By Michael Preston
An Englishman with his roots firmly in the amateur game in the UK will play a major role in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs when the number one NFC seed the Seattle Seahawks host the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday.
Middlesex-born Aden Durde, in his second season as the defensive coordinator of the Seahawks, is at the helm of a unit that has conceded the fewest points per game in the NFL this season. While Durde and the Seahawks eye the ultimate prize of Super Bowl LX, the 46-year-old is also being touted as a potential NFL head coach and has already interviewed for the vacant Atlanta Falcons job.
Durde’s first foot in the door came in his native London. As a linebacker, he played with the London Olympians of the British American Football Association (BAFA) and progressed through playing in NFL Europe to practice squad time with the Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs.
He had no NFL coaching aspirations when legendary British coach Tony Allen convinced him to coach linebackers with the London Warriors youth programme. Despite having moved to Manchester to start his own business, Durde would return to London on Sundays to coach the Warriors where he was the defensive coordinator from 2011 to 2016.
“I started enjoying it,” he says. “I came away from that and decided I wanted to get an internship in the NFL. That’s where it started. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to get there.
“Most of what I do here and have done in the NFL, I learned when I was at the Warriors. Not the football stuff, but the way to manage players and to help people be the best version of themselves. I learned that from Tony Allen.”
Allen had been among the Britball pioneers as a player with the London Ravens in the eighties and a successful coach with the London Olympians before forming the London Warriors junior team and building the NFL Academy programme. He was recently inducted into the BAFA Hall of Fame.
“Trying to get to the NFL was never why I coached for Tony with the Warriors,” adds Durde. “I loved coaching the players and they’re people who are still part of my life.
“I had a true passion for just doing that. If you look ahead to something you want to get, you won’t be doing your job particularly well. Just really enjoy what you do and let people notice you.”
The Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship provided an opportunity for Durde, first at the Dallas Cowboys and then with the Atlanta Falcons, which sandwiched a role as head of development for NFL UK. While back in London, Durde and former Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora created a precursor to the NFL International Player Pathway (IPP), opening doors for promising athletes to land on NFL practice squads and beyond.
Their initial success was the development of Nigerian born defensive end Efe Obada, who had been coached by Durde at the London Warriors. He progressed at Durde’s recommendation to the Cowboys practice squad before becoming a fixture on the rosters of the Panthers, Bills and Commanders.
People at NFL teams were noticing Durde’s emergence and in 2018, Falcons head coach Dan Quinn made him the first-ever British full-time coach in NFL history when he was hired as a defensive quality control coach. When Quinn moved to Dallas as defensive coordinator of the Cowboys three season later, he took Durde with him and placed him in the higher profile role of defensive line coach.
“He’s been a massive influence on my career,” says Durde of Quinn. “I saw someone who truly believes in the sport and the way that football should be played, and the way you should treat people.
“When I met him, I started doing things his way as a coach. You can give time to people; you can care about people and create a culture while still playing the style that you want to play. He helped grow me as a coach and he’s one of my closest friends.”
Durde’s success has inspired others to follow in his footsteps. James Cook, once a quarterback with the Kent Exiles of BAFA, is currently the Senior Director of Player Development for the Cleveland Browns. George Reynolds, another former Exiles passer, interned with the Baltimore Ravens and has blossomed from the Durde coaching tree in his role in charge of tight ends with the UK-based NFL Academy.
Photo: Seattle Seahawks
