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Former AFL player Chris Bryan has joined one of the United States’ most famous sporting clubs, NFL’s Green Bay Packers, as a punter. Bryan had auditions lined up with scouts from several NFL clubs.
But after working out with the Packers, the first of those clubs, he has been snapped up on a three-year, non-guaranteed contract.
He now faces a battle with another recruit Tim Masthay, signed in January, for the Packers’ punting spot when the season begins in August.
The Packers have parted with last year’s punter, Jeremy Kapinos, who had a poor 2009 season, and have been looking for a consistent punter for several years.
Bryan has been guided by former Brisbane and Hawthorn AFL player Nathan Chapman, who runs Prokick Australia, an academy designed to train up aspiring punters and kickers.
Chapman said the ruckman, who played 46 AFL matches from 2005-09, 16 for Carlton and 30 with Collingwood, had started preparing himself for the switch of sports more than a year ago.
The 28-year-old played only one match for the Magpies last year before being delisted, then turned down overtures from Hawthorn in favour of his NFL ambitions.
While not guaranteed to make it to the start of the season, Chapman said Green Bay would not have signed him if they did not feel he could fill the gap.
“Green Bay need a punter for this year, it’s a really good opportunity,” Chapman said.
Bryan takes the tally of Australians currently with NFL clubs to four, all punters.
They include fellow former AFL players Ben Graham (Arizona Cardinals) and Sav Rocca (Philadelphia Eagles), along with the Dallas Cowboys’ Mat McBriar.
Bryan joins a club with a remarkable history, as a winner of a record 12 NFL titles.
Their success defies their status as a small-town club – representing a population of about 100,000 people – among a league of franchises in the United States’ biggest markets.
They are also the NFL’s only publicly-owned club.
Despite several financial near-collapses in their early history, they have existed in the same location with the same moniker longer than any other NFL club and now have a 78,000-person waiting list for season tickets.
Green Bay have also given rise to some of the sport’s most famous names, including legendary coach Vince Lombardi, after whom the trophy handed to the Super Bowl’s winning team is named.
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