Jordan Mailata’s switch to the NFL

Embed from Getty Images

Jordan Mailata is a promising young athlete, who at the age of 23 has already played professionally in both rugby and American football. His successful move to the NFL proves that the switch is possible and may even encourage other sport stars to follow suit.

Born in Sydney, Australia, to Samoan parents, Mailata began playing rugby during his childhood and was selected to play in the South Sydney Rabbitohs Under 20's team.

He worked in the construction industry in demolition during the start of his sports journey around his training due to having such a low salary.

The player's professional rugby career has barely taken off when he suffered a serious health scare concerning his heart. At 17, he had to have two heart ablations, with the surgery taking over nine hours to complete.

Following his recovery, he returned to the rugby league. Despite this condition he has since made a full recovery and was cleared by NFL doctors prior to joining the football league.

While he was a great player in the rugby league, The Rabbitohs thought that Jordan was too big in size and needed to slim down. At six foot eight and over 340 pounds, he is much larger than your average athlete.

The player was also known for barging in to other players and a number of videos of him doing so appeared on the internet. This eventually caught the attention of the NFL and he was invited to the United States to try out for the International Player Pathway program.

The program needed six international players, with four of them guaranteed a place in the AFC North team. After impressing the NFL at the initial tryouts in Los Angeles, Mailata was invited to play at the mini camp in Florida before taking part in the regional tryouts.

Mailata's parents were initially reluctant to give him their blessing to go over to the state and join the NFL. However, he soon managed to convince them that he was destined to have a career in international sport.

While his size was an issue in the rugby league, his height and weight and the fact he was nimble yet powerful is what impressed the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles selected him in the seventh round of the NFL draft and from there converted him from rugby player to skill offensive lineman.

Prior to his training in Florida, Mailata has never actually played a game of American football. He wasn't even sure how to put on the thigh pads he had been supplied in his kit.

Despite the players inexperience in the game, he was clearly a natural. He was only the second ever player to be drafted without prior high school or college experience playing the sport, the first being German player Moritz Böhringer.

In 2018, Mailata signed on to a deal with the club for four years at $2.5 million dollars. Sat on the sidelines, the Eagles opener game was actually the first live season NFL game he had ever witnessed.

Taking on a rugby player was a big gamble for the Philadelphia Eagles, however he has already proven to be a quick learner. As both he and the team gain confidence in his football abilities, it is expected that he will move off the reserves and get more time on the pitch. Mailata will be hoping to making an impact from the beginning of next season, so it'll be worth keeping an eye OLBG's NFL picks to see if the expert handicappers are as optimistic as the Eagles seem to be!

Other successful switchers include Russell Wilson who played baseball for North Carolina State University and then minor league with the Tri-City Dust Devils and then the Asheville Tourists.

Wilson then went on to be selected in the NFL draft by the Seahawks in 2018 and has named Rookie of the Year in his first season. The player later became the highest paid player in the entire NFL.

Herschel Walker is another one who has shown talent in multiple sports. Not only has he played football for the Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants, he has also enjoyed success in martial arts, basketball and track

There is also Bo Jackson, he was the first person in history to achieve the titles of All-Star in baseball and a Pro Bowler in football. He was picked in the first draft in 1986 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however later decide to concentrate on baseball and joined the Kansas City Royals.

Jordan's move from NRL to the American NFL will surely prove to be inspirational to many other young athletes who are yet to decide where their talents are most suited.