Jarryd Hayne’s NFL success breaks the mould: 5 sports stars who failed to make it in American football

JARRYD Hayne may be making it look easy over in the NFL. But it isn’t, as these five stars of other sports found out when they tried to ‘live the dream’.

USA's Justin Gatlin competes in a heat of the men's 200 metres athletics event at the 2015 IAAF World Championships at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium in Beijing on August 25, 2015. AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE

Despite what your eyes might have told you when watching Jarryd Hayne bob and weave through NFL back lines at will, a matter of months since calling time on his NRL career, switching from a different sport to gridiron is no easy thing.

Many pro-athletes have tried, and failed, often in spectacular style.

The experiences of these five men, then, only serve to underline what an incredible trajectory the Hayne Plane is currently taking.

JUSTIN GATLIN

Having plenty of time on his hands after being banned from athletics for four years following a positive test for a banned substance in 2006, Justin Gatlin wondered if his dubiously attained speed might translate in to other sports. Sports that he wasn’t yet ostracised from.

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One of the world’s fastest human beings, Gatlin tried out with a number of NFL franchises, with his only highlight of note coming when he shone on the Titans’ pro day, recording 4.24 for the 40 yard dash, a 40 inch vertical jump, 11 foot long jump among other stand out empirical tests of speed and fitness. Then he tried catching a ball on the run, and things fell apart. He was never signed and for better or worse returned to athletics.

Justin Gatlin’s NFL career was over as fast as some of his chemically assisted races.

HAYDEN SMITH

Australian born and raised, Smith gained a basketball scholarship to the US after training with the Sydney Kings and completed his education over there.

Hayden Smith in action for the Jets in 2012.

Once school was done, however, he returned to his first love of rugby union, eventually ending up in the UK playing for Saracens, while representing the US at the 2011 World Cup. It was after that that he took a break from rugby and decided to have a crack at the NFL, trying out with teams including the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, before earning a contract with the New York Jets.

In just over a year with the Jets he played five times and was part of a solitary pass completion.

He’s back with Saracens now.

ELLERY HANLEY

League legend Hanley was back in the UK after spells with Balmain Tigers and Western Suburbs in the late 80s and early 90s, playing for Leeds when the World League of American Football was formed.

Ellery Hanley was courted by a London-based franchise, but failed to make the cut.

Hanley trialled with the newly-formed London Monarchs and was fully expected to bring his hard running and physicality to a new sport in a new frontier.

After floundering through the try out, however, he was never offered a contract, instead returning for a brief swan song back in Balmain, before retiring from sport all together.

DWAYNE CHAMBERS

Another man who fell foul of the doping rules in athletics and decided to try and reinvent himself in a new sport. The disgraced British sprinter first chanced his arm in rugby league with Castleford, only to call quits on that career before it had even started, the big hits a wakeup call that speed alone is not enough in team ball sports.

Unperturbed, he reasoned that the added protection of helmet and pads in US football might negate the worst excesses of hard contact, trialling with NFL Europa side Hamburg Sea Devils.

Ball handling, or his lack of it, did for him there, too, and the convicted drug cheat spent the rest of his ban from athletics appearing in various celebrity driven reality TV shows in the UK. More damaging to the ego, possibly, but certainly much safer and more financially rewarding.

BROCK LESNAR

A four-time WWE heavyweight champion, Lensar put a hold on his wrestling career in 2004 to follow his dream of making it in the NFL.

Whoever told Brock Lesnar he hadn’t made the Vikings team deserves respect.

A giant of a man, Lesnar played for the Minnesota Vikings in pre-season as a defensive tackle, but despite his physical presence and grappling skills, he never quite convinced in the more subtle parts of the role and was cut from the final squad.

He had done enough to be offered a place in NFL Europa but declined the offer and returned to the ring, headlining numerous UFC bouts before finally making his way back to the comfortable surrounds of Wrestle Mania.

He failed to cut it in football, but you’d never mention it if you met him, would you?

Originally published as Jarryd Hayne’s NFL success breaks the mould: 5 sports stars who failed to make it in American football