Marchant Kenney

  When a 23-year-old lad from New Orleans walked off Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium on New Years Eve 1997 little did he know that 16-months down the line he’d be poking his head through pads over 4000 miles away in Glasgow.

Marchant Kenney was born and raised in Louisiana but made his name in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, sacking quarterbacks and terrorising running backs for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. 

The 1997 Liberty Bowl perfectly capped off Marchant’s successful college career. Beloved College Gameday panellist Lee ‘Coach’ Corso doubted the Golden Eagles heading into the 1997 Liberty Bowl, something that failed to bypass Marchant who during the 4th quarter of the blowout win reminded the nation of Coach’s prediction. 

‘Hey Lee Corso’, Marchant roared into the sideline ESPN cameras, ‘Not so fast!’, offering the Gameday co-host a small dose of his own medicine by mimicking his famed catchphrase.

During our discussion Marchant joked, ‘If they remember nothing else about my college career they remember me calling out Lee Corso’. Marchant was being modest, I’d done some snooping around prior to our chat, in 2009 the linebacker was inducted into Southern Miss’ athletic hall of fame. He’s in good company too, the name Brett Favre is found down the list of standout athletes in Southern Miss history. 

Brett Favre’s football career went into territories unrivalled by not only Marchant, but in fact any Southern Miss alumni, in fairness 3 consecutive MVPs and a Super Bowl ring are a particularly big ask. However, Marchant’s success on the field during his Southern Miss career reached heights that even number 4 couldn’t emulate. Unlike Favre, Southern Miss boasted a winning season between 1994-97, Marchant’s entire Golden Eagles career. 

During Marchant’s time at the school, the Golden Eagles rolled into two of the South’s most famed institutions and walked away with a pair of upset wins. In his rookie year Marchant and his teammates entered the dreaded Death Valley in Baton Rouge and escaped from the LSU Tigers with a 20-18 victory. Two years later a stubborn Southern Miss defence kicked off their season with an 11-7 win in the Georgia Bulldogs’ Sanford Stadium. That same campaign, 1996, Southern Miss ended as co-Conference USA champion alongside Houston. One year later, Marchant’s senior year, they went one better and snatched the title outright after a 9-3 season, culminating in that Liberty Bowl victory. 

Satisfyingly for Golden Eagles fans neither hall of famer fell to Tulane. A perfect, 8-0, record in the Battle of the Bell.

Yet despite his later inclusion into Southern Miss folklore, Marchant’s name passed by the 1998 NFL Draft. This did allow the Arizona Cardinals to pick him up in free agencies, and later that year he entered the Cards training camp. The hard knocks of the NFL took his toll on Marchant during his stint in the desert and a mutual agreement between player and franchise saw the linebacker from Southern Miss head back to the Magnolia State. Mississippi Pride of the short-lived Regional Football League welcomed Marchant to the team for the 1999 season, but he didn’t stick around to see out their one and only season, as the Cardinals felt that the up and coming NFL Europe league would offer a more realistic route back into the NFL. 

‘I really wanted to get back into the NFL and NFL Europe was the best opportunity to do that’, Marchant admits looking back. 

At that time NFL Europe stretched into four nations; Germany (with teams in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt), Spain (Barcelona), The Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Scotland (Glasgow/Edinburgh). It wasn’t to be a 3 month stay in sunny Spain, nor the wild nightlife of Amsterdam or the rich history of a once divided Berlin. In Spring 1999 Marchant Kenney touched down in Scotland as the newest member of the Scottish Claymores. 

But for a man who now lives in Bobby Boucher country of Lafayette, Louisiana, the history of Scotland completely captured Marchant’s heart. ‘I’d always dreamed of Scotland, the beauty and culture. To live there I was overwhelmed’. Less than two years prior he’d been trailing the South as a senior with his future unknown, now this 24-year-old young man was walking the streets of Glasgow on the precipice of the pros.

‘On the plane ride over I never thought I’d do something like that. I was 24/25 years old I was in a dream the whole time’, Marchant shared, before buttering myself and an entire nation up, ‘I guess looking back, there were six teams [in NFL Europe] and I was fortunate enough to be put in the best place if you ask me’. An honorary Scot.

Roughly 5.5million Scots walk the streets of the country without batting an eyelid at how ancient and unique many of them are. Marchant admits he’d always considered his hometown as one of the US’ oldest regions, but Scotland opened his eyes to uncharted areas of history. ‘I’m born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in the context of the United States that’s a very old city. It’s been around a long time, but to Scotland, its really not that old’. 

New Orleans has a very intriguing history as far as the US is concerned, it was founded in 1718 by the French, it was the largest city in the Confederacy during the Civil War and is the birthplace of jazz music. A lot has happened in New Orleans in a little over 300 years. Yet both Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland’s largest cities, were founded back in the 6th century, over 700 years before Christopher Columbus was even born. 

‘I remember walking up the streets in Glasgow and Edinburgh and looking around and it’s just so surreal. You can feel the culture and the amount of people that have passed through these walls’. During the 1999 season the Claymores were put up in a Glasgow hotel for the duration of the season, and even it came equipped with a historic aesthetic, ‘It had been there for I don’t even know how long, the halls felt like they talked to you sometimes’. 

Edging away from the ancient appearance of the city I began to quiz Marchant on the nation’s cuisine, naturally beginning with our beloved soft drink, Irn Bru. At first the name failed to ring any bells, but when I narrowed my description down to ‘the orange soda’, our favourite ginger beverage sounded vaguely familiar. I moved on Tennents, another drink only the Scots could love, this one didn’t seem quite as memorable. ‘I may not remember all the lagers, brews, beers, whiskeys, but there was a lot of them I do remember that’, Marchant admitted, and when investigating any personal favourites further he simply answered, ‘All the lagers and all the whiskeys’, again sounding like a true Scot.

Off the field Marchant adapted to the cultural differences with no hesitations, but life on the field felt somewhat different to his Southern Miss days. ‘The biggest thing for me, a middle linebacker and I played special teams as well, the speed of the game from college to there [NFL Europe]’, as well as the pro style tempo on the field he recalls the physique of the opponents significantly different to college also. ‘The difference to me in the NFL with Arizona, and even in NFL Europe, were the linemen. These big grown men could move you with hands like chisels. When they got a hold of you, they got a hold of you! That was the biggest difference to me’. 

Regardless of the Claymores’ 4-6 finish that season, the enthusiasm of the supporters never failed to amaze Marchant and his teammates. ‘What I loved about the Scottish fans was that they loved it, they loved everything American. Over the loud speakers was the American hit music playing before the game, the Backstreet Boys etc, it felt like a taste of home because everyone in the stands were singing these American songs. It was just a great experience, the people that were there really loved their American football, there were really die hard’. 

It’s now been 18 years since the last Claymores match, double the length of time in which the side actually operated, but once a Claymore always a Claymore. Marchant was incredibly impressed with the positive feedback of the fans, but when asked if he was able to attend a ‘soccer’ match whilst in Glasgow, he agreed that’s where the real diehards of the city head. ‘I saw a couple of soccer games and that was just so much fun. Wow! That’s an experience. They’re diehards’.

One regret Marchant does have regarding his time across the pond is that he never got to live out a childhood dream and see the Loch Ness Monster with his very own eyes. ‘You may laugh at this’, he warned me, ‘but I never got the chance to go up there [Loch Ness]. I didn’t have enough time to really do that, but that’s one thing I do regret’. At this point I had to come clean and admit that in all my 25 years of living in Scotland, not once have I ventured as far as Loch Ness. 

It wasn’t Marchant’s inability to discover Nessie that I found most melancholy about our discussion, but when he shared the emotional experience of his final match with the team, and final match for good. As the Claymores headed into their last outing against the Amsterdam Admirals that season they knew their play-off hopes were done, so as they boarded that plane to The Netherlands, many knew they might not return to mainland Europe again. However Marchant knew that last game would be that exactly, his last ever game.

‘When the season was wrapping up I really wasn’t getting any love from NFL teams, I could’ve played Arena Football, possibly Canadian Football, but it was NFL or bust for me. I had a good job waiting on me so I decided to call it quits’. 

‘I knew that last game in Amsterdam, that would be it. It’s one of the most surreal moments of my life and I’m sure a lot of guys who were American over there can feel my pain. You play football in the playground, 6 or 7 years old, and now I’m 24 years old and [preparing for] my last game of sport that’s really been one of the biggest things in my life, a major part of my life’. 

Marchant got to enjoy a career that countless high school kids across America could only dream of, winning at LSU, winning in Georgia, lifting the Liberty Bowl, getting one over on Coach Corso live on TV, sign for an NFL franchise, play pro football in Europe, but still I felt like I was there, watching a guy do the thing he loved so much for the final time, fully aware that it was the final time. 

I got chills as he dived into the fine details of what was running through his mind in the Amsterdam Arena that June evening. ‘I just remember that the games over and I’m standing there before we’re about to leave. I took a look back at the stadium, empty, and the games over. I just soaked it in. I’ll never forget that moment. I remember crying a little bit and just knowing that was it for me’. 

Marchant made a valid observation, ‘Basketball you can get five guys to play pick up games, five on five whenever you want. Or tennis, golf, etc. Football’s the one sport that when it’s over it’s over. I can never get 22 guys to just lace it up and lets go knock each other’s heads off for an hour or to’.

‘I’ll never forget that moment. The sport that’s meant so much to me and brought so much to my life. To go to a professional level, it even took me to Europe and it’s over. I just looked at that stadium, I was like “wow”, I shed a tear, said goodbye, I took off my pads and headed back home’.

That was it for Marchant on the professional side of football, but despite how emotional his farewell to the gridiron sounded, he hasn’t dwelled on his career and what could have been. After returning to the US Marchant settled down and now lives happily in Lafayette with his wife and two children. I had to prod him about a potential coaching career, as is often a go to for retired football stars, but with a successful career in sales Marchant admits his defensive co-ordinator role at his son’s high school brings him plenty of joy. ‘The games still pure, the kids are doing it for the love of the game’, the only vibe he’d want to coach under, spoken like a true family man.

Marchant leads a busy life as a father, a husband, a salesman, and although his career as a linebacker ended just before the turn of the millennium he has no regrets. A career that began in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, via Arizona, Jackson, Glasgow, and ended in Amsterdam. Marchant has enjoyed the best of both worlds, living out many Americans dream as a pro footballer, and now living out his own with his family in Louisiana.