American football star Cameron Jordan has attempted to practice some forms of herri kirolak, the Basque rural sport, this Sunday in Vitoria, albeit with more precautions than ever.
Jordan is in the Basque Country this weekend to record several programs for NFL Network television, which can be seen on NFL Game Pass and on the NFL’s YouTube channel.
The 33-year-old star of the New Orleans Saints partook in an exhibition of Basque rural sports along with mountaineer and log cutter Alex Txikon.
The American athlete dared to cut a log with an aizkolari axe, to lift, a little, the 88kg rectangular stone and “competed” with other athletes in different forms of rural sport in the Plaza de los Fueros in the capital of Alava.
Jordan joked about the risk of having to cut with the axe between his two feet and acknowledged that it may not have been the “smartest” thing he has ever done in his life, given his inexperience. Of course, he didn’t want to go anywhere near dragging stones weighing more than 500 kilos.
Yesterday, wearing an Athletic Club shirt, he watched the derby between the Bilbao team and Real Sociedad at San Mames, and on Monday he plans to go to San Sebastian where he will film the programme ‘Game recognize game’ in which NFL players play other sports.
There, Jordan will learn to play handball with pro Erik Jaka.