Will Antoine Dupont follow the path of Louis Rees-Zammit in NFL?

With AFP

Antoine Dupont, Olympic rugby 7s champion at Paris 2024 this summer, had the chance to participate in an American football introduction with the Los Angeles Chargers NFL team on Thursday, September 26.

Expected to return to training with Stade Toulousain next week, Antoine Dupont has opted to finish his holiday in Los Angeles.

With LeBron James at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

After meeting LeBron James on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the future venue for the Rugby Sevens events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the 27-year-old rugby player got the chance to have a go at American football at the Chargers' training facility, “The Bolt”, which opened this summer in the southwest of the city.

“The first thing I did was watch the team training. We toured all the facilities, which are pretty incredible—just like you'd expect from the Americans. The changing rooms, the screens, the games room—everything is huge,” he told AFP.

“After that, I got to work on some skills—catching balls, tackling techniques, and even some footwork with kicker Cameron Dicker. I also did a bit of core work with the fitness trainer.

“It’s the best way to spend a holiday, being able to train while discovering some pretty cool things. And if there’s one sport that’s closest to rugby, it’s probably American football.”

VIDÉO - un début de reconversion pour Antoine Dupont ?? pic.twitter.com/wNCtJWQDcs

— lecitroyen (@lecitroyen) September 27, 2024

So impressed

Dupont shone in Los Angeles in early March, helping the French team win the World Rugby 7s tournament, the first step in a remarkable summer that culminated with Olympic gold in Paris. In the meantime, he also led Stade Toulousain to a Champions Cup and Top 14 double.

“You can see how demanding these guys are on a daily basis, even in the cafeteria, with tailored menus, food supplements, the gym, the changing room—right down to the choice of spikes. They leave nothing to chance, with considerable resources at their disposal,” noted Dupont, who exchanged jerseys with Khalil Mack, a member of the Chargers’ defensive team.

Although he's accustomed to being around big guys in rugby, Dupont was impressed by “the physicality of the players; they're truly formidable athletes!”

“In rugby, players still need to run, so they can't be too heavy. There are some very specific positions here that are quite static, which is why the players are really massive.”

Could the Frenchman, who will be attending Sunday’s match between the Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs, the Super Bowl winners in February, follow in the footsteps of Welshman Louis Rees-Zammit, a rugby union international attempting to make his mark in the NFL this year?

“No, I think it's quite far from rugby. I would really have to dedicate a lot of time to it. And to be honest, I don't even have a position in mind where I could see myself,” he replied.