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MUNICH (AP) — From
touring U.S. colleges with a highlights DVD to scoring a historic touchdown in
the pros, Markus Kuhn blazed a trail for German players in American football.
Now he’s helping the NFL to catch on in his home country.
Kuhn felt like a fan
whose dream came true when he became the first German to score a touchdown in
the NFL a decade ago. It’s what he’s best known for to Germany’s growing NFL
audience.
The touchdown was a surprise for everyone, including Kuhn, who
was a defensive tackle with the Giants when he returned a fumble 26 yards
against the Tennessee Titans on Dec. 7, 2014, to help snap New York’s
seven-game losing streak.
“I played quarterback in Germany at a very different level and
so I scored a few touchdowns but never dreamed of doing it at that level,” Kuhn
told The Associated Press. “Imagine you’re the biggest football fan ever and
you dedicated almost your life to the sport at that point. And then all of a
sudden you get to score a touchdown in the NFL. That’s what it felt like to
me.”
A decade on, Kuhn is mulling how to mark the 10-year anniversary
next month of his touchdown in the 36-7 win over the Titans. For now, he’s
busy.
He’s an ambassador for
the Giants ahead of their first game in Germany on Sunday against the Carolina
Panthers, works with the NFL on its international expansion and is a well-known
face on German TV coverage of the league. It makes for a full
schedule.
It’s all very different to how Kuhn started out in football. He
first played the game at age 15 in Germany’s amateur club scene and got into
North Carolina State after touring colleges with a highlights DVD of his games
in Germany. Explaining his new unpaid status as a student-athlete to his
grandmother was tricky.
“She was kind of shocked, like, ‘Wait, you’re doing all this,
but you’re not getting paid?’ It didn’t resonate with her that it looked like
I’m a professional athlete now, but I’m not making money.”
Kuhn was drafted by the Giants in the seventh round in 2012 and
played four seasons in the league. He had 48 total tackles and 1 1/2 sacks and
two fumble recoveries over his 39 career games. His history-making touchdown
was his only score. Kuhn suffered a knee injury in December 2015 and joined the
New England Patriots as a free agent for the following season, but didn’t play
again.
Since retiring as a player, Kuhn has promoted the Patriots and
Giants franchises as an ambassador, consulted with the NFL Players Association
on international issues and worked as an occasional international correspondent
for the league.
The arrival of players like Kuhn and Sebastian Vollmer, a Super
Bowl winner with the Patriots, helped to spread the word in the U.S. that there
was football talent and passion in Germany, and to grow the game’s audience
back home.
“Some things seem more impossible if nobody has ever done it,” Kuhn said. “But now there’s actually people to look up to, there’s stories you can follow, there’s certain paths that have been built that makes definitely coming to America and playing American football in the U.S. a lot easier.”
