The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs will signal former Wales rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit on Friday to play operating again and huge receiver, in accordance with NFL reporter Jordan Schultz.
Schultz added that Rees-Zammit “fielded curiosity from fairly a number of NFL groups” and likewise visited the New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos.
Rees-Zammit, 23, introduced in January that he was leaving rugby and becoming a member of the NFL’s worldwide participant pathway. He was one of many shiny younger stars in his former sport, which made his departure for skilled soccer a shocking growth.
“I’ve had the unimaginable honor of taking part in rugby for my nation which, as a proud Welshman, I’ve by no means taken as a right,” he mentioned in an announcement on the time (h/t ESPN). “Nevertheless, I consider that that is the precise time for me to understand one other skilled aim of taking part in American soccer within the US. These alternatives do not come round fairly often.”
He made 31 Check caps for Wales on the wing and at fullback, scoring 14 tries. He added on Instagram in January that he wasn’t essentially retiring from rugby, however needed to “discover a brand new problem that has the potential to diversify my talent set.”
Throughout his professional day on Friday, Rees-Zammit posted a 4.43 in his 40-yard sprint, a 9’7″ broad bounce and 29-inch vertical bounce. Even when he takes time adjusting to life within the NFL—it is no small feat altering sports activities, particularly on the highest degree—the NFL added a seventeenth spot on the observe squad this 12 months particularly for worldwide gamers, and groups can be allowed to raise such gamers to the energetic roster as much as thrice.
That can improve his probabilities at residing out each his personal and father’s goals.
“It is all the time been on my thoughts,” he advised reporters Friday. “My dad has been a large position mannequin to me as a result of he introduced me up loving the game. He performed the game when he was youthful so it is fairly simple to like the sport as a result of I have been watching it from such a younger age. So, it is all the time been behind my head, but it surely’s simply superb to lastly do it now.”
The NFL’s worldwide participant pathway has led to a number of success tales, most notably Philadelphia Eagles star left deal with Jordan Mailata, a former Australian rugby participant. Rees-Zammit can be hoping to duplicate that degree of success with the defending champion Chiefs.