‘Wrexham could lose every match and I’d still support them’ - NFL star becomes superfan after watching documentary and reveals what Rob McElhenney is really like

The former quarterback, who represented the likes of the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins in his playing days, is among those to have jumped aboard a remarkable sporting bandwagon in North Wales. A man selected with the third overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft did not intend to become a Red Dragon, but is now fully committed to the collective cause alongside his young family.

Despite being based in Oregon - some 4,750 miles from Wrexham – Harrington has told The Athletic of how British soccer has become an unexpected passion: “If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be buying a subscription to something called the Vanarama National League, I’d have laughed at you. Now, though, I’m up at 6.30am every Saturday to catch the 7am match (3pm UK time). No way could I have imagined doing that just a few years ago. But, as a family, we’re totally wrapped up in the club and the journey they are on.”

The Harringtons caught the Wrexham bug during a visit to the United Kingdom that saw them pass through North Wales. While taking in the SToK Racecourse experience they rubbed shoulders with Ben Foster and Phil Parkinson and have since gone on to meet one of the club’s Hollywood co-owners at a college football clash between Oregon and Ohio State. Harrington added: “This was the first time I’d met Rob and Kaitlin [Olson]. They were great, no pretence about them at all. You’d never know they were Hollywood stars. They were just part of the family and were so welcoming to me and my friends. We chatted Wrexham and I showed them the photo of Ben Foster with the boys. How they both were didn’t surprise me. It’s exactly how we’d been treated in Wrexham, where the town, the team, the organisation follow the example of the leadership.”

Harrington has reciprocated that love and said of why he is now Wrexham for life: “I’ve seen professional sports at the highest level, including a decade in the NFL. I’ve seen what that world looks like. So, as a father, to see how everyone - literally to a person, from the club shop staff to the guy running the pub and the Premier League goalkeeper who stopped a PK (penalty kick) against Notts County just a couple of weeks later - treated my kids and my family, Wrexham could lose every single match for eternity and I would still support this club.”

Losing games is not something that Wrexham are accustomed to doing, having enjoyed a meteoric rise on the back of Reynolds and McElhenney’s takeover in 2021. They are currently riding high in League One, as more drama is generated for the club’s award-winning documentary series, and have their sights locked on a third successive promotion.