The NRL star standing between Christian Wade and the NFL
Valentine Holmes will soon face his NFL D-Day and has a strong chance of joining elite quarterback Tom Brady at Super Bowl champions New England Patriots.
The former NRL star will be put through his paces on April 1 by scouts from 32 NFL teams at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' training facility in Florida, where he will compete with former Wasps star Christian Wade for the attention of NFL scouts.
Holmes will perform drills and be interviewed by the scouts.
If he impresses, an NFL team could swoop in and sign Holmes as a free agent.
If teams do not deem Holmes as hot property he could be assigned to an NFL team's practice squad as part of the NFL's International Player Pathway program.
Each year the NFL randomly selects one of its divisions to be eligible to receive Pathway players.
This year it is the AFC East, which includes Brady’s champion Patriots, the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
Practice squads allow players to train with a team but the player will not be eligible to play games.
The “p ro day” at the Buccaneers’ facility will also include six other Pathway athletes from four other countries, including English rugby union speedster Christian Wade and Brazilian judo champion Durval Neto.
The players have spent the past three months learning American football at the IMG Academy sports facility in Florida.
Former South Sydney Rabbitohs junior giant Jordan Mailata was in the Pathway program at IMG last year and was so impressive at the pro day the Philadelphia Eagles snapped him up at the NFL Draft.
Holmes, in pursuit of his NFL dream, quit Cronulla last year despite the club offering him a new $5 million contract.
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Thanks for bringing up Umaga-Jensen, another positional specialist, who’s been slept on. Why not give him a trial against Tier 2 opposition … I will never understand this. He’s proven time and again at super rugby level, that he’s got what it takes.
Go to commentsNZ is a mmp democracy and parliament sets law whether Perenara likes it or not, inserting his political bias into the Allblacks haka is silly, of course the entire team doesn't agree with him. The haka is a national icon that doesn't need Perenara or any Allblack making it divisive. Tepati of course is about 2 percent of the vote. Nobody wants to eradicate Maori, the Act leader is of course part Maori.
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