MELBOURNE :Australian test rugby player Jordan Petaia has signed with the Los Angeles Chargers as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) training programme, the team said on Thursday.
Petaia, who played in 31 tests and at two Rugby World Cups for the Wallabies, joins the Chargers as a tight end after training at the IMG Academy in Florida.
The Chargers said the 25-year-old would work with tight ends coach and run game coordinator Andy Bischoff, joining Will Dissly, Tyler Conklin and others tight ends on the roster.
Petaia became Australia’s youngest player at a Rugby World Cup when he made his debut as a 19-year-old against Uruguay in Japan in 2019.
He played seven seasons for the Brisbane-based Queensland Reds in Super Rugby before confirming in December he would join the IPP programme to have a tilt at the NFL.
He has previously said it was a dream he shared with his father, who died in 2020 after a heart attack.
“He’d be looking down and shouting at me to take the opportunity. I think I probably would have regretted it if I didn’t,” Petaia said last year.
Earning a long-term spot on the Chargers roster would be a monumental achievement for Melbourne-born Petaia, who has had to learn the game from scratch.
Australia has produced a string of NFL punters but few athletes able to cement a spot in other positions.
Philadelphia Eagles lineman Jordan Mailata, a former rugby league player, is one of the rare success stories, becoming the nation’s first NFL player to feature on a winning Super Bowl team with victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in February.
Jarryd Hayne, another rugby league convert, signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 2015 and made the team’s 53-man roster but was waived early in the season and quit the following year.
