"I'd been watching it for a long time... and [I'd] always wondered if I could make it. It became entrenched in my heart," Hayne told Monday Morning Quarterback's Peter King, one of the sport's most influential media men. "That's what life is about. To give yourself a challenge that gives you an opportunity to take you places you've never been before."
Hayne's almost instant success means he has become an unwitting shop window to a store full of talent. It's not the NFL scouts that will be browsing, but college recruiters. There are just 32 franchises (though there is talk of expansion into Los Angeles and London) and a little more than 1700 players in the NFL.
In college, however, the numbers are far more meaningful. There are about 115 NCAA division one football programmes that each has more than 100 players to call upon. Each of those schools has scores of football and athletic scholarships to award.
If you add lower division programmes to that, you suddenly have a much bigger demand for athletes.
Before you start thinking that these programmes are only interested in American talent, start thinking about these names: Isaac Sopoaga, Junior Seau, Troy Polamalu, Haloti Ngata and Auckland-born Stephen Paea. All are or have been established NFL stars and all were either born in the Pacific Islands or have Polynesian ancestry. In 2010, 60 Minutes reported that there were 30 Samoans in the NFL and "a boy born to Samoan parents" is 56 times more likely to get into the NFL than any other kid in America.
Those numbers are disputable, but there have been articles written hypothesising that Polynesians are the perfect physical specimens for American football, as if there were some giant warehouse in the South Seas where you can pick linebackers off the shelves.
Well there isn't, but there are fertile talent pools in places like... Samoa, Tonga, Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane and Wellington. Places where rugby has always enjoyed primacy and league has been second, or vice versa.
With the increasing presence of Polynesians in the NFL and the immediate impact of Hayne (who is, strictly speaking, part Melanesian), suddenly it's not such a big stretch to think that American football is a viable career path for New Zealanders and Australians; a path that also comes with the added bonus of a college education.
Don't expect many, if any, others to take Hayne's route to the NFL because it is so outlandish. This was a 26-year-old huge fish in a tiny pond, the owner of one of league's richest contracts, leaving it all behind to follow a dream.
But those other routes to NFL stardom might just look a bit more attractive now.
Sure, it might start as a trickle, but likewise the Mississippi River.
So hold the pooh-poohing.
GIVE 'EM A TASTE OF KIWI
So far no New Zealand medals at the world track and field champs at Beijing's iconic Bird's Nest stadium. Oh well, there have been happier times there.
Click here to watch the Men's 1500M final from the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Remember also that the fraud who claimed gold, Rashid Ramzi, is a cheating son of a beach and that bronze Nick Willis was holding on the podium would soon turn to silver. Willis starts his 1500m campaign tomorrow.
SPORTS SHAREMARKET
I'm buying...
... Les Bleus
It's just what you do as an insurance policy in World Cup year. After scratching around in the Six nations, France finally bared their fangs in beating England last weekend. The All Blacks might already be thinking ahead to a quarter-final rematch in Cardiff. Zut Alors!
I'm selling...
... Fifth-day tickets
Who'd buy a five-day pass in this era of test cricket? The Ashes was perhaps one of the most disappointing series I can recall, with two tests barely making three days and all five failing to reach the final day. There's vibrant attacking cricket and then there's plain old poor cricket - these Ashes showed there might be an extremely fine line between the two.
I'M READING...
This is a lovely feature piece on minor league baseball team the Biloxi Shuckers, who endured two-month, 54-game road trip this year.
MY LAST $10
Every week I will make one $10 bet. The goal is to get to December 31 with more money than I would have had if I had put it in the bank.
Last week: Crashed and burned by backing big-serving John Isner to beat Sam Querrey head-to-head at Cincinnati Masters @ $1.55. He lost in straight sets, putting me $4.60 in the red before this week's spend.
This week: $10 on a league multi, with Wests ($1.45), St George ($1.42) and Canberra ($1.47) backed to win head-to-head against the Warriors, Gold Coast and Penrith respectively. It should return $30.25. I promised myself I wouldn't make these sorts of bets. Oh well.
Total spent: $100 Total collected: $85.40
MAILBAG
A rich bag of mail following last week's column. Most agreed with my sentiment that a fractured sports broadcasting market was having a negative effect on the consumer. This one (edited and abridged) caught the eye.
I enjoyed reading your article today. I get really annoyed at not being able to watch live sports, like the EPL and golf majors. I have Sky and tried Coliseum's EPL streaming.
However, I am not prepared to pay for Sky and the EPL and additionally for the golf. [A friend] put me onto a France-based website where you can watch virtually any sporting fixture, live streaming, free of charge. No sign up or registration necessary, just click on the event you wish to view and enjoy. I watched the final nine holes of the PGA Championship and two EPL games. I have not mentioned the website as I imagine the likes of Coliseum & Sky would try to spoil my newfound fun and games.
Cheers, [name withheld]
It does make me curious as to how many people are actively avoiding Sky and Lightbox Sport subscriptions now in favour of "pirated" streaming? Keep the stories and feedback coming.
Write to me at dylan.cleaver@nzherald.co.nz.
