On any given Sunday – just before the brutal three-hour orchestra crashes into life - the only British conductor in the NFL often takes a quiet moment to reflect on the remarkable journey that has led him from Tottenham College to the Dallas Cowboys.
But when America's Team next takes to the field at the New Orleans Saints' Superdome on Thursday night, something else will be on coach Aden Durde's mind - especially when he looks down.
The 42-year-old will be wearing specially-designed trainers, as part of the competition's 'My Cause, My Cleats' campaign, a drive to raise money for the chosen charities of players and coaches. The shoes will feature a Union Jack, but they will also bear the name of Godwin Lawson, along with inspiring adjectives.
Aden Durde is impressing as the defensive line coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL
Durde was briefly on the practice squads of both the Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs
This week he's supporting the Godwin Lawson Foundation as part of the NFL's 'My Cause, My Cleats' campaign
Durde, who looks after the Cowboys' barnstorming defensive line, will think of Lawson, a promising footballer on the books of Oxford United who was just 17 years old when he was set upon after rushing to the aid of two childhood friends who were under attack from a group of men. He was stabbed once, fatally, in the chest.
He will also think of Godwin's mother, Yvonne, who fell to the floor and screamed in agony when she was told the news. Who described the feeling as having her heart ripped out and pounded on and who, a year after the tragedy, which unfolded on the same streets of North London Durde once called home, set up the Godwin Lawson Foundation.
The charity supports young people in moving away from gun and knife crime through sports and education, and wants to keep them away from gang life by providing opportunities for talents to flourish.
There will be other questions - about how on earth a London boy ends up in a key job for the biggest American Football franchise in the world - but when we speak in Texas, he is clear that the Foundation gets the attention it deserves.
'I know you're going to write the story how you write the story but please remember Godwin and Yvonne,' Durde says. 'I don't want people to forget him.'
It is a cause that means much to Durde, who asked for a list of charities ahead of the initiative and was put in touch with Yvonne.
'What happened was tragic,' he adds. 'I have two sons, 18 and 24, and while they've grown up you're always aware of it. It scares the **** out of you.
'It's an issue that's not just in London but in all inner-city areas in England. It's not just about preventing people having knives and guns, it's about addressing socio-economic problems.
'I come home for the off-season and I hear names on London Tonight, like statistics. These people are not statistics, they should not be forgotten, each victim has a family and friends, as does the perpetrator. They are kids.'
The shoes will feature a Union Jack, but they will also bear the name of Godwin Lawson
The Cowboys defensive line coach talks to defensive end Tarell Basham in a recent game
The Foundation aims to increase opportunities for youngsters to display their talents. Given his own path, and his ability to make the most of an opening, it comes as little surprise that Durde, an ex-linebacker in the European leagues who had a brief stint in the US on the practice squads of the Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs, is firmly behind it.
'It's about people making a difference,' he says. 'Football was my intervention. I don't want to sound cliché but I got into something. Those people who coached me - mentors, father figures, they taught me how to be a grown up, be a man. They are still doing the work and they don't get the recognition they deserve. The head coach, Tony Allen, he's still coaching now. He's been a father to probably hundreds of kids.'
Durde got into NFL after watching games on Channel Four as a youngster. 'Training was in Bermondsey and I lived in Enfield,' he recalls. 'My mum
