London’s Jermaine Eluemunor grew up with a love of mixing it up in various sports including rugby, but a 2007 game between the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants at Wembley stadium would become a lifechanging event. Eluemunor moved to New Jersey at the age of 14, where he wrestled and chased his dreams of becoming a football star, but despite his advantageous size, the Brit admits that he had a lot to learn when it came to lifting weights, and keeping his mind on the game. In an exclusive interview with M&F, Eluemunor shares his evolution as an athlete, and why he’s finally having fun with the physical and mental aspects of his chosen sport.
“It’s cool being able to go out there and just be one of the only positions where you’re going against another man, and you’re trying to move them out the way,” shares Eluemunor of his current position as an Offensive Tackle. “And, I’ve always been a physical person, so it was cool for me to find football and be able to be as physical as I liked out there. Obviously, there’s guys in front of me trying to be just as physical, if not even more physical than me, so that makes it even more fun.”
With British schools putting less emphasis on the weight room while Eluemunor was in his youth, it would take some time for the young upstart to find that fun.
“I didn’t start lifting until I got to America,” he explains. “I’d never touched a single weight in my entire life. So, I get to America, and we’re in the weight room in my freshman year (at Morris Knolls High School) and I’m this big dude, I’m like 6-foot, 290 pounds. These kids are looking at me like, ‘Oh, you must be able to bench so much’ and I was like, yeah, I can bench 225 pounds but I didn’t even know how much that was. So, they put 225 on the bar. I picked it up, and it dropped on my freaking chest!”
He added: “So, then they were like, ‘oh, what happened?’ So, then they took some 45-pound plates off. I picked that up and it dropped on my freaking chest again. My coach was like, ‘Alright, screw this’. He put just two 25-pound plates each side and I try to do that. I was struggling real bad. So, you know, I was this big kid who had never lifted a weight in his life, struggling, with freaking 90 pounds on the freaking bar.”
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Jermaine Eluemunor is One of the Strongest Players in the NFL
Understanding that his size did not necessarily equate to superior strength was a wake-up call, but he picked up the phone and answered emphatically. While playing for Texas A&M, he completed 34 reps on the bench press, making a great showing during the 2017 NFL Combine.
These days, Eluemunor is no longer intimidated by lifting, but instead enjoys the process, saying that he finds a kind of “relaxation” from escaping to the gym. “I’ve benched over 500 pounds now,” he says. “Squatted over 700 pounds on my back. When I used to clean and jerk in college, I could do a ton deadlift. I don’t really do that anymore, because I don’t really think I need to, but I could easily deadlift over 600 pounds. You know, I’m as strong as anyone in the NFL, if not the strongest, in my opinion. But for me, it’s just kind of a way to really express myself and just maximize my potential, and my biggest thing going into my NFL career was that I wanted to be the strongest person on the field. But lifting just relaxes me, and I feel real calm, and it helps me stay in the right mind frame.”
Jermaine Eluemunor is Happy To Be a Work in Progress
Between 2020 and 2023, Jermaine Eluemunor found himself struggling mentally. Moving from the Baltimore Ravens to the New England Patriots, he soon picked up an ankle injury, and was struggling off the field too. He signed with the Miami Dolphins, then the Jacksonville Jaguars, but was released from both contracts in quick fashion.
Fortunately, a move to the Las Vegas Raiders turned his fortunes around and he played all 17 games at right tackle. While Eluemunor appeared to be up for competition on the outside, dealing with the pressures of play were getting to him on the inside. “I think my big thing was, I always tried to, I thought that you had to be like a tough guy,” he shares.
“You didn’t talk about your feelings, and you didn’t talk about what you are going through mentally, and (the belief was) that this made you tougher. The image of the NFL player, especially Offensive Lineman is this big, tough, grizzly guy who doesn’t feel anything, and he can go out there and put his body on the line and just completely dominate people, and he comes off the field, and he stays this big, intimidating guy, who has no feelings at all and doesn’t feel anything. And, I think that perception is completely wrong because our job is the most physical job out there but then it also takes a toll on you mentally, too, because if you don’t do your job and let’s say there’s a tackle for a loss, or even a sack, or you know the way you executed your block made the running back get tackled in the backfield, or you have got someone hurt — there’s so many different outcomes of how our job can go a lot of times.”
No doubt, pro football players are people like the rest of us, with their own issues and insecurities. “People don’t think about that, and that can have a negative effect on you,” says the player. “So, with me, obviously I decided to start talking about it more just because I was going through a lot. And, I ended up getting a mental coach, and his big thing was, ‘There’s no point in holding everything inside.’ You don’t need to be this big, tough guy just to make people like you or try to put on this persona to impress certain people.
He adds: “Just be you, because you’re good enough how you are. You don’t have to be someone else, and you don’t have to be someone you’re not. I truly believe that the more open you are about the things you’re going through, the better. So, now that I talk about it more, I feel like I’m trying to show, not just people in my position, but anyone who’s willing to listen, that you don’t need to keep everything bottled up inside. You can talk about it, and that doesn’t mean you’re a lesser man or woman.”
In March 2024, Jermaine Eluemunor signed a two-year deal with the New York Giants, marking the longest contract he has inked since joining the NFL, and proving that through grit, determination, and a willingness to face our feelings, even the darkest of times can be made bright. Now, Eluemunor is keeping a close eye on the NFL Academy, based in his home country, and hopes to contribute to the success of future generations of NFL players.
“And the sky’s the limit. I’m on year eight of my NFL career, but I feel like I’m just beginning, and I still have a lot of more years to go, “ he shares. “I’ve talked to the NFL Academy a bunch, and they helped me run my camps over in England, and so I’ve been to Loughborough University (home of the NFL Academy) before. I’ve spoken to the head coach Steve Hagen, a number of times. My plan is to actually hold two camps next year in London or somewhere in England. I had one this year, more than one hundred kids were there which was freaking amazing, and next year my plan is to actually try and partner with Loughborough University to hold camps out there.”
You can tell by his enthusiasm, that ‘The Main Show’ is back to having fun on the field.
