From rugby league to the NFL: rookie loving each day despite Patriots’ woe
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Jotham Russell switched from Tweed Heads Seagulls to the Pats’ practice squad and dreams of making the grade. By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required. Desperate to find breakthrough international stars, NFL talent scouts seem to have found two avenues well worth pursuing. Of the athletes in the league’s International Player Pathway (IPP) in 2024 and 2025, the latter group was announced last week, around half were rugby players of both codes from Australia or athletes with Nigerian heritage. In Jotham Russell, the NFL have both.
![[Jotham Russell tackles Washingon Commanders’ Jeff Driskell in an August pre-season game]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7a7981bd52366e0f6500f4e05c1e0d9be8c4d9ba/0_212_6000_3600/master/6000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
A year ago, Russell was pursuing his rugby league career at Tweed Heads Seagulls in Queensland’s Hastings Deering Colts competition. Identified as a potential NFL player, by January he was at trials for the IPP program at the IMG Academy in Florida. The Australian with Nigerian heritage survived the Rookie Camp in May and pre-season to sign for New England Patriots’ practice squad, watching an NFL game from the sidelines for the first time when the Pats lost to Jacksonville at Wembley in October. It has been a bewildering whirlwind.
![[Jotham Russell]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e62363adc36a2f64a60b8d5b0823236ce96ae6b4/0_71_3136_1881/master/3136.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“It was very much a right time, right place thing,” says the convivial Russell. “My head was never for the NFL programme. I was just in Canberra to sign an U21 contract for the Raiders. “Someone had reached out to me and asked if I was interested as I fitted the physique they were looking for. They asked me to send some rugby highlights and ended up flying me to them in Gold Coast for an in-person training session. I heard they trained a few people before me and I was the last one so it ended up one-on-one. I only did an hour or so.”.
