The Sports World’s Ultimate Swingmen
Tyler Beeching breaks down why rugby players should be on NFL’s radar.
Well, it looks like the Eagles have landed one hell of an athlete. Adam Zaruba, a 6-foot-5, 265-pound monster (who also has also ran a 4.49 in the 40 yard dash last month) is trying his hand at football after being a star on the Canada Sevens national rugby team.
Zaruba tried out for the Eagles on Sunday, and managed to walk out with a three-year contract as a tight end, offered to him on Monday. While he still has quite the journey ahead of him to become an Eagle, the man still managed to stun the football community by becoming the last player to be added to the 90 player camp roster.
Unfortunately, there are no guaranteed contracts in the NFL, so Zaruba still has to make it through training camp if he wants to solidify his spot on the Eagles roster.
He signed his contract as a tight end, but since the Eagles already have three tight ends, Zaruba will likely be spending time on special teams.
The transition from professional rugby to professional football doesn’t happen often, but there have been cases where it has been successful.
New England Patriots special teams star Nate Ebner played rugby at Ohio State before walking on to the football team in his third year. Ebner was also allowed to join the USA national sevens team last year, and played with them in the Rio 2014 Olympics.
Last year, there was Jarryd Hayne. Another elite class rugby league player, Jarryd overcame a tremendous learning curve to make the San Francisco 49ers’ roster, only to retire and return to rugby due to 49ers coach Chip Kelly’s massive playbook (smart guy).
As top tier rugby players continuously seek more profitable career opportunities, scouts in the NFL should start paying more attention to “outside the box” sources if they want to add depth to their roster.
Granted, there is still a ton to learn about the game of American football compared to rugby, but there are some serious athletes to be utilized here on both ends of the spectrum. Here are the top three reasons why rugby players can bring some serious offensive (or defensive) firepower to a dynamic NFL roster.
1. Size and Strength
Football and rugby are relative in that they require an insane amount of mental and physical strength to be able to compete at the professional level. However, players that have the physicality to play at the top level of rugby can surely find success playing football.
Most kids generally don’t pick up football until later in their adolescent lives. Rugby players that are serious about transitioning to American football will have the mental endurance, and physical stamina required to compete.
But the river also cuts both ways. Most people that are capable athletes generally don’t have a tough time picking up rugby once they have an idea of how the rules work.
2. Fitness Capacity
As you can imagine, rugby takes a tremendous toll on your endurance. Having to run non-stop while taking minimal breaks for an 80-minute long match is no easy task.
Compared to American football (where there are a lot of breaks in between plays over a three-hour span) rugby players will fare well because they have more stamina built into their system naturally. Let’s also not forget that a regulated NFL field is 120 yards long, and approximately 53 yards wide. Rugby union pitches tend to be 77 yards wide, with a maximum length of 157 yards.
Respectfully, this means that rugby players should be able to maneuver and cover ground on an NFL field more easily than may football players due to their stamina and experience in covering larger fields.
3. Versatility
In football, players have very specialized in roles offensively and defensively. In rugby, players have to learn how to play on both sides of the ball. This means that rugby players have to be good with the ball offensively, and off-the-ball tackling defensively.
In the American football world, where the roles are more segregated, you could make an argument that teaching the fundamentals to a rugby player with a good physical presence would be a nice way to add an athletically dynamic player who could play multiple positions to a football team’s roster.
Moreover, rugby players could also end up with the ball in their hands at any given point. This means essentially that every player on a solid rugby team has to be able to make good passes and have good hand-eye coordination in order to catch the ball while running at full pace.
Overall, the journey to make it to the NFL is an incredibly tough one, but you could argue that most of the athletes’ success stems from them being both physically and mentally capable. The rules of the game can be taught. There have been plenty of cases where players that start football much later on in their life, end up becoming an incredible success story.
Why can’t the same thing happen with a world-class rugby player?
By comparison, All-Universe tight end Rob Gronkowski is coming in at the same weight as Zaruba right now, and runs a slower 40 time. Not to say that our boy is going to be the next Gronk, but there is no question that he is a world class athlete.
Rugby players have all the tools built within their system to be successful at American football. With the training facilities, and coaches at the player’s’ disposal, one could only imagine how quickly a rugby player can transition into football.
When you consider the fact that most rugby players play the sport out of the love of the game, since they get paid pennies compared to NFL superstars, imagine the kind of results they would be produce if they were incentivized to play for millions of dollars?
NFL teams should start expanding outwards and keeping tabs on the best rugby players all over the world. Realistically, how hard would it be to set up transition programs for these top-level rugby players that want to become American football giants?
Think about it!
Tyler is the rugby contributor for TheOcho.ca. He is a firm believer in the power of sports bringing people together. A varsity athlete for the Algonquin College men’s Varsity Rugby Team, Tyler carries a first-hand perspective on all the insane things happening in the world of sports today. You can follow him on Twitter @Tybeech_ or check out his website Tybeech.com .
