Super Bowl 2023: How Jordan Mailata went from NRL reject to NFL star for Philadelphia Eagles

Ahead of his Super Bowl debut, Philadelphia Eagles’ star offensive tackle Jordan Mailata has revealed how he went from NRL reject to a $92m NFL sensation.

Jordan Mailata has revealed how NRL legend and dual international Sonny Bill Williams was a driving force in his stunning metamorphosis from NRL reject to Australia’s $92 million NFL sensation.

In the most candid interview of his career, the 166kg giant from Bankstown opened up to News Corp about his remarkable American odyssey as he prepares for his Super Bowl debut for Philadelphia against Kansas City this Monday (AEDT).

Mailata detailed the “brutal” assessment from former Souths coach Michael Maguire, the struggle of scrapping as a labourer for $23 an hour and how, in his darkest hours during his NFL conversion, he nearly quit and returned home to Australia.

But it was the multi-code success of his sporting hero SBW which Mailata says gave him the strength to soldier on in a foreign world, culminating in the head-spinning revival that has left him one win away from a historic Super Bowl championship ring.

In ab exclusive interview, Jordan Mailata opens up on his journey from NRL reject to NFL superstar for the Philadelphia Eagles. Picture: Getty Images.

Five years after leaving rugby league virtually broke, the 25-year-old is now Australia’s gridiron glamour boy in the Land of Opportunity _ and he believes NRL superstars Latrell Mitchell and Tom Trbojevic could follow his lead to flourish in the NFL.

“I definitely didn’t expect any of this,” Mailata told News Corp at the NFL’s official media day at the Footprint Centre, the home of NBA outfit Phoenix Suns.

“Growing up in Bankstown, I never thought I was going to be famous … and now here I am.”

SONNY SIDE UP

When Mailata left Australia to trial for the NFL on January 14, 2018, Sonny Bill was on the way to a third rugby World Cup appearance for the Kiwis.

Growing up in Bankstown, a young Mailata’s interest in the football codes was piqued by Sonny Bill’s hitting power and the magical flick pass from Benji Marshall that inspired the Tigers’ 2005 premiership fairytale.

It was SBW’s longevity at the top, and ability to successfully transition to the All Blacks from the NRL, which gave Mailata the confidence to take the biggest gamble of his life by rolling the dice in American football.

Mailata has revealed his childhood hero Sonny Bill Williams helped keep his conversion dream alive.

“I had two sporting heroes – Sonny Bill and Benji,” Mailata said.

“Sonny Bill was the guy who helped me a lot in being able to make this conversion.

“I saw him go from rugby league to rugby union with the All Blacks and also boxing.

“Seeing him gave me that strength to make the switch to the NFL.

“I loved watching Benji Marshall, how could I ever forget his flick pass in the grand final and that goose step?

“He and Sonny Bill were great athletes.”

SUPER BOWL STAR

NFL experts have described Mailata’s development in the sport as the closest thing to “Mission Impossible”.

Labelled a “tsunami of power”, Mailata only made his Philadelphia debut in September 2020. Now, having inked a four-year, US$64 million deal, he is the 14th highest salary earner out of 163 offensive tackles in the NRL. He is on $10.9 million this season. His salary will soar to $30.2 million next year – 3000 times more than the meagre $10,000 he stood to pocket if he remained in the NRL as a reserve grader at North Sydney.

If Philadelphia prevail at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, Mailata will become the first Australian to win a Super Bowl as a starting player. In 2013, Jesse ‘The Monsta’ Williams won a ring with the Seattle Seahawks as a squad member, but the Indigenous defensive tackle never played a game that season due to injury.

“It is a very surreal feeling,” Mailata says.

“It hasn’t hit me that I’m playing in the Super Bowl. As a kid, I didn’t know what a Super Bowl was. I thought it was a concert at halftime (laughs).

“I feel like I’m this Aussie guy sitting here answering questions.

“I definitely understand the impact I’ve had back home. Coming here was so hard. I had a blank canvas. I had to learn everything. It’s one of the hardest sports to learn and play.

“The only advice to any kid wanting to have a crack at the NFL is give everything you have. Don’t have a back-up plan. Fall forward. Don’t fall backward on Plan B. Fall forward, embrace it and be where your feet are at.

“That’s my motto. Be where your feet are at. I say it all the time.”

Mailata towered over his opponents in the NRL’s Under-20s competition, but Michael Maguire convinced him to reconsider his future in rugby league. Picture: Supplied.

RABBIT PUNCH

Former Souths coach Michael Maguire is renowned for not pulling punches. His no-nonsense critique of a teenage Mailata was the silver lining that sowed the seeds for an NFL gamble.

Maguire would spend time in the gym with under-20s rookie Mailata in a desperate bid to strip him of weight. But at 158kg, Mailata was going nowhere fast in the NRL.

“To be honest, I will always appreciate what Madge did for me,” Mailata said.

“He gave me the brutal truth.

“He said I was a big body who wouldn’t move around well in league and he was totally right.

“It was his advice that made me look around. My Australian manager from PSM, Chris Orr, got the ball rolling, he started looking around, he suggested the NFL’s IPP (International Player Pathway) program and the rest is history.

“It’s brought me here today.”

ROCK BOTTOM

Six months before his Philadelphia debut, Mailata reveals he considered packing his bags. He suffered a disc protrusion in his lower back. It was his second serious back injury.

Mailata walked into the Eagles front office and said he was ready to go home. There was one problem. Family aside, he had nothing, in a financial sense, to go home to.

“I thought about quitting a few times,” he says.

“The second time I hurt it, I was a bit bummed and I didn’t know whether I should call it quits or not.

Mailata reveals he almost gave up on his NFL dream several times, but other than his family, he says he had nothing in Australia. Picture: Twitter.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t have many options. What else could I do? Playing league in Australia wouldn’t pay the bills. I was a scaffolder. I did carpentry. I was doing demolition work.

“But coach ‘Stout’ (Philadelphia offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland) has been a huge mentor for me. I spoke to him about going and he talked me out of it. I’m really glad he did.

“I have a saying, ‘Don’t just dip your toe in the water, drown in it and learn how to swim’.

“The adversity taught me grit. It taught me to keep working and chugging until I found success.”

NRL CONVERTS

Mailata believes South Sydney ace Mitchell and Manly maestro Trbojevic have the athletic bedrock to crack the NFL.

“They are the two guys who could make it here,” he said.

“Latrell and Tom Trbojevic have come over here recently to work on their injuries and I wish I could have caught up with Latrell, I felt bad that we never caught up.

“Trbojevic was also at our facility and I had no idea he was there. I came in to training one day and then I saw Tom post a pic on Instagram of my indoor field and I thought, “When the f*** did he get here?’

“They are great athletes, as good as anyone. If they dedicated themselves, I’m telling you – they are good enough to make it here.”

Manly Sea Eagles fullback Tom Trbojevic at the practice facility of NFL franchise the Philadelphia Eagles.

THE LEGACY

“I’m pretty proud of myself,” Mailata says.

“My dream only started five years ago. The journey, for me, has only just begun. I am still writing my story in the NFL.

“It’s so cool seeing all the support I’m getting back in Australia. I am seeing everything online, and everything my parents and family are telling me.

“Hopefully I can walk away from this sport one day and leave a legacy I am proud of and something that will stay in America forever.

“I want Polynesian kids in Australia to know they can do this, too. Give everything. Have no regrets. I want to create a wave to get some more kids from Down Under to play the greatest game on Earth.”

CENTRE OF ATTENTION

There was a time when NBA king Michael Jordan had reporters eating out of his hand.

Yesterday, another Jordan - Australia’s NFL tsunami Jordan Mailata - was bedazzling an army of journalists with all the cheek, candour and charm of the Chicago Bulls icon.

At a time when Australia’s gaggle of pampered NRL players whine about the CBA and make banal, baseless threats about strike action, they could take a leaf from the conduct of a countryman who earns six times as much in the NFL as Penrith star Nathan Cleary.

More than 6000 journalists from 24 countries received accreditation for the NFL’s Super Bowl media day at Arizona’s Footprint Centre on Tuesday.

Amid the madness, Mailata was a media magnet.

Of Philadelphia’s 53-man roster, just 10 players were allocated a private booth to conduct interviews with the media throng.

Mailata was one of the Eagles’ chosen 10.

Mailata had journalists eating out of his hand after being allocated a private booth for interviews. Picture: EPA/Caroline Brehman.

The boy from Bankstown lapped up his maiden Super Bowl media appearance, happily chatting for an hour as he answered everything from the NFL and the NRL to his favourite food and his starring role in a Christmas carol album released by the Philadelphia Eagles.

More than 80 American scribes quizzed Mailata on all sorts of topics. He fielded questions from journalists from Japan, Finland and Jordan.

When Mailata began sweating at one point under the bright lights and nightclub-style throbbing music, the journalist from Jordan handed him some napkins, prompting the 166kg giant to quip: “I like you. You can ask another question”.

Asked which actor would play Mailata in a hit movie, the Eagles left tackle said with a disarming chuckle: “That’s an easy one ... ‘The Rock’ Johnson.”

For a man whose salary has exploded from $5,000 in rugby league to a $92 million NFL deal in the space of five years, Mailata oozes humility, dignity and a salt-of-the-earth honesty that is driving his quest to fashion a sporting legacy.

If he wins a Super Bowl on Monday, ‘Heir’ Jordan may just become the biggest name in Australian sport.

“What you see is just me,” he told reporters.

“I’m a happy-go-lucky guy. I’m just enjoying the moment. I stay humble. I’m answering all your questions as honestly as I can, even if my Aussie accent is weird to some of you guys.”

Originally published as Super Bowl 2023: How Jordan Mailata went from NRL reject to NFL star for Philadelphia Eagles