Jack Crawford set for Wembley homecoming with Dallas Cowboys

Jack Crawford is enormous, a 6ft 5in 274lbs man-mountain who looks capable of not only blocking out the sun but also smashing it into tiny pieces. Yet ask him about the prospect of featuring for the Dallas Cowboys when they take on the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium on Sunday and he becomes almost child-like in his excitement.

“I never thought I would have the opportunity,” he says with a shake of the head and a smile. “Now that it’s here I almost don’t want to think about it and jinx it.”

Crawford’s giddiness is understandable given the Cowboys’ first competitive match in the UK, and the last of the NFL’s three regular season games to take place in London this year, also represents a journey back home for the defensive end. Literally. The 26-year-old was born and raised in Kilburn, north London, which is just four underground stops away from Wembley, allowing him the chance to not only play at an iconic venue but also catch up with friends, family and the thing he has missed most since moving to the United States as a teenager – the food.

“Ethnic food in London is the best in the world,” Crawford says, matter-of-factly. “You can’t beat an Indian restaurant in London. I used to go to places like Shepherd’s Bush for Caribbean food, to me you can’t beat that either. Whenever someone from America goes to London they say the food is bland, but that’s because they don’t realise that in America they put so much salt in their food. When I first got here, everything was so salty. That was tough, but now I’ve adjusted.”

There has been an awful lot of adjusting for Crawford to do since he crossed the Atlantic at the age of 16. Initially he wanted to become a professional basketball player having loved the sport as a child and represented East London at regional level. Spotted during a pick-up game with friends, he was invited to New Jersey to take part in a training camp used by American prep schools to scout international players.

Crawford impressed but came home, under orders from his father, to complete his GCSEs. After returning to New Jersey a year later he impressed again and this time secured a place at St Augustine prep school in Richland. However, due to state eligibility rules he wasn’t allowed to represent the school in any sport during his first academic year. In limbo, Crawford’s competitive eye wandered and he was soon attracted to gridiron. Tall, powerful and explosive, he took to the sport and was soon offered a college football scholarship by Penn State. From there he moved to the Oakland Raiders as a fifth-round draft pick in 2012 before switching to the Cowboys prior to the start of this season.

The past decade has then been something of a whirlwind for Crawford, but he has settled in Dallas and is making an impact at the Cowboys having featured in four of their nine games this season – making three tackles and a sack – albeit none as a starter.

In his company it is impossible not to raise the topic of a London franchise joining the NFL, which league officials on both sides of the Atlantic have admitted is the long-term aim of the visits to Wembley, with this the eight successive year that regular season matches have taken place at the stadium. Crawford is intrigued by the prospect but remains sceptical it can ever become a reality.

“I don’t think it’s a pipe dream but it’s tough,” he says. “For starters I don’t know how you could take someone who grew up in America, went to an American college, and just draft them over to England. It’s technical things like doing taxes and salaries.

“Culturally it’s easier for an Englishman or anyone in Europe to come over here and I think that’s where the future is going. You could maybe have some sort of draft which makes it easier to get into American football at an earlier age in Europe. I would encourage that.”

For now Crawford’s focus is on the weekend. He boarded a plane to London with the rest of the Cowboys party on Monday night and retains hope of appearing at Wembley given the NFL’s allowance of rolling subs. That would fulfil the Arsenal fan’s dream of competing at the home of English football and cap a memorable trip back to what he described on Twitter this week as “the motherland”.

While in the UK, Crawford hinted that he may also catch up with a fellow former pupil of City of London school – Daniel Radcliffe, better known to many children, as well as many adults, as Harry Potter. “He was in the same class as me and was a normal kid, you know, just a regular wizard,” Crawford says, grinning. “Now he’s a frickin’ global superstar and I see him everywhere. It’s crazy.

“I should get in touch with him and ask if he remembers me. Plus you never know what kind of spells he has in his back pocket.”

Sky Sports is showing the NFL at Wembley as part of an autumn of sport that includes the Premier League, Champions League, Formula One and autumn internationals