Source: CNN
For years, the NFL acted as a closed-door shop.
Player and coaching prospects almost entirely came through the college system, originating from the US and following the usual pathways to reach the professional game.
But in recent years, those horizons have broadened. From games hosted around the world to players arriving from non-traditional football nations, the NFL’s international growth has been a priority for league officials in recent years.
And one man who helped propel those changes and is a shining example of that globalization is Aden Durde.
The British-born former linebacker was instrumental in the foundation of the International Player Pathway (IPP) program – through which the NFL has seen an influx of foreign talent – and is spearheading a new wave of international coaches.
Just as the offseason kicked off in mid February, Durde was hired to become the Seattle Seahawks’ new defensive coordinator, becoming the first British coordinator in NFL history.
His rise from coaching American football teams in London to being handed the defensive reins of an NFL franchise is one of adaptability and humbleness.
While he is the first to reach where he is from the UK, his trailblazing achievements don’t quite hold the same sort of weight as they did before, despite the pride he feels.
“I would say I feel that I was the ‘first’ when I was a [quality control coach with the Atlanta Falcons in 2018], so it’s kind of like always kind of been a little bit different and it hasn’t really bothered me,” Durde told CNN Sport.
“I just kind of work and be myself and learn and work and try and do the job as best as I possibly can do it and that’s worked for me.”
Exposure
While soccer or rugby were traditionally the sports of choice for many young people in Britain, football was the sport of choice for Durde.
He first began playing for the Greenwich-based London Olympians, before eventually being selected to play in NFL Europe, first with the Scottish Claymores and then the Hamburg Sea Devils; Durde played linebacker in Hamburg’s victorious 2007 NFL Europe World Bowl XV Championship team.
He describes that time spent in Europe as the equivalent to a US-based player’s college career, in which he learned and forged an understanding of the fundamentals of football.
Durde’s first exposure to the NFL came in 2005 when – as part of the NFL International Development Practice Squad program, an early predecessor to the IPP – he spent some time on the practice squad of the Carolina Panthers. He also had a stint with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2008.
That time in the NFL gave Durde the tools to allow him to succeed in a different part of the game when he returned to Europe and decided to hang up his cleats as a player.
“I kind of understood a lot of the things that I didn’t understand at the start of my football career. I understood them at end, so it helped when I went into coaching.”
Although Durde expresses that he had no intentions of going from the gridiron to the sideline during his playing days.
“As a player, I was always kind of more chasing something. I never felt like I was ready to play at the levels that I had to play at because I was always learning,” he explained. “I was always behind and it’s not an excuse.
“It was just, as I was going through it, I was learning it and it was more like survival mode. You’re thriving and you’re growing.”
Durde spent six seasons as the defensive coordinator for the London Warriors, a period in which he calls the beginning of his “growth mindset” outlook.
Durde was also given two further opportunities to expose himself to the NFL world through initiatives organized by the league.
First, he worked as a coaching intern with the Dallas Cowboys as part of the NFL’s fellowship program during training camp in 2014 and 2015. He then spent the preseason with the Atlanta Falcons as part of the Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship a year later.
Durde was also making waves elsewhere.
Breaking barriers
As a non US-based member of the football fraternity, Durde knows what it’s like to be on the outside.
And that’s why the Londoner made it a main goal of his to open pathways for those to come.
For three years, Durde served as NFL UK’s head of football development. And, together with two-time Super Bowl-winning player and fellow former Brit Osi Umenyiora, they helped craft the IPP program.
As the NFL says, the program “aims to provide elite athletes from around the world the opportunity to earn a spot on an NFL roster and increase the number of international players in the league.”
It’s been a slow burn, but recent years have seen an influx of talent onto active rosters via the program, with a number of high-profile success stories already.
Washington Commanders defensive end Efe Obada is heading into his ninth season in the NFL, former rugby player Jordan Mailata is the Philadelphia Eagles’ left tackle, and just recently, Wales rugby international Louis Rees-Zammit has signed with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Mailata is arguably the shining star of the groundwork Durde put in, with the Australian blossoming into the one of the best at his position over recent years. In the offseason, the 27-year-old signed a three-year, $66 million extension with the Eagles, the fourth highest at his position in the NFL.
Seeing players excel with the opportunities he helped create is satisfying for Durde.
“They’ve done something that a lot of people couldn’t do. They walked the path that wasn’t created and that’s really hard for people to do. And I admire them for that,” he explained to CNN. “And I think they’ve done something that’s opened the door for players like Louis [Rees-Zammit] to say: ‘OK, look, this is achievable.’
“To see people do these things and push the limits of what people think they can achieve or even create limits that people think they can achieve, it’s inspiring.”
Coordinating
In his own line of work, Durde has been blazing his own trail.
He spent three seasons as part of the Falcons’ defensive coaching staff, working across a number of roles under head coach Dan Quinn. His permanent hiring in 2018 meant Durde became the first British full-time coach in NFL history.
Coming from a different background does pose its own unique challenges, but the authenticity of Durde’s coaching style immediately lent himself to his players.
“I didn’t know what to think of him,” former Falcons linebacker coach Jeff Ulbrich told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2020. “I just knew he had a British accent, and he was very interesting.
“But he’s become one of my best friends. He’s this transparent human being that we all need in our lives. He’s incapable of [faking it with] anyone about anything. He doesn’t care if you’re the president. He doesn’t care if you’re a CEO. He’s going to tell you what’s on his mind and we all need that.”
Following Quinn’s departure from Atlanta and subsequent hiring as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, Durde followed him to Texas to work as the team’s defensive line coach.
Under Durde’s stewardship, Dallas’ defensive line developed into one of the most feared in the league, in particular star linebacker Micah Parsons.
Parsons, who was a rookie in Durde’s first season with the Cowboys, was a game-wrecking force for Dallas and – during the Brit’s three years there – recorded 40.5 sacks, making him the fifth player since 1982 to record at least 40 sacks in his first three seasons. Parsons was also a three-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro during that time.
Durde describes the acclimation process he went through as an Englishman in the US, and how his players quickly “forgot” the novelty of having a coach with a different accent.
“It comes up more as like a joke. The more comfortable I become around people, especially like the D-line in Dallas, like, if it was just us talking and I’m coaching in the D-line room, sometimes, I would relax and I would use words that I would use back home and they would be like: ‘What?’ And they’re the times we kind of laugh about it.”
And after a hectic few weeks of interviews, Durde has been handed the keys to an entire defense he can call his own after joining the Seahawks.
Durde was personally recruited by the Seahawks’ new head coach Mike McDonald – who is also heading into his first year in his role – and will be instructed to bring some of the ferocity Durde’s Dallas defense brought.
With a new era dawning in Seattle as the franchise’s long-time head coach Pete Carroll stepped down at the end of the season, its all about forging a new path and a new future for Durde.
“[There’s] a lot of young people, not just young, a lot of people, that really just have something to prove. And we’re all connected to Mike’s vision and kind of rolling in the right direction right now. It’s cool.”