Rugby star’s NFL deal is huge news in Australia

“Rugby player to join NFL.”

If the news that the 49ers would sign Australia’s Jarryd Hayne even made it into U.S. papers Tuesday – the story broke Monday after 10 p.m. on the East Coast – it probably was tossed into a notebook with other NFL items on an inside page of the sports section.

In Australia? It was a LeBron James-chooses-Miami-size event that included a packed, mid-afternoon news conference in the nation’s largest city during which Hayne punctuated his choice by donning a red, 49ers baseball cap.

“In Sydney, it’s massive news,” Michael Chammas, who covers the National Rugby League for the Sydney Morning Herald, said in a phone interview. “It’s all over the back pages.”

Jim Wilson, a sports anchor for Channel 7 News Australia, called Hayne a “superstar” there.

“He dreamed of playing in American football as a kid, and now he’s living the dream,” Wilson said.

What makes this story compelling is Hayne, 27, is going from the pinnacle of his sport to the very bottom of the NFL. He was co-winner of the National Rugby League’s Player of the Year award last year and would have commanded the league’s highest salary with lucrative sponsorship deals. With the 49ers, he signed the same futures contract offered to practice-squad players, NFL journeymen and others who are considered long shots to make a 53-man roster.

Of course, Hayne isn’t exactly coming to America with a couple of nickels in his pocket.

At his news conference, he said the 49ers offered him a bonus of 100,000 Australian dollars, which is about $78,000 here. San Francisco was the only team to offer him a guarantee. He also has a deal with Telstra, an Australian media and telecommunications company that has the rights to a documentary being filmed about his run at the NFL.

Still, those who know him say Hayne is not motivated by money and he typically tries to keep his profile as minimal as possible.

He spent November in the Los Angeles area seeking out coaches and trainers who could help him better understand – and prepare for – American football. His agent, Jack Bechta, said Hayne paid for the trip himself, lived out of a hotel and shook the Australian media as soon as he landed.

“All he wanted to do was learn as much about football as he could,” Bechta said.

Hayne was raised in a public housing project in Airds, a suburb of Sydney. He became a schoolboy star in rugby and after joining the National Rugby League in 2006 was named the league’s rookie of the year. He’s played on the Australian and Fijian national teams – his father is from Fiji – and in 2009 was named the best rugby league player in the world.

Since high school, however, he’s had a fascination with the NFL. A few games a week are aired in Australia, and highlights, recaps and discussions are staples of ubiquitous SportsCenter broadcasts there. Despite being at the top of his sport, Hayne got a taste of American football by training with club teams in recent offseasons.

At 6-foot-2, 226 pounds, he certainly looks like a player and is bringing with him a diverse set of skills – speed, soft hands and plenty of experience hauling ball carriers to the ground. And his success in the rough-and-tumble National Rugby League suggests he won’t be overwhelmed by the brutality of the American sport.

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 11:08 PM with the headline "Rugby star’s NFL deal is huge news in Australia."