Louis Rees-Zammit shocked the rugby world earlier on this year when he announced he’d be stepping away from rugby to pursue a career in the NFL. He’s already taken part in the initial training programme and has signed a deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. We’re taking a look at what this could all mean for the Welshman.
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00:00 I expected a lot of interest in Wales and potentially in England in rugby circles, but
00:04 the fact that it made the sort of front page of NFL.com was quite big.
00:11 It shows that he's obviously bringing a lot of star power with him, even though he is
00:16 a relative unknown outside of rugby circles.
00:19 He's clearly already showing he could be a star, and the Americans seem totally on board
00:24 with the Welshman.
00:25 But he needs now to show what he can do when training starts before the season and impress
00:30 his star-studded team in Kansas City.
00:32 Well, his first step is try and impress the coaches during training camp, try and get
00:40 a little bit of game time in the preseason.
00:43 And obviously your first goal is make a 53-man roster.
00:48 If he succeeds in doing that, brilliant, that is job number one achieved.
00:53 Tony Samet had meetings with a number of NFL teams after impressing on the international
00:57 players pathway, and it was the Super Bowl champions, Kansas City Chiefs, who went for
01:01 it.
01:02 Owen thinks that it's a great fit for him and will hopefully make a name for himself
01:06 straight away.
01:08 He's pretty much guaranteed to be with the Chiefs now for a couple of years.
01:12 So much so that they've actually given him guaranteed money in his contract, which is
01:15 really big.
01:16 So they've obviously got a fair amount of confidence in his abilities already, which
01:21 is a real positive.
01:24 NFL fan or not, it's incredibly exciting to see a Welshman have his name across American
01:28 sports news outlets.
01:30 And it could be a real opportunity not just for us to have him out there, but also for
01:34 Welsh fans to get into the NFL next year.
01:37 The fact, you know, the physicality, the sort of no holds barred aggression side of it.
01:45 So I think a lot of reporters, advertisers are seeing an awful lot of opportunity to
01:57 engage with a wider fan base.