Graham Gano out to win Super Bowl 50 with Carolina Panthers
Wednesday 11 January 2017 10:55, UK
Arbroath-born kicker Graham Gano is determined to help the Carolina Panthers win Super Bowl 50 this weekend.
Gano, who converted 56 of his 59 extra points during the regular season, along with 30 of 36 field goals, will become just the second Scottish-born kicker to play in the season-ending finale.
The 28-year-old will stride into Levi's Stadium knowing that he will have the support of a nation behind him having already received an Arbroath football shirt and one from the Scottish national team - predominantly the same colours of the Panthers, who tackle Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos on Sunday.
"My aunt and uncle came and visited this past year, they travel a lot so I've got to see them quite a few times," Gano said.
"I haven't been back in a while. I want to take my wife and my kids back and see my family - I've got my sister, aunt and uncle, cousins and nieces (in Scotland). It will be good to get back and maybe pick my accent up again!
"My wife's been bugging me for a while, she wants to go visit places. Hopefully we'll have that opportunity when our kids get a bit bigger. It will be hard to travel all the way across the ocean with two small kids but it will be great to be able to go back to where I was born."
Now Gano is aiming to follow in the footsteps of fellow Scot and former New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes, who was born in Greenock and won two Super Bowls titles with Big Blue.
"I feel like it took me a little while just to figure kicking out," Gano admitted. "I kicked one year at Florida State and then in Baltimore, I don't think I was really prepared for it - I learned a lot there.
"Then the UFL really helped me out and by the end of my career at Washington I figured things out and they let me go. I'm loving things in Carolina; I think that's home for us, we're definitely loving playing football."
Live NFL: Super Bowl 50
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