Talking Footy

Jarryd Hayne is to quit rugby league and attempt to build a career in the NFL.

The Parramatta Eels star has left the Australia squad for the Four Nations and will head to the US for trials. Hayne had a superb season and was named Dally M winner along with Johnathan Thurston earlier this month.

“For the past 24 months I’ve been thinking about having a crack in the NFL, and over the last 12 months I’ve been seriously considering it,” said Hayne in a statement on the Eels website. “Today I can officially announce that I will be heading to the United States to pursue an opportunity to play American football. I will be withdrawing from the Kangaroos Four Nations side immediately, and accepting a conditional release from the Eels to make the move overseas.”

Seattle Seahawks, the Super Bowl champions, are a possible destination for Hayne. He recently returned from a trip to the US city, where he looked at the team’s facilities. His initial training base, however, will be Los Angeles. For the moment, he does not have a club though and hopes to end up on a practice squad, which acts as a back-up to the active team. Practice squads are a common destination for rookies and players learning their trade. Lawrence Okoye, a former Olympic discus thrower for the UK, is currently on the San Francisco 49ers practice squad after attempting to carve out a career in the NFL. Players from the practice squad cannot play in games but can be called up to the active roster due to injuries. A typical salary for a practice squad member is around US$100,000, significantly less than Hayne earns in the NRL.

Hayne acknowledged it would be difficult to leave the Eels, a club he has played for since he was a teenager. “It hasn’t been an easy decision for me to leave the Eels, the club’s been my home and family since I was 13, and I’ve always been proud to pull on the blue and gold jersey with my team-mates,” said Hayne. “The hardest thing about leaving the club is there’s stability for the first time in a long time, but I know where my heart lies and I’m following that.”

Hayne also confirmed that if he returns to the NRL it will be with the Eels. “On behalf of the board and Eels members, I wish Jarryd the very best of luck in chasing his NFL dream,” said the club’s chairman, Steve Sharp. “It’s going to be an incredibly tough challenge for him and for someone at the pinnacle of a sport like rugby league, to start from the bottom in another is very brave. Our door is always open for Jarryd to return.”

Tim Sheens, the Australia coach, was shocked by the news. “You’re kidding me,” Sheens told the Daily Telegraph. “That’s news to me. I’m shocked he didn’t say anything.”

Hayne will not be the first Australian to attempt a career in the NFL. Former AFL players such as Darren Bennett, Ben Graham and Sav Rocca built successful careers as punters. There are currently two Australians on NFL rosters: Brad Wing, a punter for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jesse Williams, a defensive tackle for the Seahawks.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/o ... eer-in-nfl

another NRL player wanting out of this boring game!

after the total failures of Hunt & Folau in the AFL, obviously Hayne didn't want to head down that path, to be shown up to be a inferior unco athlete as what Hunt & Folau proved to be, continuously failing to make the grade in wooden spoon winning sides
no he is off to the NFL!

i wish him all the best in that quest, if he fails he can always head back to League or Union and look a star

Lol.
Another fail by bomber.

Firstly you fucking imbecile .It is BORED .
Seriously did you make it past grade 2?.

So an athlete who has had NFL stars tell him he could make it is going to give it a shot & dumbo no6 thinks it is a problem .
Lol x1000.

He has done all he could in RL bar a GF win played for his state & country( that bit will confuse the fumblers) so while young enough is giving another game a Shot.

He will be more involved & actually be playing the game ,not jogging on to kick a ball & jog off .
He wil be involved in the physical side of the NFL...that part is a bit out of reach for fumblers.

he wants to earn real money and live it up and not earn pennies in the nrl/struggle to pay his mortgage

for his sake i hope he does well but i have a bad feeling reality will hit and he wont get a lot of game time and will get cut. nrl players for the most part are b level athletes compared to those in the nfl

Yes the physical side of most sports is out of reach for fumblers. Massively out of reach. But I reckon some of em could make the Olympics for the walking events. They'd trot too slow for any of the long distance events but in walking they'd have a real shot I reckon

Good luck to him, if he wants to chase a dream good on him, he's still contracted to the eels if his dream does not go the way he plans.

good exposure for Rugby League and the Parramatta eels, espn and a heap of sites have put up plenty of highlight packages of him, most for the eels.

sydneyfc wrote:

he wants to earn real money and live it up and not earn pennies in the nrl/struggle to pay his mortgage

for his sake i hope he does well but i have a bad feeling reality will hit and he wont get a lot of game time and will get cut. nrl players for the most part are b level athletes compared to those in the nfl

:_<>

Yeah
As opposed to those greazy ladyboys in the oi league
Ya know

The 99th ranked league in the world

Arent there about 7 womens leagues rated higher then the aye league > ?

:_<>

Board....


>

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Stupid c.hu.nt

& once again the NRL proves its players are Australias best all round athletes

They are the strongest
They are the fastest
They have the best hands
They are sharper
They have the best awareness

Up til now the NFL only saw us as kickers.. guys to convert their touch downs
Thats because only fumblers tried out
& they're ********* :_<>

Theyve now seen some NRL & its like

Where have these guys been hiding ??

NRL
Providing Australias best athletes & this is again further proof

Raiderdave wrote:

sydneyfc wrote:

he wants to earn real money and live it up and not earn pennies in the nrl/struggle to pay his mortgage

for his sake i hope he does well but i have a bad feeling reality will hit and he wont get a lot of game time and will get cut. nrl players for the most part are b level athletes compared to those in the nfl

:_<>

Yeah
As opposed to those greazy ladyboys in the oi league
Ya know

The 99th ranked league in the world

Arent there about 7 womens leagues rated higher then the aye league > ?

:_<>

who knows, i know the nrl isn't paid millions of dollars for transfer fees for players from their league like the a-league does every year, guess no one is interested in rabble...and when they are, they get em for free

Funny you should say that.

I see Union and AFL paying RL players to swap codes, NFL could buy all 3 codes world wide if it wanted and now one of our best is off to have a crack. You can blah blah blah about RL not being able to keep players, all that says you fucking pelican is RL players are respected up there as some of the best athletes in the world worth chasing, that's why we call it, "The Greatest Game" and that's why these sportsmen are chased.

Board

I think gridiron is a great game. Good luck to Hayne. I know a few NFL fans that like Rugby League too, they think AFL is very funny though :_<>

Hayne would have to do quite well in NFL to make more than he would in league.

he'll be on a practice squad until the 2015 season kicks off in 10 months or so. which would probably net him 200-400k a year. If he makes the 53, min wage is 400k (doing this alone would be an incredible achievement) and from there he'd have to do well do get a contract above 1-1.5mil. Only then would he make more in NFL, since dave smith was prepared to give him extra NRL money but hayne didnt want it as money wasnt the issue.

its funny how no one wants AFL 'athletes' but i guess thats fair enough, they can find similar fumblers and bumblers in most D league basketball teams.

Raiderdave wrote:

& once again the NRL proves its players are Australias best all round athletes

They are the strongest
They are the fastest
They have the best hands
They are sharper
They have the best awareness

Up til now the NFL only saw us as kickers.. guys to convert their touch downs
Thats because only fumblers tried out
& they're ********* :_<>

Theyve now seen some NRL & its like

Where have these guys been hiding ??

NRL
Providing Australias best athletes & this is again further proof

yet the NRL players are
To slow
To unskilled, they do not have the hand or kicking skills
Do not have the aerobic capacity
To stupid to understand and read the play

for AFL
yet how the NRL players Australia's best athletes