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Mohamed Sanu interview: 'NFL wide receivers are a fraternity, we speak and share tips every day'

Mohamed Sanu playing for the Falcons against the Panthers earlier this season. He scored a touchdown in the win - Getty Images North America
Mohamed Sanu playing for the Falcons against the Panthers earlier this season. He scored a touchdown in the win - Getty Images North America

Any real sports fan knows supporting a team is as much about hating your rivals as backing your own.

Our blind hatred, born out of the arbitrary choice we made to like one team more than the others, normally as a child, normally because our dad liked them too, or because their kit looked nice, warps our perspective. Liverpool fan? Everyone who supports Manchester United isn't a friend. Like the Eagles? Every player in the history of the Dallas Cowboys is overrated trash. No exceptions. OK, maybe Tony Romo is alright, but only now he's retired.

Fans expect this hatred to spill over to the men on the field. It does to a degree - players are always desperate to get one over on their division rivals - but that doesn't stop the guys lining up opposite them from being friends, even confidants.

"I talk to Keenan Allen, Stefon Diggs, Devante Adams, Devin Funchess. I talk to all the guys. It's very normal," Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu tells me, as we sit down to chat at NFL UK's swanky London headquarters. Allen, Diggs, Adams and Funchess are all fellow receivers. Funchess plays for the Falcons' bitter rivals, the Carolina Panthers.

"We like to chat to each other, learn from each other. It's like a fraternity. The NFL is a brotherhood - if you think about all the millions of people that live in America and there's 1,900 people in the NFL. That's not that many, so everybody knows each other.

"We share technique, we share our training. At the end of the day it's football, we compete, but once the game's done and Sunday's over you still have friends. When you retire they're your friends, and I feel like sometimes people lose sight of that."

Mohamed Sanu #12 of the Atlanta Falcons runs for a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers in the third quarter during their game at Bank of America Stadium on December 23, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina - Credit: Getty
Sanu scored four touchdowns for the Falcons this season Credit: Getty

Sanu may share a bond with many of the league's premier wideouts, but there's none he speaks about more highly than the ones he's shares a locker room with.

There are few - if any - more talented receiver rooms than the one in Atlanta. Julio Jones led the league in receiving yards this season. The rookie, Calvin Ridley, had 10 touchdowns - more than Michael Thomas, Zach Ertz and Adam Thielen. Then you have Sanu, comfortably one of the NFL's best numbers twos, coming off the most productive season of his seven-year career.

"Without a doubt we're the best receiver trio in the league," he says. "We bring so many different things to the table.

"We've got Calvin - I feel like he's a human joystick, the way he moves. He's so gifted. Such a talented player. Calvin is a rare competitor. He wants to be so great so bad, and it just makes him get better and better and better each day. I mean he's so good right now. The scary part is he can be one of the best in the league really quickly, and that's the most impressive part of Calvin.

"You've got Julio, who's Julio. He's a physical specimen, gifted, 6'4", can run with the best of them. Then you've got me, and I'm like a mixture of the two. I can move, I'm very shifty and at the same time I'm big."

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback M.J. Stewart (36) grabs the legs of Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones (11) during the second half at Raymond James Stadium - Credit: USA TODAY
Julio Jones is the Falcons' main man, and that creates chances for Sanu Credit: USA TODAY

It won't surprise you to learn that Sanu loves playing with Jones, if only because it makes his own life much easier. Just as Antonio Brown's presence on the field allows JuJu Smith-Schuster to makes waves in Pittsburgh (for now), and Tyler Boyd thrives thanks to AJ Green in Cincinnati, Sanu carves opportunities out of opposing defenses going all out to stop big number 11.

"Julio definitely makes me a better player," he says. "I get one-on-one match-ups. Teams will put the second corner on him with help over the top, and then they'll put the other corner on me, and I'm one-on-one. I mean, who doesn't love one-on-one match-ups?"

In Sanu's eyes, when he gets these one-on-one opportunities, he's coming out on top. Every time. He worked as a pundit on Sky Sports' coverage of the Patriots-Chargers game last weekend, and when host Neil Reynolds asked him about competing for 50/50 balls, Sanu was quick to correct him. As a wide receiver there's no such thing as a 50/50 ball, because that ball is yours and yours only.

"If you have the slightest doubt that the defender's gonna get the ball you've lost half the battle," he tells me. "That's the most important thing when it comes to receiver play, when the opportunity comes your way you've got to take it. I call 50/50 balls 100/100 balls, because there's a 100 per cent chance I'm coming down with it."

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley reacts after catching his second touchdown pass from Matt Ryan during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints, in Atlanta. Ridley's first time touching the ball against the Saints last Sunday was as a tailback. He then made his mark at his real position of wide receiver, setting a team rookie record with three TD catches in his breakout game that could impact other teams' defensive plans, including Cincinnati this week - Credit: AP
Sanu is extremely impressed with what he's seen from rookie Calvin Ridley Credit: AP

Sanu rates confidence among the most important qualities an NFL wide receiver can possess. Outside of the quarterback and occasionally the kicker, there's no position on the field which draws as many eyes. No position which invites quite the same chance to be the hero.

But a hero is only ever inches away from becoming a villain. Mere hours before our meeting Sanu has watched another member of the receiver fraternity, Alshon Jeffery, drop a pass which ended the Philadelphia Eagles' dreams of a second miraculous Super Bowl appearance. It must be hard, sometimes, not to be overcome by the situation? Not to overthink things, to lose your head under the pressure? If that's the case for Sanu, he isn't admitting it. 

"I love pressure," he says. "I don't know why, but I love the pressure of, 'oh it's third-and-five' or it's the two-minute drill and someone has to make a play. I'm that guy. Matt Ryan knows I love situations like that, he knows the competitor I am. Me, Julio, Calvin, we're gonna go after it."

It's that mental side of the game, the ability to deal with high-pressure situations, which Sanu thinks sets the truly great NFL receivers apart from the good ones.

"It's all mental, that competitive edge that sets guys apart," he tells me. "If you look at the league everybody's fast, everyone can catch. It's the mental aspect of the game. You build yourself up for each rep, you say: 'This is going to be my best rep of the day'.

"You have to be consistent in getting better and better and better, no matter what goes on. You need short-term memory loss, whether it's a good play or a bad play. You can't think, 'Oh, I just made a heck of a play, I had a nice one-handed catch', and then the next play you're thinking about the one-handed catch and you drop a wide open pass. You've just got to stay focused, like 'I caught the ball, cool, that's what I do'. I feel like you can be taught the mental side, but the best players just have it."

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) celebrates with wide receiver Mohamed Sanu (12) after a touchdown in the third quarter against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium - Credit: USA TODAY
Sanu celebrates a touchdown against the panthers with his quarterback Matt Ryan Credit: USA TODAY

For someone so hungry to be great, and who has sound so much success in his NFL career so far, being here in the UK in January must be a strange feeling. This is the first season since entering the league in 2012 that Sanu hasn't gone to the playoffs - he did it three times with the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him in the third round to play alongside AJ Green, and twice with the Falcons.

That first time, of course, they went all the way to the Super Bowl, and we know what happened next. Sanu's Falcons suffered more adversity this season - a year many experts tipped them to get back to the big game again. Instead, their injury ravaged franchise slumped to a shocking 1-4 in the early season, finishing a disappointing 7-9.

"It was tough this year," he says. "All the injuries we had, the losses that we had. But it made us better it the long run, it helped us grow, the young guys definitely grew.

"Whether we bounce back all predicates on what we do this offseason. Just because you have the talent doesn't mean you're going to end up right there at the end of the season. You've got to take care of your body and get back where you need to be. We'll be ready for the 2019 season."

As they in Atlanta, it's time for the Falcons to rise up again.

Super Bowl LIII will be live on BBC One and Sky Sports USA on 3 February from 11:30pm.