Cantabrian Isaac Redman is facing an American football ‘job interview’ as he eyes a change of code.
The 20-year-old will travel to Florida at the end of the month to trial as a kicker in front of scouts and coaches, with video to be sent to other potential suitors.
He is hoping it will lead to a college scholarship – and potentially a pathway to the NFL.
“I like to think I’m good enough, but you never say it’s guaranteed,” he said.
Redman plays for New Brighton in the Metro competition.
The halfback is studying criminal justice at Canterbury University.
He wouldn’t be the first Isaac Redman in the NFL after his now 40-year-old namesake running back made 50 appearances for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2009-13.
Redman’s American football opportunity is something he never even considered until he got talking to Finn Rudd, a self-taught kicker who finished at Lincoln High School in 2016.
Rudd got a scholarship with division 1 college, University of California, Davis, in 2021.
Rudd now works as a groundsman at New Zealand Cricket’s high performance centre at Lincoln University.
Said Redman: “I knew what American football was, but that was it until October-November last year.
“As I was getting better, I started looking into it a bit more, posting on social media.
“That’s when I decided, maybe a couple months ago, that I could actually be keen to give it a shot.”
Redman kicks goals on the rugby field. But while taking a field goal in American football is similar to converting a try, the two disciplines do have their differences.
“The football is a lot firmer, so it takes a lot more effort to kick it, probably twice the effort, and it’s a lot smaller, so there’s more of a point of error,” Redman said.
He said the biggest difference between kicking a goal in American football is you don’t use a tee like you do in rugby.
Redman is eyeing a scholarship to a top college, similar to the path Rudd took four years ago.
“If you go to university, you can kick for a few years and get much better,” Redman said.
“(I’ll) try and go study over there, doesn’t matter what it is, just to kill the time while I’m there playing.”
In pre-season with New Brighton at the moment, he doesn’t know how long it will take for him to find out if his trial has been successful or not.
He will focus on rugby once he returns from the US.
“It could take up until August, when their season starts. A team might have a kicker, so they’ll go: ‘We don’t need you, we’ve already got a kicker’,” he said.
“And then, who knows, they could have an injury, and then they’ll start looking elsewhere.
“Maybe I could get a phone call then saying: ‘I saw you kicking, do you want to come play for us?’
“It could be a month, it could be all the way to August, so I’ve still got my rugby on the go.”
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