We grew up kicking a football to our parents just like you guys throw a baseball with your dad in the front yard. – Tom Hackett
Last week, Jarryd Hayne stunned Australian rugby fans by leaving the sport and Australia with the goal of playing American football.
"My game is based around power and speed and that is what the NFL is all about,” Hayne said, in an article published by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The two-time player of the year in the league has since been rumored to be a target of the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, according to Stephen Cohen of the Seattle PI.
Players coming from an Australian rules football background to American football could be a reoccurring trend, says Utah Utes punter and native Australian Tom Hackett.
"You can thank my coaches Nathan Chapman and John Smith with Prokick Australia," Hackett said. "They've done an unreal job just trying to recruit kids out of Australia that might not have a shot playing professional Australian rules — rugby. Australian kids have a gift kicking a football.
"We grew up kicking a football to our parents just like you guys throw a baseball with your dad in the front yard," he added. "It's difficult because not many people back home know what's going on (with American football), so (Chapman and Smith) recruit, we have to perform well, and hopefully more people realize it's an opportunity for them."
Chapman, one of the coaches at Prokick Australia, played in the AFL (Australian rules football) and in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers. Though Hayne could sign in the NFL as a skill position player, many of the Australians, including Hackett, have found success booting the ball.
Hackett is quickly turning into one of the better Australian football to American football success stories, too.
At Utah football's weekly press conference, Hackett said he never once punted an American football until some point in 2011. He's now the third-best punter in yardage this season (47.1 yards per punt). Utah is the top team in the country in net yardage punting. Hackett was also named the top punter in the country by ESPN, CBS Sports and Phil Steele's College Football Review at the midseason point.
"I didn't think I had a gift for a long time — probably until this year," Hackett said. "It has really just kind of hit me that I have a gift that other people don't have. I'm blessed and grateful for the opportunity."