Brave move by Jarryd Hayne, we wish him all the best.
Players arriving in Australia to try new sports (Tommy Walsh, Marty Clarke, Tadhg Kennelly etc) is nothing new for us Irish folk but Australian players leaving their chosen sport to try another abroad is much more unusual.
Sure, Anthony Mudine switched from Rugby League to boxing, with some success, but going from that sport to the NFL, at 26, is a different animal altogether.
That is what former Parramatta Eel Jarryd Hayne has announced he intends to do. The Australian international is one of the biggest names in the game Down Under and at a press conference he said that he had “done everything in rugby league” and that “I didn’t feel like it was challenging me in the way I’ll now be challenged.”
Challenge is a small word for what Hayne is undertaking. The player does not have a contract with an NFL team, but he says he has a 12-month plan to get a job on one of the 32 teams in the NFL.
Last month, Hayne did spend some time at the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks facility but there is no suggestion that he is about to suit up for the Hawks.
As a 6’2″, 15 stone back he is a decent sized unit for NRL but he would be small by NFL standards as a receiver. His best bet is probably to aim for a spot as a running back, a position that Reggie Bush said would suit Hayne when he saw him at a State of Origin game earlier in the year.
Hayne is now released from his club and country league committments so his next step is to move to LA to join a training camp.
Other Aussies have had fine NFL careers, like Sav Rocca and Ben Graham, but they have been punters, turning their AFL skills to the NFL.
If Hayne can pull this off, and become an NFL running back or punt returner, he really will have achieved something remarkable.
