Jake Brown: 'Cerebral palsy football changed my life'
Traitors star Jake Brown talks football, England cerebral palsy team and being a role model for people with disabilities.
Following his success on the latest series of ‘Traitors’ on the BBC, Jake Brown explains how football has been a constant presence in his life, leading to him becoming a Para Lion with the England cerebral palsy team and gaining the confidence to become the nation’s favourite ‘Traitor hunter’….
I just couldn't believe it.
I'm about to play for England, and I've got Three Lions on my shirt.
I'm stood there, queuing up and waiting to go out onto the pitch and I was just thinking: ‘this is me.’
It was 2015 and I was in the England cerebral palsy squad for the IFCPF World Championships at St. George’s Park.
Honestly, I had goosebumps the whole time. I remember when we walked out to the games, they used to play the song ‘Heart of Courage’ and the hairs were coming off the end of my skin.
I just tried to take it all in, it’s almost ten years ago now and I actually had a really good tournament. I played really well and scored four goals in five games. I just loved being involved in such a big tournament, especially with it being at home and with all the support we had.
I’m proud to say that cerebral palsy football changed my life.
Photo courtesy of Paul Chappells / Studio Lambert / BBC
Photo courtesy of Paul Chappells / Studio Lambert / BBC
I’m also honest enough to say that before I went to join the England CP lads for training for the first time, I was actually a bit sceptical.
I thought the standard would be awful and I didn't want to be associated with it, but how wrong was I?
At that stage in my life, I just wanted to be normal. I didn't want to be seen as disabled and I was kind of ashamed of my disability at the time.
You see, I’d grown up playing football. From what I can remember, as soon as I could walk, I was playing football.
My dad played football and my brother played football, so I just followed that passion.
From about the age of four, I was in a team so I started very young and even though I was disabled, you couldn't really tell at that age. I was always quite a tall kid, so I was probably in a better position than most.
One of my first football memories was watching the Italian forward Vincenzo Montella on TV and when he scored, he’d do an aeroplane celebration. I loved it.
The next week, I had my first ever tournament and when I scored a goal, I did that celebration. I think my mum and dad have still got a video of me doing it from an old camcorder.
I just loved playing football growing up through school and when I was eleven, I was selected to play for the schoolboys’ team with the best players from our county.
I captained the Barrow-in-Furness boys’ team and I can remember playing against Dean Henderson once, when he was playing for the Carlisle academy at the time. I also played with a couple of lads who went on to play professionally in Alex Newby and Elliot Newby.
I also knew Georgia Stanway growing up, as she went to my secondary school and played for the same football club as me.
She was a couple of years younger, but you could tell from her early years that she was an amazing player. She'd be playing with the lads and she'd be the best player on the pitch.
I've spoken to her quite a few times over the years and she’s massive talent. It's nice to see people like Georgia and others from my town doing well, because it's almost like you put the town on the map.
A lot of people don't know that Barrow-in-Furness exists, so when you see someone doing well from your town, it makes you proud.
So everything was going great with my football, but it was probably from the age of eleven that the difference started to show in terms of me compared to 'able-bodied' people.
As I got older, I could see certain challenges that were in the way such as my balance and co-ordination wasn't as good as some of the others. I did find it hard to keep up at times and I remember having a conversation with my dad about what might be out there for me.
He had a conversation with a guy at our local FA who then reached out.
I didn't even know international cerebral palsy football was a thing, but he told the England coaches that there's a lad up here in Barrow who’s playing able-bodied football quite competitively.
Vincenzo Montello, celebrating a goal for Roma, was one of Jake's early football idols.
Vincenzo Montello, celebrating a goal for Roma, was one of Jake's early football idols.
England's Georgia Stanway hails from Jake Brown's hometown of Barrow-in-Furness
England's Georgia Stanway hails from Jake Brown's hometown of Barrow-in-Furness
I can remember Tony Elliott, one of the England para coaches, came up to see me train.
He obviously liked what he saw and recommended I come to St George's Park.
At first, I really didn't think I wanted to do it. But I spoke to my dad and he just felt I should go down, experience it and meet all the lads in the group with the same disability as me.
So I went, and honestly, it changed my life. The minute I got to St. George’s Park and had that first training session, this confidence just came off me and I quickly realised that the standard was very good.
There were some very good players there. People like Jack Rutter who used to play at Birmingham City and Michael Barker who played at Everton with Wayne Rooney, and players like Matt Crossen and Liam Irons, who still play for the England CP team now.
It made me realise that I was doing myself such a disservice and started to make me feel proud of my cerebral palsy and give me confidence to be like, actually this is who I am and I need to celebrate that.
It was a big turning point in my life, in terms of having confidence in my own ability.
Growing up playing football, I'd never let cerebral palsy stop me, even though there's been times when I'm not at the same level or had been struggling a bit behind some other players, I always just carried on.
I haven’t played for the England CP team for a few years now, but I'm still in the group chat with the squad and been in regular contact over the years, probably more so in the last few weeks since the show aired.
It's fair to say the group chat was going off when the first episode went out.
Jake during one of his first England cerebral palsy training sessions at St. George's Park in 2014.
Jake during one of his first England cerebral palsy training sessions at St. George's Park in 2014.
Celebrating a goal with the Para Lions alongside England CP legend Jack Rutter
Celebrating a goal with the Para Lions alongside England CP legend Jack Rutter
The lads were messaging and saying: ‘I can't believe you're on this’ and as each episode kept coming and I was doing well in the show, they were all like, you are really making the disability community proud.
I almost felt like I was representing people with cerebral palsy and representing the England CP team, especially as it was mentioned in one of the episodes which was quite nice.
It felt that moment was massive and I'm actually doing something for the people, not just me.
I was so happy with the way they edited it into the show and that they could use it in an authentic way.
We could play badminton and croquet up there at the castle, but there was no football! I did say to one of the producers that for the next season, you need to get some football nets so people can kick about but I think they probably wouldn’t do that, because we'd end up spending too long playing football and not enough murdering and talking about the game.
In one of the cut-away scenes which they film of each contestant and show people like in bed, reading or stuff like that, I actually wanted to do keepy-ups for mine but sadly I don't think I don't think logistics would allow it.
But my cerebral palsy football story just came up in a natural conversation while on a mission and I've had so many messages since from people that have got cerebral palsy, or maybe have kids that have it and were worried about how they're going to grow up and what their future holds.
I had one message from someone saying that their five-year-old really enjoys football and wasn't sure whether he'd be able to do it or not because of his cerebral palsy, but watching me tell my story on TV helped to inspire them that if you're passionate about something and enjoy something, go and do it.
You never know, that kid could be playing for the England cerebral palsy football team in the future as well.
Growing up, I didn’t have many role models because I had no one to relate to. There's not a lot of representation on TV for people that have played for England Para teams or who have cerebral palsy or a disability in general.
So for me to have a platform and to use it in a positive way, hopefully people won’t now think: ‘Oh, I can't do something’ before they’ve even tried. Even though it can have its limitations, you can use any disability to your advantage in some ways and it can open doors.
I still have hopes that I can get back into the England CP set up. They’ve all been really supportive of me and I spoke to Liam Irons recently and he said that he'd love to get me back down sometime soon.
Maybe in the last year, I've probably not played as much football as usual, with the show being filmed and stuff, but I'd still love to get back in the fold.
It's definitely something that I want to do again and I feel like I've got the ability to do it, so it would be a shame let it go to waste.
Seeing that the England men’s senior squad had their own game of Traitors going on at the EUROs in Germany last summer made me smile. I saw there was about 35 of them involved, which is a very big game.
That just shows you how popular the show has become. What I like about it is that anyone can play it so to see the England team as well as companies playing their own versions of it around the world, it's just mad really.
CEREBRAL PALSY FOOTBALL
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