The NFL Academy is home to 68 promising athletes from 20 different countries and all have the same goal — to make it to the NFL.
This week, a select group of Academy students took a step closer to realising their dreams by being recruited to U.S. colleges. For them, the stakes just got higher.
The Academy, which is in the market town of Loughborough in the United Kingdom, is the equivalent of a U.S. high school program and is the NFL’s international pipeline of talent. Around 3,500 teenagers apply to join the program, but only the few make it.
Ahead of the early signing day, when players legally commit to a school, The Athletic caught up with the international talents who will be playing collegiate football next year.
Luca Wolf, tight end, Tennessee Volunteers
Whether basketball players could transfer their skills to play American football and vice versa is a common social media debate. Wolf might have settled it.
He played basketball at a high level, representing Austria at the FIBA U16 European Championship before attending Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School, a private school with one of the best basketball teams in Maryland. But an unhappy stint there resulted in a return home.
When back in Austria, he asked a friend, former Academy alumnus Yahya Attia who now plays for the University of Colorado, if it was too late to switch to American football. Attia introduced him to the Academy’s head coach Steve Hagen, who told Wolf to attend a camp in Düsseldorf, Germany. A few months later, he was in the Academy.
“I came into football, and the physicality and blocking were difficult for me in the beginning, but route running and catching balls were easy. It converted from basketball and playing soccer growing up,” says the 18-year-old, 6ft 5in tight end.
Luca Wolf scores a touchdown at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (NFL Academy)
“The foot coordination, body movement and shiftiness converted straight away. I was definitely one of the best route runners as soon as I stepped on the field.”
The Academy plays one game a year at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London and the majority of the few thousand in attendance are families and friends, along with some scouts. Tennessee will be a huge step up.
Tennessee’s football program is valued at $1.37 billion, the ninth-highest in the United States, and its home ground, the Neyland Stadium, has a capacity of over 100,000. The Volunteers are 18th in AP’s Top 25 college football teams, and have posted a 4-4 record (8-4 overall) in the SEC this year — football’s most competitive conference.
Wolf caught several touchdown passes at Tottenham in October during a 41-38 loss to St Thomas Aquinas Raiders, the fifth-best high school in the U.S., earning him his Tennessee offer. Beforehand, he had been committed to the University of California, Berkeley.
“My objective when I joined the Academy was that I’m going to play at a big school,” he said. “My goal was to play at the highest level possible. I worked as hard as I could, and I used the resources and it paid off, so just got to keep that mindset going into this upcoming year.”
Jonas Kanyanga, defensive lineman, Northern Arizona Lumberjacks
Rejected by the NFL Academy twice, Kanyanga’s third time was the charm and now he’s college-bound after receiving seven Division I offers.
“It’s crazy. After the second try, I was thinking of going down a different pathway. But I just said, one more try, this is my last chance, so why not?” said the Londoner, who started playing the sport with the amateur club, London Warriors, Britain’s most successful American football side.
“The reason I kept applying was because I knew that the Academy was the place I needed to be if I wanted to go and play collegiate football in the States.
“I want to make it to the NFL, so I have to prove that I can play at that level. While being recruited, I felt overlooked. Comparing myself to some American players, I’d size them up, and I couldn’t see why some were so hyped up.
“So, going out there and proving that Europeans can play, I’d like to set a pathway for those other guys who may get overlooked.”
Jonas Kanyanga received several offers from U.S. colleges (NFL Academy)
Bruno Werner, offensive lineman, Boston College Eagles
Werner won’t be alone when he joins Boston. NFL Academy alumni, including kicker Andy Quinn and fellow offensive lineman Pape Abdoulaye Sy, will be there to greet him.
But his talents are certainly unique. Werner, from the city of Chemnitz in eastern Germany, stands at 6ft 9ins and weighs 285lbs. His first sport was soccer before watching the NFL on TV got him hooked on football.
Making the Academy’s 68-player roster was not straightforward, but after three years at the Academy he impressed enough to receive 12 college offers, ultimately choosing to study finance at Boston because, he says, “the average career in the NFL is not long if I make it there.”
“It’s been a long process,” Werner says of his football journey so far. “First, I got recruited into the NFL Academy and when I got there, I didn’t start right away, so I had to fight for my starting spot.”
Bruno Werner spent three years at the NFL Academy (NFL Academy)
“This season, I started the American games, which are the most important because college coaches just care when you play against U.S. competition to compare you against them,” he adds.
“I worked on my athleticism and my size and arm length really sticks out for coaches.”
To get their man, Boston — 2-10 and 1-7 in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) this year — did not skip on any detail.
“Head coach (Bill) O’Brien picked me up from the airport, and in the car were my favourite sweets,” he reveals. “It was completely new for me, but we stayed at a really fancy hotel, ate at a nice restaurant and met some players there who showed us around the city.”
Seb Harris, wide receiver, University of Mary Marauders
Harris has yet to visit his college in Bismarck, North Dakota. “The day I move in is the day I’m going to see it all in person for the first time, so it’s going to be a mystery,” Harris says.
“It’s a great opportunity, and I couldn’t pass it up. Didn’t need to visit,” he adds.
Harris was a part of last year’s Academy cohort but deferred his offer a year to consider his options before committing, working as an intern at NFL UK head offices in marketing/consumer products in the meantime. In January, Visa permitting, he will head to North Dakota.
Another product of the London Warriors, Harris intends to be “a dominant force” at the Division II school while earning a degree in business.
“There was a lot of thinking, ‘Is this going to come through?’ I found a place to go, which is really fortunate. In the end, it worked out, but it was a very bumpy road,” he says.
Seb Harris will head to North Dakota (NFL Academy)
Despite moving over 4,000 miles away from his home of Streatham in south London he will be joined by some familiar faces.
Thayrancel Pinas, who also graduated from the Academy last year, and Rafael Varona-Blakstad, who graduates this year, will join him after all three were recruited within the space of a couple of weeks.
“One of the biggest things I learned at the Academy is discipline, like discipline over motivation,” he says.
“I know there’s gonna be days where I’m gonna feel battered and bruised and I’m not gonna want to get out of bed, but I’ve got to go to the gym and practice that day.
“But it’s just my discipline that I’ve learned over my three years at the Academy, that not getting out of bed is not an option. You have to, you’ve gotta do it.”
