Australian Jordan Petaia announced on Tuesday that he was leaving rugby aside to try to land a contract in the prestigious American league.
From rugby to American football, there is only one step. After the Welshman Louis Rees-Zammit last season, it is a new rugby union international who will try the adventure on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Australian Jordan Petaia, 24 years old and 31 caps with the Wallabies, announced this Tuesday that he was leaving the world of rugby to achieve his “dream” to play in the NFL. “The decision to move away from rugby was not easy and required a lot of reflection”explained the Queensland Reds center in a statement published on social networks.
In the footsteps of another Australian
For its part, the NFL indicated that Jordan Petaia was joining its International Player Pathway program (IPP), which allows players from other sports to be recruited by one of the league’s 32 teams. According to the NFL, six athletes from other sports joined one of the American championship squads after following its training program.
Petaia therefore follows in the footsteps of another Australian, Jordan Mailata, who comes from rugby league and who joined the Phidadelphia Eagles in 2018 after benefiting from the same program. This year, he signed a three-year, $66 million contract extension with the Eagles.
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