Aussie rugby star Jarryd Hayne trying to prove he belongs in NFL, too
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The oddball story of Jarryd Hayne got real when he finally played an NFL game.
Hayne was a rugby star in Australia, a former Rugby League International Federation International Player of the Year, which basically meant he was recognized as the best rugby player in the world. That’s all well and good, but we take American football pretty seriously over here, and not just anyone can come in and compete on this level.
And then, the guy who said he had tried on football pads “two or three times” before signing with the 49ers in March sliced through the Houston Texans for a 53-yard run.
You have our attention now, Mr. Hayne.
“Was I surprised? Yeah. I think everyone was a little surprised,” 49ers guard Alex Boone said. “But he’s been playing rugby, he understands the concepts, and he’s probably a lot tougher than a lot of us. He’s not afraid to get dirty.”
It felt good to get out there and succeed, Hayne admitted, and it had to validate what looked like a pretty crazy decision to give the NFL a try.
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Hayne said he was about to sign the largest deal in National Rugby League history when he decided to work out for NFL teams. He said was close to signing a three-year worth about $6 million in Australian money. Given the current exchange rate, that’s in the ballpark of $4.4 million American dollars. The national rugby star got a little more than $100,000 guaranteed over a three-year deal from the 49ers. He’ll make $435,000 in base salary if he makes the 53-man roster. He dismissed a question asking if it was hard to turn down that big rugby contract in Australia like he had never thought twice about it.
“Ah, it wasn’t that hard,” Hayne said. “That’s why I’m here.”
So Hayne came to the United States, which he had only visited a few times on vacation, and play a game he had never played in his life. He gave up stardom and millions of dollars to be one of the guys on the back end of the 49ers’ training camp roster fighting for a spot.
Hayne just wanted to show he could make it in the NFL. And at 27, as he puts it, “I guess it got to the point where it was now or never.”
“The way society is these days, we’re very money-driven,” Hayne said. “That’s not my mindset. The only time I was money-driven is when I was poor, and I stopped being poor when I was 19 or 20. From then, I’ve just been having fun and wanting to test myself as an athlete.”
He said back in Australia, there were people who were trying to get him to stay and continue to be a rugby star there by offering even more money.
“That wasn’t the issue,” Hayne said. “I had a burning desire to want to test myself, mentally and emotionally. The way to do that was in the NFL.”
That’s commitment. Most players in the NFL are committed, but not many of them uprooted their lives from the other side of the world and changed sports just to try to win a job for less than one-third of the pay.
Hayne’s story may sound crazy, though nothing about his demeanor suggests that he thinks it is. But his agent who was negotiating that mega-deal back in Australia? Yeah, he had reservations.
“When I talked to my agent, he just goes, ‘Mate … ‘” Hayne said, his voice trailing off to replicate the disbelief of his agent. “He told me to sleep over it on the weekend. When I came back on Monday, he knew that’s what I wanted. Then he said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, let’s roll with it.'”
Physically, there was no question he could fit in. He’s a huge guy, at 6-2, 226 pounds, and he ran a 4.53-second 40-yard dash when working out for teams. Only five running backs at the NFL combine in February ran a faster time. But his journey was still just treated a footnote, because no matter how tough and elusive he looked in those rugby highlights on YouTube, how would that even translate?
“I’m typically not a fan of people who don’t play football that try to come play football, so my first impression was ‘What the hell are you doing?,'” Boone said. “But rugby is the ultimate football sport, so at some point he’s probably like, ‘What the hell are you guys doing?'”
Hayne’s 49ers teammates had positive things to say in the offseason, which was a nice start. Then came the Texans game. One long run doesn’t make a guy an NFL running back, but he should gets a longer look after the plays he made in his first game. He finished with five carries for 63 yards, and had a 33-yard kickoff return and a 13-yard punt return.
And just to punctuate the whole wild tale of him coming over from Australia to try out the NFL, he says he was happy to get his first taste against the “blokes” on the Texans who are also fighting for jobs.
“For me, it was huge,” Hayne said of his first preseason action. “I was excited, and I think all of Australia was excited as well.”
He’s still learning. Boone said his teammates had to get on him a bit about slowing up and looking backwards on his long run to stiff-arm a defender like he was in a rugby match back home.
“We were like, ‘Dude, why did you turn around to stiff-arm a guy when you should have just run?'” Boone said. “And he said, [Boone switches to a bad Australian accent to quote Hayne] “Normally in rugby that guy would have caught me, but I shouldn’t have stopped … ” Oh, OK. He’s a great guy. He’s fitting in.”
This is a pretty incredible NFL preseason story, except it doesn’t seem that way to the guy living it. When asked about what he thinks of his chances of making the roster, Hayne said he is just focused on working every day and worrying about each day as it comes. And no matter his athletic prowess, there’s a lot of work to do.
“I’m still going through the process,” Hayne said. “I’m nowhere near crisp where I’m as comfortable or moving as smootly as I want to. It’s still a process. I’ve done some great things, but there are a lot of things I need to work on. I’m still out of my comfort zone. A lot.”
He says that in an upbeat tone. It seems like being out of his comfort zone is exactly where he likes to be.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
