Those who happened to pass by there did not believe what they saw. The tranquility of the Trinity Square any given Monday at three in the afternoon has been replaced by the uproar of extraordinary circumstances. In the pediment of the Old Town of San Sebastian, Erik Jaka, Mikel Merino short dress and a mass of 1.93 meters tall and 130 kilos in weight were preparing to practice. Less than 24 hours after debuting in the Manomanista quarterfinal group, the first of them did not need to be explained anything, being the only one who was in his natural habitat. In fact, Jaka himself has acted as master of ceremonies to introduce the txuri-urdin player into the world of ball Cameron Jordanstar of the New Orleans Saints.
Whose star? Yes, from the New Orleans Saints, a team from the National Football League (NFL) whose member has been soaking up Basque culture in recent days. Dressed in rojiblanco, he continued the derby between Athletic and Real Sociedad on Saturday at San Mamés. On Sunday in Vitoria he began to enter the purely indigenous sport participating in an exhibition by herri kirolak: axes, dragging stones, lifting bales with a pulley… And this Monday in Donostia he has come to complete the repertoire by adding a good dose of pediment to his visit. Together with a lizartzarra like Jaka and a Navarrese like Merino, a footballer but raised in the land of pelotaris, it has been difficult for Jordan to warm up when executing the proposed game: a color for each participant, three groups of balloons on the frontis and the simple objective of exploiting as many as possible, shooting aim.
The curiosity that Cameron Jordan has shown from the good vibes before the discovery of a new sport has not been such in Jaka and Merino when it comes to chatting a little about American football. After all, the pelotari and the txuri-urdin player are two well-known followers of the competitions that are held on the other side of the pond, with the NFL itself and the basketball NBA as the main exponents. While the three protagonists talked, the cameras did not lose detail, recording everything that happened for two programs on the NFL Network channel that can also be seen soon on YouTube. We are talking about content that is widely distributed worldwide and that will contribute to opening up the image of the Basque Country to the world.
When they see the resulting videos, American football fans will see that Basque children also follow their sport, as demonstrated by the fact that Jordan has signed several autographs on oval balls to young fans. And they will also think, by simple deduction, that Jordan himself is fully capable of playing ball: when Jaka proceeded to give the previous instructions, both have compared the size of their respective hands and the American came out winning. Laughter and jokes have followed the comical situation, the tone of a long weekend that, by virtue of a collaboration and sponsorship agreement reached between the Basque Government and the NFL, has merged the tradition of local sport with the repercussion at world championship of the most followed tournament in all of North America.
2023-04-17 15:50:50
#Trini #world
