Don Edmonston has rubbed shoulder pads with some of the best American footballers to have played in Scotland. Now, as head coach Edinburgh Wolves, he is seeking to bring on a new generation of talent.

It is five-and-a-half years since Scotland’s only professional team – the Scottish Claymores – were axed by the NFL Europe League, leaving virtually an amateur set-up which has sought to make up lost ground.

Edmonston, who attended a pre-season training camp with the Claymores in Atlanta and played in three pre-season games Stateside before being cut on the eve of the season, is still making a massive contribution to the sport.

As head coach of Edinburgh Wolves, who play in division two of the British American Football League, he also nurtures the grass roots of the sport as he coaches flag football, the non-contact version of the sport, at James Gillespie’s High School in Edinburgh.

Flag Football still has a strong base in Scotland and that has been the lasting legacy of the Claymores, even if the chances of Scotland producing an NFL player in the future look as remote as ever.

Although kicker Lawrence Tynes managed to win a Super Bowl ring with New York Giants, he learned the game across the pond after leaving Scotland as an 11 year-old soccer player. 

“In the early 1990s there were over a dozen senior teams in Scotland alone, 20 teams at the highpoint.  Many of these teams were not really sustainable and were just starting to jump on the NFL bandwagon and its rise in popularity,” Edmonston recalls.

“When the Claymores were on the scene, the senior game in Scotland suffered hugely.

“Players went to watch rather than play or were offered jobs on the sidelines which ruined practice attendances across the country.

“However, the Claymores single-handedly trained up many flag football coaches that went on to coach flag in schools across the country.  Many of these players are still playing now.

“So the result of that has been beneficial, but as far as senior football there has been no direct benefit from the NFL Europe League, in my opinion.

The Scottish game has now nearly completely recovered from the NFLE days, with increased participation across all codes and disciplines from senior to youth to junior.

“Flag has suffered in my opinion because now those players the Claymores first trained up as coaches in flag are older, there is no presence of flag in Scottish schools anymore,” says Edmonston.

“Flag is suffering at the early age groups as there is no entry point for flag football for under-16s in the country.

“As head coach of the Edinburgh Wolves, I have started a flag programme at James Gillespie’s HS in Edinburgh for 11-13 year olds, and as far as I’m aware this is the only school flag programme in Scotland.

“Apart from the lack of kids playing flag in school, the biggest loss in my opinion is that the Claymores used to hold coaching clinics and helped many coaches learn the game alongside the professionals.  Many of those are now coaching football and passing on the knowledge.

“But there is still a huge void left by the absence of the NFLE and we are suffering from not getting our coaches that hands on experience early coaches were privy to.”

There is talk of the NFL staging a regular-season game at Hampden or Murrayfield within the next two or three years after the success of matches at Wembley in recent years.

“One game a year is not the same as a team being in situ in your city for 16 weeks,” Edmonston states, “It’s helping raise the profile of football again but this has a very limited rollover for the current senior teams in Scotland.

“The games are great for fans who may never ever have the chance to see a proper NFL game but they are a money making adventure and nothing else, we should remember that the NFL is a business first.”

RM
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