Hard task making the cut with master Canning

AT THIS time of year, American football teams are tasting the white heat of intense pre-season training. Gridiron giants take part in a violent annual ballet as a hulking, heaving mass of athletic hardware crashes into each other in a frantic bid to forge a team ready for the NFL season.

Amongst this chaotic scene, however, one, particular, man is an island. While the team of coaches on the sideline watch these full-blooded practice sessions unfold on days when the season’s playbook is inked, there, invariably, wearing a brightly coloured cap, is the author of so much of it: the quarterback.

This orange hat, which crowns the QB, offers his enthusiastic and often bigger team-mates a very clear message: “Take it easy on this guy; he’s the franchise.”