Martín Gramática is a living legend of the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, and also of American football for all the countries of Latin America. The kicker of Argentine nationality emigrated to the United States when he was still a child. There, Grammar began playing football like a good Argentine, although in his last years of high school, he began to stand out for his kicking skills, which helped him find a place in college sports, and later in professional sports.
Grammar developed an extensive professional career, most of it was spent in his state team, the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, where he achieved a large number of achievements, including the Super Bowl XXXVII championship, where they clearly beat the Oakland Riders, back in 2003. Gramática is a soccer fan, idolizes Maradona, and still lives in the United States, where he is a Spanish-language analyst for the NFL.
What does it feel like in the days leading up to a Super Bowl? Lots of nerves, obviously. You know that you are risking a year’s work, in some cases even longer, there are projects in which if you have been putting together a team for years, and suddenly you find yourself hours away from something incredible… You are very nervous because of everything you have behind.
Do you remember how you managed it personally? In my personal case, I had something good, and that is that we didn’t have that week in between, the time between games was shorter, we didn’t even have time to react and realize that we were in the Super Bowl. I think we landed from Philadelphia at 2 or 3 in the morning, and at 6 or 7 we left for San Diego. We went home for a bit, grabbed our bag, and headed off to the Super Bowl. That helped a lot with the nerves. In addition, Gruden (head coach of those Tampa Bay) said that he wanted to make the week as normal as possible: we ate at the same time, we ate at the same time, the ‘meetings’, the meetings, the practices, everything at the same time. that as we had been doing in the regular season.
When you played the Super Bowl, it was the only year where the center of the news in Argentina was not the halftime show but your own performance. What did it feel like to be the only South American to participate and win the Super Bowl? It is a tremendous pride, obviously in Argentina people followed my career closely, I participated in many interviews, I even had the opportunity to meet Maradona, which was a dream for me, because when I was a ‘boy’ I always had him as my biggest idol These are things that I have not forgotten, the support of Argentina, but also that of all Latinos, because we are not many, and in the end we represent a common culture.
Do you feel, according to the feedback you receive, part of the expansion of American football to places where its popularity is growing? Yes, the truth is, just as we are talking now, about Argentina, Mexico…etc, they call me a lot. Although I think that now things have changed, now it is much easier thanks to social networks and new platforms and following teams and players, in my time you watched the game if it was shown on television, and the information was not so accessible of NFL. Honestly, I don’t think it’s mostly because of me that expansion that we live in Mexico or Argentina, where there are groups that even know more about this sport than many Americans, but obviously I get that warmth and that’s very nice, although I think that now the media the ones we have make football expand at a much faster rate than it did then.
Kicker’s position in a team is very specific, did you have certain requirements regarding food? What was your training based on? Everyone does their diet and training. I have always really liked playing soccer, and I trained through that, but I have had teammates who had their physical trainers, and within the team we also have a coaching staff where we all train together. I like to say that the kicker in American football is like the goalkeeper in football, we work very differently from the others and most of the time alone. On the subject of nutrition, it is clear that we do not have to open more restrictions than players from other units, but above all for the prevention of injuries it is also very important.
The templates of an NFL team are very extensive, you were part of special teams, but did you have a relationship with the rest of your teammates from other units or was the relationship summed up in a hello and goodbye? No no, not at all, obviously I have the closest relationship within the team with the Punter, who is the one who supports the ball, because we are together all day. Or the Long Snap (in charge of throwing the ball backwards at the beginning of the play) which is the one with whom I spend the most time in meetings, in the gym, in practice, but later on if it has a relationship with the rest of my teammates. During my time in Tampa, we had a locker room that was incredible, and that helped us all, it was a great human group and I never had a problem in the locker room. Another thing that helped me in this is having played football all my life, or as they say Soccer, since I am used to it and I like to spend time in the locker room and with teammates, however, others were more interested in finishing training and take his car home because he doesn’t like that style, but I liked to train, I liked to stay the whole practice. I really liked being there, interacting with my teammates and that’s why I had many friends within the team with teammates who played in other positions.
You come from the world of soccer, where since you are a child, most of us learn to kick a ball, do you think that could give you a certain cache within the league? (Laughter) I think that never mattered, because if the ball didn’t go in, it was worth nothing, be it an Argentine (laughing) or from anywhere. What did help me a lot is having been a Latino, because since there weren’t many of them, I concentrated all the support on people like me and I noticed that, but if they say something like “Oh, this Argentine has to hit him well,” I don’t think happened, they used it I think more at the marketing level, because it was much more attractive to have an Argentine kicker than an American one, and being the only one in the league they used it as a type of marketing.
Even though most of the NFL players are American, is it common for Punters and Kickers to come from, as they call it there, ‘Soccer’? Yes yes, and every day much more. In my time there were some who learned the technique and never learned to play ball. My first two Punters, for example, learned to kick with coaches, and that’s why if I got injured they couldn’t do the Field Goals or the Kick Offs. Most of us who kick from the ground, those of us who make the points, did go through football at the time.
You had a time when you trained and lived with the New England Patriots squad, now Tom Brady is retiring, how do you remember him from that time? When I arrived in my New England, I was quickly injured and could only play one preseason game And I left after finishing the offseason, But I left there being Brady’s N1 fanatic, A great teammate, super humble, very very good Guy, I’m not surprised at all what you’ve achieved because of the way you work. Whenever you leave a team you leave, let’s say, not very happy, but in this case I left being a big fan of his and let’s say that if the Bucs couldn’t win, I wanted the Patriots to win, for him.
You are still linked to American football, you are an analyst in Spanish of the Bucaneers games, and you know the current situation of the league… Do you have any predictions for the Super Bowl? I think the Rams are favorites, first because they are the team that has been talked about going to the Super Bowl for a long time, and because they put together a team to win now. Then, on the other hand, the Bengals surprised everyone except them, there is a video of Burrow in week 7 saying that he saw it possible, so … why not? I really think on a personal level, that the Rams are going to win because they also have the advantage of playing at home, but I hope it will be a competitive game and quite good.
And to finish…, If there is a boy from Latin America or Spain who dreams of playing in the NFL, what do you have to do? because it seems that it is only for the NCAA university system, and without a scholarship that would be impossible… Yes, and it’s true, it is. The recruitment system is like this, they look for players who have university experience. It is very rare that they catch a player who has not played in the college league, although there is the case of two or three rugby players who have come to play in the NFL. Then we have the cases of the kickers from Australia, because they dominate that kick like we dominate a soccer ball, so it is very easy for them to adapt. Although if I’m honest it’s really difficult to get into a league like this without going through collegiate leagues, I was lucky that I arrived in the United States when I was very young and I went through the whole process: I played one year of high school, five years of university and then I was able to get to provisional, so I think that is the process that practically all of us go through to dedicate ourselves to this.
