NFL academy in Australia to search for more Asia-Pacific talents like the Eagles tackle and Aussie punters, DashTickets reports
Do rugby and gridiron football skill sets and mindsets match? Do rugby-mad countries like football? Australians and New Zealanders will soon have a chance to find out as the National Football League (NFL) expands into Australia.
As DashTickets NZ reports, the NFL will open an NFL Academy program in Queensland that will service the entire Asia/Pacific region and will search for talents while they’re young. The talent recruitment camps are taking place in Australia this June, and the NFL Academy is to open in September.
The first recruitment camp is taking place in Gold Coast at A.B. Paterson College on June 29, so in less than a week. The second camp is on July 6, in Sydney, at the Hills Sports High School. Finally, the third camp is scheduled for August 24 and it will take place in New Zealand, in Auckland, at Bruce Pulman Park.
The NFL Academy will be based at the venue of the first recruitment camp, A.B. Paterson College, and it will be open for young athletes aged 12 to 18 to apply for a spot in the development program. An NFL facility will be built on existing college grounds, funded by the NFL. As DashTickets reports, students must be enrolled on a full-time academic program at A.B. Paterson College to ensure their pathway to a US College is clearly articulated and monitored. In essence, this is a pathway for potential NFL players to earn a scholarship for a US college.
So far, potential players have been entering the NFL system at a much older age, at time of draft.
Jordan Mailata, the Eagles offensive tackle who is an Australian native with a Samoan heritage, will be an ambassador for the NFL Academy in Australia. Mailata, a 365 lb monster with a sub-20% body fat percentage, grew up playing rugby league for the Bankstown Bulls in Sydney, Australia. After seeing video clips of him playing rugby league, the NFL executives invited him to their International Player Pathway Program.
Mailata was constantly doubted throughout the drafting process and combine as he has 'never played a single down of American football', but his physical attributes landed him a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles as the 233rd pick of the 2018 NFL draft, aged 21. He has played 62 games for the Eagles since and has just agreed a three-year, $66 million extension in April this year.
Our friends from DashTickets, a New Zealand website, alert us to the fact that there have been several New Zealanders in the NFL, most of them offensive linemen, like Mailata. Johan Asiata has played for the Bears (2009-2011), David Dixon had a long career for the Vikings in the 90s, Tevita Finau was a journeyman DE in the 2010s, while Stephen Paea had a successful career as a DT. But none were more successful than Riki Ellison, a New Zealand-born linebacker who won three Super Bowls with the 49ers in the late 80s.
There have been more cases of Australians making it to the NFL, mostly from Aussie Rules Football and less from the Rugby League, but still, it's rare to see more than one per year making it as a regular starter for an NFL team. Almost all Australians in the NFL are, interestingly, punters.
Without a doubt, the New Zealand offensive linemen and the Aussie punters have left their mark on the league and the trend has been noticed. NFL now wants more of the same.