"First sport I ever played"- Super Bowl champ Jake Elliott reveals how playing tennis from a young age aided his NFL success

NFL star Jake Elliott spoke about his love for the game of tennis. The 2024 Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles candidly acknowledged that tennis was his first sport before he took up football.

Elliott has been a mainstay for the Philadelphia Eagles since 2017. He has won the all-important Super Bowl game twice with the Eagles and is one of the most prolific kickers to have played the game.

In an interview with tennis journalist Jon Wertheim, Elliott was open and candid about the influence of tennis on his football career. The NFL superstar claimed he picked up the racket when he was three or four.

"That was you know my first sport probably I ever played..started back when I was like three or four years old..just hitting the ball around," Elliott said

The interview then saw Elliott's answer regarding the similarities between tennis and football. He stated that the timing of the shots (whether a tennis shot or football kick) was the most important to ensure accuracy.

"Yeah striking at the right time with the right part of the racket and the right part of the foot..you just got to to time everything out," said Elliott while pointing out similarities between tennis and football.

Elliott also confessed that tennis being an individual sport, helped him to grow strong from a mental perspective. He drew parallels with the role of a kicker in football, stating that both a kicker and tennis player were alone while playing, with their performances solely attributable to them.

"You're out there by yourself on a tennis court..you know you got to get it done..you're the only one that can get it done..it's very similar to kicking in the aspect that you're kind of alone and if you mess up it's on you," added Elliott.

Elliott showed great composure at Super Bowl LIX, scoring 16 points, a record for a kicker in the marquee Super Bowl fixture.

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Jake Elliott started as a tennis instructor in his professional life

In Picture: Jake Elliott (Getty)

In 2022, Jake Elliott participated in a Q&A session where he acknowledged being a tennis instructor at 13 or 14. When asked if he still plays the sport, he candidly replied that his football commitments did not allow that, but he occasionally had a hit during the off-season.

"Not much. I’ll play maybe once or twice in the offseason. I have a buddy who played college tennis at Memphis that lives in New York, so he’ll come down and we’ll work the ball around a little bit," said Elliott (via nbcsportsphiladelphia-com).

While talking about his current tennis game, Jake Elliott stated that his serve and forehand were still good, but his backhand had completely fallen off.

"The forehand’s there, the serve’s there, the backhand is long gone. Long gone," he added

The NFL star also said that more scholarship money in football was one of the factors that drove him away from playing college tennis.