Welsh rugby union player Louis Rees-Zammit has quit the sport to move to America and join the NFL’s international player pathway programme.
The 22-year-old has had a stellar career so far, earning 31 caps for Wales and scoring 14 tries, including five in five at last year’s World Cup.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe wing, who toured South Africa with the British and Irish Lions in 2021, has been immediately released from his contract with Premiership club Gloucester and announced his intention to leave rugby just minutes before Wales’ Six Nations squad was confirmed.
Who Else Has Quit Rugby for the NFL?
Louis Rees-Zammit is not the first rugby player to attempt to make a career in American football, with those who’ve made the switch having varying degrees of success.
One of the most successful crossover players is Jordan Mailata, who left behind a promising rugby league career in Australia to join the IPPP (International Player Pathway Program).
Mailata was invited by NFL executives to try out for the programme after they saw clips of him playing league, and he became only the second-ever player drafted with no American high school or college football experience when he was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 233rd pick of the 2018 draft.
The Australian has cemented himself as Philadelphia’s starting left tackle and helped his side reach Super Bowl LVII, where they were beaten 38-35 by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Embed from Getty ImagesJarryd Hayne, another Australian rugby league player, made the switch in 2015 when he was signed to a three-year contract by the San Fransisco 49ers, and played eight games before retiring in 2016 to take up Rugby Sevens.
Australian rugby union player Daniel Faalele was spotted by scouts from the University of Hawaii in 2017, and after being signed by the IMG Academy in Florida, he committed to play college football for Minnesota.
Following a successful college career, he was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens with the 110th pick in the 2022 draft, becoming the heaviest rostered player at 384lbs.
Embed from Getty ImagesNew Zealand’s David Tukatahi Dixon played rugby union during his early teens before switching to gridiron, and spent ten years with the Minnesota Vikings after winning a Super Bowl ring as a practice squad member of the Dallas Cowboys in 1993; he retired in 2004.
Australian-born Hayden Smith played five games for the New York Jets in his sole NFL season after making the switch from rugby union, where he had been playing for English team Saracens.
Smith’s American football career began in 2012, but he returned to rugby and Saracens in 2014; he was also a regular for the United States international rugby union team.
The most famous player to quit the English Premiership for the NFL is Christian Wade, with the one-time England international leaving Wasps to join the IPPP.
Wade joined the Buffalo Bills as a running back, scoring a sensational 65-yard touchdown with his first carry in a pre-season game in 2019.
Embed from Getty ImagesWade spent three years with the Bills but failed to feature in a regular season game, and returned to rugby with French club Racing 92 in 2022.
Image Credit: Kidzet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
