Louis Rees-Zammit has signed a three-year contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Super Bowl champions who count Taylor Swift as their most famous fan.
The Chiefs confirmed on Friday that Rees-Zammit had completed the deal, which includes an undisclosed signing bonus and “some guaranteed money”. Guaranteed money goes to the player whether or not the team release him before the end of his contract.
Rees-Zammit, 23, is the 38th alumnus of the International Player Pathway (IPP) programme to have signed a contract with an NFL franchise. His aim is to emulate Jordan Mailata, Efe Obada, Jakob Johnson, Sammis Reyes and David Bada in making it on to an active roster, from which he could feature in the league.
• Louis Rees-Zammit rivals times of top NFL stars in rapid sprint test
The Welshman had been visiting teams over the past week after taking part in the Pro Day for those on the IPP. He recorded a time of 4.43sec for the 40-yard dash in front of scouts from 31 teams. Rees-Zammit met the New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos — he had visits with three other teams lined up, but cancelled them once the offer came from the Chiefs. He has also signed with Roc Nation Sports, the management company founded by Jay-Z that counts Siya Kolisi and Maro Itoje among its clients, as well as several NFL players.
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“Obviously he’s an incredibly talented rugby athlete, and has a lot of transferable skills, but equally there’s a lot to learn, a lot of different things, and from a technique standpoint he was really starting from nothing,” Henry Hodgson, the general manager of NFL UK, said.
“The 40-yard dash is always the headline at the NFL Combine. It’s like 100m in the Olympics. It’s the one that everyone’s looking at, but I think it was all his skills they saw. They’re looking at not just his straight-line speed but also how quickly he can change direction and so on, and I think all of those things impressed.
“I was actually at the workout there myself, and immediately afterwards he was surrounded by scouts, all of them wanted to talk to him. They were able to see from his rugby footage just what a great athlete he is, but the other thing that they need to understand is how coachable is he, what type of a learner is he, because he is learning a brand new sport, which is also quite cerebral.
“You need to be able to learn a playbook with basically a new language, to really make an impact on the field. A lot of the interviews he impressed them as well by just giving them the impression that he’s going to be able to do that piece as well.”
Rees-Zammit has cited the hybrid offensive players Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel, of the San Francisco 49ers, as players he would seek to emulate. His 40-yard time was slightly better than those of both players, who each clocked 4.48sec at their NFL Combines. Rees-Zammit could also be a kick returner, and changes to the kick-off rules for next season — designed to improve player safety and make the set piece more exciting — could help him in that regard.
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“A bit disappointed in my 40 [yard time],” Rees-Zammit said after his Pro Day. “Last week I was getting some really good times. I was getting low 4.3s, high 4.2s. So it is what it is. It’s just what happens on the day. But I know I can run that fast. I’m not trying to make excuses or anything, but I know what I can do and I’m happy with the day and how the day went.”
The Chiefs have been the most high-profile team in the NFL for the past five years. The Missouri-based franchise ended a 50-year drought by becoming champions in 2019 and have won the past two Super Bowls. Their star players are the quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the tight end Travis Kelce.
Kelce’s relationship with Swift was the biggest story of the 2023 season. The singer was credited with hugely increasing interest in the league, and the couple made an appearance on Saturday Night Live in October. Swift flew from performances in Tokyo to be at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas last month.
• Why Chiefs are perfect fit for Rees-Zammit
Rees-Zammit’s contract will not guarantee that he will be running out at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans next year — or even in the NFL. There are a variety of deals on offer that involve a player being in summer or practice squads, aiming to make it on to the active 53-man playing roster. Under the IPP scheme, every franchise can carry an extra 17th member in their practice squad next season, so that is the most likely outcome for Rees-Zammit — though it is highly unusual for practice squad players to get three-year contracts, particularly as a rookie.
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Typically, practice squad players earn $12,000 a week — over an 18-week season, that is $216,000 (about £170,000) — and they make the 53-man roster as a rookie, the minimum annual salary is $750,000 (about £595,000).
Rees-Zammit’s decision to quit rugby union and try to make it in the NFL, announced shortly before he was set to be named in Wales’s Six Nations squad, shocked the sport. His love of American football stems from his father’s time playing for Cardiff Tigers. While Wales were achieving a wooden spoon in Europe, Rees-Zammit spent ten weeks training in Florida with the other members of the IPP, including the former Northampton Saints utility back Harry Mallinder, who is trying to become a kicker. Charlie Smyth, the 22-year-old former GAA goalkeeper with Co Down, has joined the New Orleans Saints, becoming the 39th IPP alumnus.
There is a long history of players with British connections in the NFL. Many were born in Britain but raised in the US from childhood and often used their size as linemen or footballing ability as placekickers. Louis Rees-Zammit is 23 years old, grew up in the UK, and plans to become a hybrid offensive player through the International Player Pathway (IPP). The boxes of difficulty are ticked.
IPP alumni include the rugby players Alex Gray, Christian Scotland-Williamson and Christian Wade, who made it on to practice squads but no further. Tigie Sankoh was born in Sierra Leone before moving to the US and England, and has played in the Canadian Football League. The standout IPP graduate from Britain is Efe Obada, who was born in Nigeria and abandoned on the streets of London aged ten. He played in five games for Washington Commanders last season as a defensive end.
The NFL’s links to Britain date back 100 years. Maury Segal, who played five games for Cleveland Bulldogs in 1925, is believed to have been born in England, though information about him is scarce. There was also Arthur Matsu, born in Glasgow to a Japanese father and Scottish mother, who grew up in North America and represented Dayton Triangles.
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In The Replacements, a sports comedy film from 2000, Rhys Ifans played Nigel Gruff, a Welsh footballer who becomes a placekicker during a players’ strike. The transition of Gruff from soccer to gridiron was not without precedent.
John Smith, born in Oxfordshire, was a talented footballer who moved to the US and had a trial at New England Patriots. The first NFL game he ever saw was the first one he played in and during ten seasons with the franchise he was involved in two historic moments. Smith was lining up a potential match-winning field goal on Monday Night Football in 1980 when Howard Cosell announced that John Lennon had been murdered, and in December 1982, Smith kicked the only points in the “Snowplow Game”, so called because Mark Henderson, a convict on work release, cleared the pitch to help make the score 3-0.
In the same era, Mick Luckhurst was at Atlanta Falcons. Hailing from Hertfordshire, Luckhurst was an exchange student when he discovered a talent for 60-yard field goals, also kicking for the rugby team of the University of California, Berkeley. Luckhurst played in 96 NFL games between 1981 and 1987.
Before them came Allan Watson, who moved to the US from Wales after seeing a job advertisement in a newspaper, playing soccer for Pittsburgh Phantoms before turning to gridiron. Watson played four games for Pittsburgh Steelers in 1970, succeeding with five of his ten field goals.
Bobby Howfield was a forward for Watford, Aldershot and Fulham. He switched from British soccer to American football and joined Denver Broncos in 1968, as a placekicker, and his seven-season NFL career ended at New York Jets. Bobby’s son, Ian, was born just before the family moved to the US and he made nine league appearances for Houston Oilers in 1991.
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More recently, Rhys Lloyd was born in Dover and moved to the US at 15 with his father, Bryn, and between 2007 and 2010 he featured in 50 NFL games, specialising in lengthy kickoffs.
Scotland has been a strong source of kickers and punters. Lawrence Tynes was born in Greenock to a Navy Seal father and Scottish mother, moving to the US as a child, and won the Super Bowl with New York Giants in 2008 and 2012. Jamie Gillan, “The Scottish Hammer” who played for the Giants last season, also made the move to the US as a teen for his father’s job. The Giants also have Graham Gano, born on a military base in Arbroath. Scotland-born kicking predecessors are Alex Waits (Seattle Seahawks in 1991) and Ian Sunter (Detroit Lions in 1976, and Cincinnati Bengals in 1980).
Among those born in London before emigrating in childhood to the US are the Super Bowl winners Osi Umenyiora and Jay Ajayi; Jack Crawford (a former classmate of Daniel Radcliffe, playing more than 100 games between 2012 and 2022); and two players from last season in Jermaine Eluemunor (Las Vegas Raiders, now of the Giants) and Julian Okwara (Detroit Lions, now of Philadelphia Eagles). Changing London to Birmingham, there is Visanthe Shiancoe (Liberian mother and Ghanaian father), who between 2003 and 2013 made 154 appearances for four franchises. Menelik Watson, born and raised in Manchester, played 35 games between 2013 and 2017.
In terms of speed, Rees-Zammit is looking to emulate Owen Gill, a fine athlete born in London to Guyanese parents and who moved to the US at 16. Gill played 32 games between 1985 and 1987, rushing for three touchdowns.
