New York Giants punter Jamie Gillan, nicknamed “The Scottish Hammer,” entered the league as an undrafted rookie free agent following the 2019 NFL draft.
Although Gillan went undrafted, he prepared hard for scouts and wanted to put on a showing at his pro day. So in an effort to ready himself, he purchased three footballs that week and got to work on the practice field.
Rumors suggest that Gillan went so hard that week, he actually split one of the footballs with a booming kick.
The legend, it seems, got away from reality a bit. Gillan explained the origin of that tall tale on Friday.
“No, actually, it’s definitely been exaggerated over the time. I wish I could kick a ball, and it would explode. That would be fun,” Gillan said with a laugh. “Basically, I bought three footballs to train for the Pro Day. I didn’t know there was a whole process of conditioning the balls to make them for kickers or for quarterbacks. I was just working really hard in the offseason in Arkansas.
“I really don’t know what happened, but in the span of two days as I’m training, one went down. And then another went down. And then the last ball that I spent my money on went down the next day. So, I was left with no balls trying to figure out, ‘Hey Wilson, what’s going on? Can I please get some balls?’ So, that was that. Haven’t done since. That was kind of how that went down.”
That’s not quite an exploding football but still an amusing story.
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