Wales rugby stars and rugby players from around the globe have made their feeling clear on Louis Rees-Zammit joining the NFL.
The 23-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs, who are the back-to-back Super Bowl winners. Rees-Zammit had been on the International Player Pathway programme from January and ended up impressing scouts at the NFL Pro Day recently.
In light of his big move, Rees-Zammit’s former team-mates and rugby peers have shown their support on social media after the official announcement was made on Friday, March 29.
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Rees-Zammit posted to Twitter and Instagram with the caption: “Chiefs Kingdom let’s get to work” along with a selection of photos with his family at his contract signing. Below are a selection of comments on this post from various rugby names hailing from Wales and beyond.
- Elliot Dee: “Can I have some please?”
- Mike Phillips: “Legends”
- Jonathan ‘Jiffy’ Davies: “Congratulations LRZ. Enjoy and good luck with the rest of your career.”
- Scott Quinnell: “Congratulations (Wales flag and fire emojis)”
- Johnny McNicholl: “Unreal my bro.”
- Josh Adams: “Trip to Kansas sorted then! Better order my LRZ chiefs jersey. Amazing mate.”
Sam Warburton wrote in his Times column: “He is a visionary and is prepared to take risks and I really admire that. The easy option would have been to stay in rugby and to sign for someone like Racing 92 in France, because he was attracting some serious offers from there and Japan, but he has backed himself. I love his confidence and you need that to be a top-level player in any sport.”
James Hook, Bryan Habana, Dan Carter and James Haskell also left comments using the fire emojis. Wales football right-back Connor Roberts left a comment saying: “Love it big nuts.” Roberts’ former team-mate Ashley Williams said: “Happy for you bro, go smash it.”
‘The Beast’ Tendai Mtawarira also left the fire emoji. Former Dragons fly-half Sam Davies, who now plays in the French Pro D2, left the clapping emoji in the comments too. England legend Lawrence Dallaglio said: “Loving your work !!”
Kansas City Chiefs’ official post about the signing of Rees-Zammit has more views (4.7m) than the Chiefs’ post after winning the Super Bowl for a second time in a row (4.1m).
NFL academy head coach Steve Hagen said: “Congratulations Louis, you took a chance on yourself and you made it work. I just feel blessed that I had the chance to help you out a little bit.”
Speaking on the move last week, Jordan Schultz explained that the Chiefs are “fired up” after getting Rees-Zammit to join the franchise. Schultz is an NFL insider for Bleacher Report, who first broke the news that the Welshman would be signing for the champions.
“They’re inventive, they’ve won three Super Bowls in five years, back to back,” he explained.
“If you can get another weapon or another speed guy for Patrick Mahomes, then that’s a big plus. Chiefs are really excited about this. This wasn’t just – let’s just see what this guy can do. They did their homework and they thought he did really, really well at the international Pro Day.
“We’ve seen some guys have some success there. They felt like this guy is a tremendous athlete, there’s no downside, only upside.”
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