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How the Elton John Show almost led Dan Carter to join NFL powerhouse
By Finn Morton
After watching the Elton John Show at the world-famous Madison Square Garden, legendary All Black Dan Carter was given an opportunity to realise a “childhood dream.”
No, Carter wasn’t given the chance to become a ‘Rocket Man’ and to venture into the great unknown – but for a man from Southbridge New Zealand, what followed was just as surreal.
The two-time Rugby World Cup-winning flyhalf was approached by the now six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, and was asked whether he’d like to see their facilities.
Carter thought he was going to Patriot Place for a tour when he made the trip north to Foxborough, Massachusetts, and it’s true that the 112-Test All Black got to do just that.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Carter ended up meeting Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and was left stunned when the billionaire asked him, “What are you going to bring to the team?”
“I was in New York, Madison Square Garden, watching the Elton John Show,” Carter said on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby Australia.
“They’re like, ‘Hey, do you want to come to the Patriots and have a look at their facilities?’ “I said, ‘Oh yeah, love to.’ Thought I was going to have a tour (but) they’d obviously done some research and seen I could kick a ball.
“So I rock up there and they go, ‘Right, we want to see if you can kick an American Football.’ I said, ‘Oh I’ve just injured my Achilles, I can’t.’
“They go, ‘Oh the owner wants to talk to you.’ I was like, ‘Oh that’s nice, Robert Kraft is going to welcome me to the facilities, that’s nice of him, I’m sure he’s a busy man.’
“Walk into his office, ‘How long have you wanted to play in the NFL? What are you going to bring to the team?’
“I’m like, ‘Woah s***, childhood dream, bit of an outside of the box story and I just b********** this, if felt like an interview.
He goes, ‘Right, the head of scouting wants to have a word with you.’ We talked about different kickers in the competition, the importance of technique and good kickers and bad kickers in the game.
“Eventually I got my tour, amazing facilities, and then I left – they gave me a ball. They’re like, ‘We want to see some video footage of you kicking this and if we think you’ve got potential you come to try-outs next year.’
“I always used to joke with my mates (that a) goal kicker in American Football, that’s my retirement plan… I tried to kick an American Football and I was hopeless.”
In a way, Dan Carter’s NFL dream was over before it really began. The All Black didn’t end up trialing with the Patriots, and instead took his talents to France.
Carter remained in rugby, and added to his decorated legacy during a successful stint with Paris-based club Racing 92.
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After a fairly simple Pac4, the BFs will find out a lot about themselves in September when they face the rampaging RedRoses at Twickenham in front of a record crowd. After that they will face them again in Canada in WXV1. They also have France to contend with. Will be interesting to see what Australia have to offer with Jo Yapp at the helm.
Go to commentsSuper Rugby Pacific has been better as a spectacle due to the emphasis on speeding the game up and I’d look at taking things a step further. Instead of giving teams 90 seconds to take a conversion, let’s bring that down 60 seconds. You could also look at allowing 45 seconds for a penalty goal. Maybe teams could get 20 seconds instead of 30 to form a scrum before the ref then starts the engagement process. However, this year the most pleasing change is the added competitiveness in the Trans Tasman matches. What does frustrate me is how the rugby media in Australasia allow the the whole ‘‘rugby is boring’’/’’rugby yawnion’’ narrative to take hold from from vindictive league types, the chairman of the ARL commission and News Limited Australia. Stick up for the game and shift the narrative!
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