It’s 1:30pm on an early spring day in London and Jay Ajayi is getting hungry. The Super Bowl champion has had a busy morning at the NFL’s European headquarters and fortunately, a staffer has just arrived through an elevator with several helpings of Nando’s takeaway. Not yet back in training after his third and most memorable season in the league, Ajayi happily eats the chicken but in this particular location, acknowledges there’s something missing. “I said I was going to bring a whole box of ranch out here”, he says after lunch. “How’d you have wings without ranch? “The UK needs to step up.”

Ajayi could go on explaining how the dressing is a meal enhancer for hours, for it’s his favourite thing America has that the UK doesn’t. But he can go without, for he's had plenty go his way over the last five months. First the trade from Miami to Philadelphia on Halloween, a move that took him from underachievement and onto a championship contender. Franchise quarterback Carson Wentz tore his ACL six weeks after Ajayi arrived, but the team rallied behind Nick Foles and went on to win their first ever Super Bowl, beating the New England Patriots 41-33 in an offensive classic. Oh how Philadelphia partied, for the most part on lampposts up and down Broad Street. “Hopefully the Crisco has dried up and I’m going to get on one when I get back”, Ajayi says, referring to the vegetable shortening that was used by local police to try and prevent Eagles fans from scaling the lampposts. The odd mix of white solid fat coupled with metal beams didn’t exactly work. An unexpected formula was also used in the Super Bowl, where the Eagles ran the infamous “Philly Special” play late in the second quarter on fourth down, Nick Foles receiving his first pass since he quarterbacked the Arizona Wildcats in his rookie college season. It led to a touchdown and gave the Eagles a 10-point half-time cushion that they’d need. Moments before, New England had tried a similar thing with Tom Brady, and Ajayi starts laughing when the subject is broached. “I’m on the Eagles, I hope they throw him [Brady] as many passes as they want next season”, he chuckles.