The Super Bowl LVIII was all about Taylor Swift’s fella, or rather, what Taylor Swift was wearing, and nobody really gave a shit if the Kansas City Chiefs won, so long as the halftime performance was decent.
That said, QB Patrick Mahomes has gone global and the NFL is fast growing in the UK. But as the 2024 season gets underway, Loaded reckons those Michelin Man suits should be banned from the field. Don’t take our word for it, just listen to one of the greatest players of all time…
Titans tight end Delanie Walker retired in 2020 and now fronts online NFL prediction show Slips and Picks. Now a free agent, Delanie is not afraid to get his mouth dirty. We like it!
Often dubbed by rugby fans as the “sport for pussies” American football requires the use of pussy padding to prevent injury. The national football league say it's crucial for safety, further upgrading the padding as the seasons go on. You'd be hard pushed to find an NFL player who'd agree to disagree with the measures. Fuckily for us, with the utmost rectitude, Delanie shares a rational view on the international debate.
“I play rugby,” he says. “It's tough, it's physical. Rugby is more of a physical sport than American football I would say. I’ve played with Samoans and Tongans and they try to knock your head off! They always wanted me to be on the team and I just couldn't because I was in college for football and then if I got hurt playing rugby, my career would be finished before it even started. That would've lost me my scholarship. In all honesty, rugby is a tougher sport than the NFL. Sure, our contact is a little faster because we’re catching the ball, but I’m not in denial. Rugby is closer contact than football. The NFL is downplaying our physicality right now, because they want to recruit more kids and parents are scared to let them play. As a result, the sport is getting softer and softer as the years go on. So yeah, what the UK folk say is true. Football is soft now and rugby is a far tougher sport. Those guys put their bodies on the line and they don't make as much as we do, which is sad and I think that should change.”
Keeping abreast of football field gossip and stats has become his forte since adopting his alter-ego, “the Mule”. At least fully grown men running around sporting great aunt Sheila’s shoulder pads are good for something: gambling!
“Slips and Picks is a prediction show based in the 70’s,” he says. “My alter ego is Theodore “The Mule” Jenkins, then there’s Will Taylor who goes by “Chet Savage” and Taylor Luan as “Willie Gecko”.
“It's almost like “Anchorman”, stock trading and bet picking. It's just all mixed into one. Slips and Picks is pretty much us joking around. We each take the picks as to who we think should win the game and relay the probability in units. We don't really talk about money, we don't like to use the word “money” because gambling problems exist. We definitely don’t want to encourage gambling (wink, wink).
“The show is really just us being guys talking about football and sharing our opinions. We joke about players and we tell the audience who we’re going to take and why. Right now, I'm sitting at first place with a 64% win. So I'm making a lot of units for my clients. America has a huge struggle with gambling, but that’s not what we’re doing the show for. If they try to ban us for having fun, I’ll just go under a different alias. I got names lined up.”
Delanie retains his loyalty to the Titans, attending every home game.
“The Titans are my team,” he says. “I go to all the home games and I hate to see them lose. I’m loath to admit it, but they're not playing well since my departure. I was one of the best tight ends in the league for a few years and sometimes it's just hard to replace that. Everyone's like, "Man, we need you out there. We need you out there." And I'm like, "If they give me some pads and a helmet, I'll definitely go out."
“The Titans are going through a tough patch, but they will replace me, because records are meant to be broken, players are made to be great. The team has gotten younger and lost a lot of leaders who kind of controlled things a little bit. The new guys are just trying to understand the identity of the team and where they sit within that dynamic.
“I will always love the game and if I was still able to play, I probably would. In fact, if they gave me the opportunity, I'd probably go out there and try to score some touchdowns. I’ve only got around 30 plays in me though.”
As a final punt, Delanie shares his “one to watch” for 2024.
"The quarterback is typically the most celebrated and takes the MVP, 'cos he's the face of the team, a good boy, he goes to Disney land with the family and he puts on a smile, but for me, the one to watch in 2024 is Tyjae Spears, running back,” he says. “The guy has been doing a phenomenal job. He’s not really been talked about much, because Derrick Henry is the king of the running backs, but I see Tyjae Spears taking a bigger role this year and his name will be big. The guy's phenomenal. He’s so tough and explosive. He’s a smaller running back and some people are like, “he’s too small”, but Tyjae defeats the odds. He goes out there and says “there ya go” and slaps that theory right in the face. I just love to watch him on the field making people miss and doing what he does best- and that's playing football.”