Scotland’s Super Bowl hero Lawrence Tynes kicks his way into history for NY Giants

WITH nerves of steel and a sure right foot, he kicked his team towards victory in the world’s most watched sporting spectacle and sent his career into the stratosphere.

Sports marketing experts have predicted a multi-million pound windfall for an American football star from Scotland who helped his team snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the Super Bowl.

Lawrence Tynes from Greenock – a keen Celtic fan – secured the New York Giants six crucial points in the fourth and final quarter of the showpiece event yesterday.

Despite the pressure of performing before a capacity crowd at Indiana’s Lucas Oil Stadium and an estimated global television audience of one billion people, the 33-year-old showed the composure to convert two field goals of 38yd and 33yd respectively.

With his teammate Ahmad Bradshaw securing the winning touchdown moments later, the Giants defeated arch-rivals the New England Patriots, ensuring lasting fame for Tynes.

A jubilant Tynes said: “We are the kings of New York.” Asked about how he prepared to take his crucial field goals, he added that he was thinking only of one thing: “Making it.”

Tynes, who has football strips sent to him by Scotland boss Craig Levein and Celtic manager Neil Lennon, is reported to have been offered the chance to help with the coin toss at an Old Firm match at Parkhead in the spring.

With his new global fame, he may be on course to become the world’s best-known fan of Celtic, which also includes the likes of Billy Connolly and Rod Stewart among its supporters.

The 33-year-old, whose family emigrated to the United States when he was ten, has enjoyed a successful career in the National Football League (NFL), but analysts of sponsorship and endorsement deals expect him to now reap riches befitting a superstar – and suggested his business advisers could even seek to capitalise on his Scots roots.

Sue Bridgewater, associate professor of marketing and strategy at Warwick Business School and director of the Centre for Management in Sport, said: “His role in the final will have got him to a massive audience and he will be a prominent player now.

“Even if you look at the earnings of sports stars like David Beckham, people who we consider to be massive, the biggest moneymakers are those in US sport.

“Playing a big part in the Super Bowl is really going to see him rise up the rankings. The fact he is from Scotland adds to his story. We laugh and describe Andy Murray as British when he is winning and Scottish when he is losing, but Tynes is a rising American football star and there might be a lot of people in the UK who don’t know about him.

“It’s going to bring him to a wider audience and attract more people to American football, because he’s not a typical all-American boy and he’s come from Scotland to play in the Super Bowl.”

Professor Simon Chadwick, chairman in sport business strategy and marketing at Coventry University Business School, also predicted new found wealth for Tynes.

“Someone like Lawrence Tynes will be able to make a very tidy sum of money by signing deals that will get him up into the million, two million dollar earnings bracket,” he said.

“The Super Bowl is the biggest annual sporting event in the world, in terms of global television audience, advertising and promotional expenditure around the event, and overall commercial impact.

“The Champions League final may come close internationally, but certainly in the US there is nothing as big as the Super Bowl. As a result, there’s tremendous potential for the big, successful names in American football to have commercial success.”

Prof Chadwick, who is also the founder and director of the Centre for the International Business of Sport, added: “At 33, Tynes is relatively old, compared to someone like the Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi, who is only 24. In that context, he will have to harvest very, very quickly the interest in him, and his advisers should work very hard and fast to generate as much money as possible.”