find anyone to play with. I was always my own wide receiver and quarterback because the ball wasn’t round, and nobody in Scotland really cared for it. … Now I live in America and have my green card, but I never had a team. I just loved the game, so I would travel to different cities and use football as an excuse to kind of see those cities. And then I thought, I’m a TV host by trade. Why don’t I combine my two loves and document my journey.”

As he travels to each city over the course of the first season’s eight episodes, McMullen learns about the history of fandom and takes part in many rituals on the road. He also enjoys quite a few local food specialties.

“I’m going to use football as my looking glass into American society,” he said. “So I’ve been living with it since I was a 7-year-old kid, but in my head, I kind of had the concept [for the TV show] rattling around for the last three years. So it’s great to see it’s finally come to fruition.”

Even though McMullen grew up in a soccer nation, he never had a passion for that sport. Because American football wasn’t available for him to play recreationally, he settled for the next closest sport.

“I played rugby as a kid simply because it was the closest thing to American football we had, but I was a winger in rugby,” he said. “So it was very, very fast. I was also a track guy, so I was fast. The ball would come to me on the wing, and I’d run really fast. And nobody would get me, but I remember the first time they did get me. I was about 12 years old, and I got hit. And I got hit pretty hard. I thought, you know what, maybe rugby is not for me. That’s as close as I got to ever playing an NFL style of game, although completely different obviously but closer than soccer for sure.”

His first time actually having a proper throw with an American football happened during the shooting of NFL Football Fanatic. On the other end of his lobs was none other than Dak Prescott, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Coach Jason Garrett, also of the Cowboys, was there given the TV host some tips.

“I’m not afraid to admit I was a little bit nervous,” he said. “It turns out I’m probably not as good a quarterback as I imagined. I always thought growing up in Scotland, when I was playing in my backyard with myself and I was my own MVP at every game, that I would be a great quarterback if I was brought up in America. But it turns out it’s a lot harder than it looks, especially when you’ve got Coach Garrett and Dak Prescott there. It was kind of a nice moment. It was singularly probably the most embarrassing and wonderful moment of my life. It was a pinch-me moment.”

McMullen realized he had something special with NFL Football Fanatic when he attended a New York Jets game in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The following week he attended a New York Giants game, also in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The teams share MetLife Stadium.

“Even though these two teams are in the same city, made of the same kind of fans, the culture of both those teams couldn’t be further from each other,” he said. “I thought, wow, this is really interesting. If the culture of these teams in the same city is so vastly different, imagine what it will be like when we go to the Midwest or the deep South or places like Texas or the West Coast. It’s going to be incredible the differences, so I essentially wanted to use football as a looking glass into American society. So it’s an outsider’s love letter to America and everything he loves about it, and he’s learning about the different cultures that make up these cities.”

There are several profound takeaways that McMullen learned along the way. The Jets-Giants divide notwithstanding, the TV host came to appreciate that the diverse communities of the United States share many commonalities, and he would like to celebrate those connections.

“You learn about the cities, the different foods and the people, and ultimately I think the over-arching thing we found was wherever you go in any city in America, there’s a lot more that makes us similar than makes us different,” he said. “You’ll see that week after week being in these stadiums with 70,000-80,000 strangers sharing this great moment together. For all the nonsense in the world right now, there’s a lot more that makes us the same as human beings, and I think it’s great to celebrate that instead of focusing on what makes us different all the time.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

NFL Football Fanatic premieres Monday, Jan. 1 at 11 p.m. on USA Network. Click here for more information.