From Rabbitohs battler to Super Bowl champion: The rise of Jordan Mailata

Jordan Mailata now has a Super Bowl ring to go with his US$66 million ($105 million) contract.

Mailata became the first Australian to play in a winning Super Bowl team after the Philadelphia Eagles upset reigning champions the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in New Orleans.

Mailata, the Sydney-born son of Samoan immigrants, helped deny the Chiefs a historic three-peat and played a crucial role in the Eagles’ first touchdown of the game with his involvement in Philadelphia’s signature “tush push” move.

For Mailata, it was sweet revenge on the Chiefs – the team that denied him a first Super Bowl ring two years ago.

“We left that baggage in ’22 because we didn’t want to bring that to the new season,” Mailata told Fox after the game. “Just a crazy, crazy journey so far. I don’t even know what the hell I’m saying, I’ll be honest ... I already forgot the question.”

The 27-year-old, who was born in Bankstown, played junior rugby league for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and had never played American football until he was drafted by the Eagles in 2018, is one of four Australians to have played in a Super Bowl.

But he is the first to play in a winning side. Punters Ben Graham (Arizona, 2009), Mitch Wishnowsky (San Francisco, 2020 and 2024) and Arryn Siposs, who was Mailata’s Eagles teammate two years ago, all featured on losing teams.

The only other Australian to own a Super Bowl ring is Jesse “Tha Monstar” Williams, a defensive tackle on the Seattle Seahawks’ roster for their 2014 victory – although he didn’t play during the season because of a knee injury.

Ben Rogers, the Rabbitohs recruitment manager during Mailata’s time at the club, said Mailata was built for the NFL.

“At six foot eight, it’s hard to miss him, and at the time he had good leg speed. He could move pretty quickly for a big guy,” Rogers said.

Jordan Mailata after his team’s victory in New Orleans.Credit: AP

“In rugby league terms, though, he came to us at 168kg, and to his credit he worked really hard and he got down to about 140kg. And then chatting to him the first NFL camp he went to, they told him he was too skinny, and he needed to put all that weight back on.”

“He’s done so well; he’s still remained humble. He still gets to Australia and sees a lot of the people when he gets here, especially at the Rabbitohs ... it’s great to see him come from a train and trial at the Rabbitohs all the way to a Super Bowl champion. That’s just amazing.

“One of the last conversations we had with him – we had offered him a NSW Cup contract at the Rabbitohs, but he had an opportunity to go to one of those international camps – we sort of encouraged him. [We said], look, we hope we don’t see you again. You need to go and do this camp. If you go well, and you get drafted, the sky is the limit.”

Mailata has since become a crucial figure in the “Tush Push”, or “brotherly shove” – a tactic adopted by the Eagles to gain small amounts of territory whereby a wall of players surges into the opposition to force open gaps in the defence.

In Monday’s victory, Mailata, who stands at 207 centimetres tall and weighs 166 kilograms, pushed through the Chiefs defence and paved the way for Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to dive into the end zone for the first touchdown of the game.

Asked how the Eagles offensive line took control of the game, Mailata said they had to be brave enough to get physical.

“You’ve got to want to do that,” he said. “You’ve got to want to be more physical. That was a great defence we were going up against, so we knew we had to answer that call, and that ain’t easy. You have to have the want to and you have to have the guys, and we do. So, it was a tough game, but we got there.”

On the field, Hurts was a worthy winner of MVP honours. After losing on his first Super Bowl appearance two years ago, Hurts threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in a polished display.

The same could not be said for Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. A largely listless display from the man who already has three Super Bowl rings in his safekeeping left fans stunned.

As is always the case on Super Bowl day, the football was just part of the entertainment. The city of New Orleans put on a show just six weeks after 14 revellers were killed by a motorist on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day.

Half-time performer Kendrick Lamar poured fuel on his long-running feud with fellow rapper Drake by performing his diss track Not Like Us.

Donald Trump became the first president to attend a Super Bowl while sitting in the White House, and would have taken particular delight at the sight of long-term nemesis Taylor Swift being booed by sections of the crowd.

with AAP