Mike Florio ,
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The NFL means Not For Long, in more ways than one.
For Welsh rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit, it didn’t take much time for him to realize that a pro football career was not in the cards. So he pulled the plug and went back to his original sport.
“I just felt like I was kind of wasting my talent out there ,” Rees-Zammit said, via the Times . “It’s very difficult to get into the NFL if you haven’t gone through the college system. You just don’t get the same opportunities as those boys. I was getting minimal reps, and it was just something that I was fed up with when I was practicing there.”
During his time with the Chiefs and Jaguars, Rees-Zammit witnessed the ever-revolving door.
“It was absolutely brutal,” he said. “I was seeing new players every day, players cut every day. It was pretty tough, and I knew that going out there.”
Rees-Zammit did not make it to the active roster for any NFL team. He spent time with both the Chiefs and Jaguars. He played some preseason football. But, ultimately, he decided he wouldn’t make it.
The kicker may have come from witnessing the influx of a new crop of college players during the 2025 offseason program. That’s the case every year. Fresh prospects, who have been playing tackle football for years.
And so Rees-Zammit has returned to the sport that he grew up playing, where that experience gives him a significant advantage against someone like, say, a career pro football player who decides to take up rugby on a whim.
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