Just five years after he arrived in the United States having never played a minute of American football, Australian Jordan Mailata will start for the Philadelphia Eagles against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
The rugby league reject’s success in learning how to play the game, getting drafted by the Eagles and then establishing himself as a top-level offensive tackle, is the biggest success story yet for the NFL’s attempt to recruit internationally.
In fact, NBC Philadelphia’s Rob Kuestner described it as “the best story in the NFL” right now.
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But while there is no shortage of young men, in Australia and beyond, desperate to follow in his footsteps, the 25-year-old has a blunt warning for them.
“It is not easy, the Americans rule the sport for a reason and it is not easy to get to where I am,” he said.
“Kids have to understand that. You have got to work harder just to get even, you have to play catch-up. You have to be willing to sacrifice and have the grittiness to grind through it all and keep pushing through,” he added.
The six-foot eight inches tall, 365 pound Mailata, who is of Samoan heritage, played youth rugby league and was taken on by NRL side the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
But, amid concerns that his size limited his effectiveness, he was offered only a low salary deal to play for their development team the North Sydney Bears.
Mailata rejected the offer and his agent began circulating videos, highlighting his physique, power and strength and the NFL took the bait.
He was invited to be part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program (IPP) and spent time at their set-up in Bradenton, Florida, learning how to play a game that he had barely even watched on television.
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The Australian faced a relentless regime designed to compensate for the absence of experience in high school and college football.
“What we were asked to do was show, what can you offer a team? And can you do that job well? They told us we had to out-work everyone just to catch up and then once we did that we had to keep our foot on the gas, keep out-working and learn the details, get better one percent every day,” he said.
Mailata, who hails from New South Wales, did just that and was able to enter the 2018 NFL draft and when the Eagles took him in the seventh round, he became the first player to be taken without any prior playing experience in the American game.
The Eagles had kept a close eye on Mailata after he was scouted at the IPP base by the team’s offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.
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Little changed initially, with the Eagles realistic enough to know that Mailata still needed plenty of work before he was thrown into the NFL and he spent two years studying playbooks and learning blocking techniques.
So it was apt when in the introduction videos at the start of a Sunday Night Football game, when players name their former college teams, Mailata stated he came from “Jeff Stoutland University”.
He broke into the team in the 2020 season and his impact was such that a year later he was given a four-year, $64 million contract extension.
Mailata is generous in giving credit to coaches, staff and team-mates for his rise but also knows that his remarkable journey would not have materialised without character.
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“When I decided to leave (Australia) I knew the risks ahead and the hurdles I had to overcome. But I knew that wasn’t going to stop me,” he said.
“I didn’t want to go back to Australia knowing that I had failed and I definitely didn’t want to go back to Australia knowing that I hadn’t given it everything that I had.” Mailata has looked relaxed and comfortable through the build-up to the game this week and perhaps for once, he has an advantage over his American team-mates, who have had to deal with the nerves and pressure of knowing they could achieve a lifelong goal.
“They’ve been dreaming about this since they were kids,”he said. “But for me, the Super Bowl dream only started five years ago.”
