Rock bottom to NFL stardom: The rise of London's Jermaine Eluemunor

Jermaine Eluemunor is a self-confessed simple man, striving to inspire by way of a not-so-simple journey. From London to New York, he is a big man with a big heart and a big message.The Giants offensive tackle dresses up, hosts pretend tea parties and plays the role of punching bag as a proud girl-dad to his young daughters of a week day, and manhandles the greatest athletes on the planet of a weekend. He enjoys the serenity of fishing and escapism of anime off the field, and flourishes in the art of violence on it.Eluemunor has bridged a transatlantic chasm, swatted away early rejection and overcome 'rock bottom' amid the fiercest of challenges to his mental health to emerge as one of Britain's most gifted footballing exports and, so too, one of the NFL's premier players in his position. Life wasn't always going to be this way. He now hopes his story can prescribe immunity to the notion of impossible.The Chiefs stay perfect thanks to new hero - NFL Sunday Review Latest NFL fixtures, results and UK kick-off timesGet latest Sky Sports deals or stream with no contract"I grew up in Chalk Farm, North West London, right next to Camden Town," Eluemunor tells Sky Sports. "I grew up in a flat on Ferdinand Street, quite small actually, I was just thinking about how small those places were. I went back to see it and I don't even think I fit through the front door now." Image: Eluemunor entered the NFL as a fifth-round draft pick for the Ravens in 2017 It was around this time in 2007 when Eluemunor first discovered football, a session of channel-flicking on TV seeing him stumble across the first-ever NFL regular-season game to be played in London as the Giants faced the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium. Almost two decades on, he is starting for the team where it all began, for whom his impact was rewarded with a $39m contract extension this past offseason and a role as captain this past weekend. "It was just spur of the moment luck, honestly," he says. "I think that God intended for me to find that game because he knew that was part of my purpose in life to play this game at the highest level and try to achieve what I'm attempting to achieve."Eluemunor, now 31, moved to New Jersey with his father at the age of 14 in search of greater opportunities, before first playing American football at Morris Knolls High School. His dwarfing stature made an immediate impression, while also prompting some early book-cover-judgement from one coach who made the assumption of a ready-made monster. Twitter This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only. "I had never touched a weight in my entire life," he says. "I remember them putting 225 up on the bar and I lifted it up and it fell right on my chest because I wasn't strong at all. Now I can bench over 500 pounds. It was a crazy first day for me, and then just walking around, I'm the English kid."Despite spending half of his life stateside, he will seemingly forever remain the 'British guy' of NFL locker rooms."People still make fun of me for being British every single day, that's never going to go away," he jokes. "I'm literally made fun of for being English every single day, people do English accents every single day."Still, Eluemunor has never been one to shirk his roots, and this year returned to the UK to stage a four-day camp series that would reach 385 kids. The family of one child notably drove more than two hours each way to attend one of the sessions."It's about showing kids that it doesn't matter where you live, where you're from, the colour of your skin, tall, short, big, small, it doesn't matter who you are, you can achieve whatever you want in life," he explained. "I try to be a figure that they can look to as inspiration because I wasn't anything growing up."I had dreams, but I didn't know if they were possible to achieve. I want to show these kids that you may not be where you want to be right now, but if you keep working, there's nothing stopping you from achieving what you want to achieve." Image: The London-born offensive tackle signed a three-year $39m extension with the Giants in the offseason His tale is one of patience and persistence. Eluemunor, despite the hundreds of emails he sent to schools across the country, was not initially recruited by any college programs out of high school and as a result joined Lackawanna College. Such was his impact on the football field he was eventually recruited by 35 colleges and spent three years with Texas A&M before being selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft. The transition, as it had been upon arriving in the US, would prove anything but an easy weight to shift.He made just three starts in his first two seasons with the Ravens, remembering vividly of the fans that had claimed he 'sucked' while suggesting he did not belong in the NFL. Eluemunor was ultimately traded to the New England Patriots in August 2019, prompting the most difficult and yet most defining chapter of his career."It shaped me completely," he says. "I was the lowest of the lowest in New England, it was pretty tough, really tough."I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about what it took to really belong in this league. But then also I learned that mentally, I'm a lot stronger than I think I am. If I can get through that, I can get through anything."Eluemunor was limited to 29 snaps on offense in his first campaign in New England, his progress hindered by an ankle injury in Week Six before a Patriots teammate fell on his leg upon his return to practice, leaving him in tears amid another setback to his career.He admits he became guilty of buying into criticism he read on social media and in turn speaking negatively about himself, at one stage crying to Patriots trainer Daryl Nelson amid his troubled efforts to transition to a new role at left tackle. Image: Eluemunor grew up in Chalk Farm, London before moving to the US at the age of 14 "Everyone has a goal and a dream, and when you feel that thing slip away and you feel there's nothing you can do to control that, you kind of just go into a spiral. And before you know, you can hit rock bottom," he explains."In order to get out of rock bottom, it takes certain people to pull you from that, you can't do it alone. You need people to help you along the way. I had great people in my life that truly helped pull me out from rock bottom and put me on the path that I needed to be on."I'm a very lucky person because not a lot of people can get all the way to rock bottom and be able to pull themselves out and make something of themselves. I'm a lucky person, but I also work really, really hard, I worked really hard to get away from that mentally and I worked really hard to get where I'm at now."At his lowest, he would have to field questions as to whether he ever thought about taking his own life, previously insisting he never quite strayed as far as that idea, largely thanks to a devoted support network led by his wife Christina."I think that nowadays mental health is such a huge thing, I think the more people are willing to be open about it, the better things will be," he explains."A lot of the times we think that we have to be these strong, tough, imposing figures, especially being an offensive lineman in the NFL, people start to think of you as superhero-esque and they don't think that you're a normal person."But to be able to share the way you feel and what you're going through and show just how normal you really are, I think that goes a long way in shedding light on subjects that are a little bit more sensitive, especially when it comes to mental health."If you can learn how to control the narrative and just work hard and really be vulnerable and open with people, then you'll see that people are way more accepting than you think and believe. Then you find a great group or team like I've been lucky enough to find with the Giants, then people just fall in love with you and the person you are and you don't have to be someone you're not and you're able to just be yourself." Image: Eluemunor, an Arsenal fan, discovered the NFL by watching the first ever London game on television Eluemunor became a free agent following the 2020 season before being cut by both the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars during preseason. He then signed with the Las Vegas Raiders and made three starts at right guard before being benched for the remainder of the season.He was handed a one-year $1.3m deal to stay with the team in 2022, paving the way for his most productive year yet as Eluemunor started all 17 games to earn a $3m extension. Criticism of his work ethic and attitude from interim coach Rich Bisaccia had ignited a dogged reply; the physical attributes to dominate and the potential to cement a starting spot in the NFL had always been there to be unlocked, and everybody knew it. Coaches were desperate to see Eluemunor fulfil as much, and put on a smile while doing so.Still, for all his progress, Eluemunor remained conscious to his struggles in New England and the lingering threat of slipping back into the same headspace. He was put in contact with mental health coach Brian Cain, who later made Eluemunor a "mental movie" that he could watch before playing, depicting images of his loved ones along with some of his best moments on the field."I watch it before every game because it kind of puts perspective into place and shows me why I do what I do and what I need to do to go out there and be successful. he's been a huge person for me," he says."I have my baby girls and I do this for my wife, that's my reason, that's my why. I want them to go back and look at my career and be like, you know, our dad did this for us and he was one of the best players, if not the best player in his position when we were kids."I want them to be like, he did everything, accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish, so there's no reason why we can't accomplish what we want to accomplish."It is the same message he continues to relay to the children he meets during camps such as the one this past summer in the UK."Mental health is such a sensitive subject, especially with the younger generation, that you have to be able to be vulnerable and show them who you truly are," he continues. "When I put the face mask on, I'm still the same person. And I want to show them that, just because I'm a professional athlete and make all this money, it doesn't mean I'm different from any of you."I try to show them every single day that we're not too far apart and we're not any different than each other. It's the person you are deep within you who makes you who you are." Instagram This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only. The Jermaine Eluemunor of today will tell you he is the best right tackle in the NFL. Of that much he holds zero doubts.He will publicly welcome the prospect of being left one-on-one on an island against the TJ Watts of the world, eager to test himself against the best and equally convinced that he will come out on top. As of Week Four this season, no offensive tackle has been left on an 'island' at a higher rate than Eluemunor's 71.4 per cent, according to Pro Football Focus; what's more, he has won those battles 93.7 per cent of the time."I've grown a lot mentally," he says. "I can look back at that kid in New England and say that I'm a million times the player I was mentally and physically."You have to go through things like that in order to get to where you want to get to and become the person you want to become. I believe that was a trial that I put in my life and to see if I was going to make it through to truly become who I want to become."I've always been driven to be the best. I just didn't do the work that was required to be the best."Eluemunor signed a two-year deal with the Giants back in March 2024 and has since established himself as an instrumental piece to his team's offensive line. It has taken countless trials and obstacles to get here, but there is now a sense of long-awaited stability and momentum capable of inciting the best version of the man from Chalk Farm, London."I've had a lot of ups and downs, prior to me getting to New York there was a lot more downs than ups. I've just had to work really, really hard to get to where I'm at," he said."I've just kept working my butt off trying to be great. I want to be as great as possible. I want to be the greatest. I want to be the best in my position."Watch the 2026 NFL season live on Sky Sports, including every minute of the playoffs and Super Bowl LXI on Sunday February 14, 2027. Get latest Sky Sports deals or stream with no contract on NOW.