'Schoolboy Lomu', Lawrence Okoye, makes a run for gridiron

FIRST rugby, then discus gave way to Lawrence Okoye's new dream.

San Francisco 49ers English defensive end Lawrence Okoye has been pilloried for attempting to make it as an American football player.

LAWRENCE Okoye is not about to give up. His teammates may "take the piss" and his coach may say he wants him to progress to being "a bad player", but the London Olympian has reinvented himself once and says he can do it again.

Two years ago, this man-mountain admitted that his friends thought he was mad as he turned his back on a promising rugby union career to become a discus thrower. He made it to the Olympics in 2012, then took another detour, signing for the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent. Six months on and he is still fighting for acceptance.

He recalled the good-natured gibe of Jim Harbaugh, the 49ers head coach, and agreed. "I'm going from zero to trying to be an NFL defensive lineman," he said as the 49ers prepared for tomorrow's NFL game at Wembley against the winless Jacksonville Jaguars.

"You have to go through the stages. It was the same when I was throwing the discus - I was terrible, I was bad, I was OK. Then I was good, pretty damned good, world level. That's how it is."

He was good enough to make it to 2012 as a rookie. He finished a disappointed 12th and admits that some American football teams might have seen him as a token when he declared that he planned to join the draft. The NFL wants to grow the game abroad as it targets £25 billion ($42.2bn) in revenue by 2027. Overseas games, stars and even a franchise are part of the plan, but Okoye says the 49ers wanted him for his potential rather than his passport.

"Of course," he says when asked if some teams saw him as a nice novelty.

"They had no reason to believe in me. They have never seen this happen before. I can understand why some of the coaches saw me that way."

However, Jim Tomsula, the 49ers' defensive-line coach, was different. "He was very excited and enthusiastic, and seemed convinced I could make it happen," Okoye said. "That's why I'm 100 per cent committed to him."

Tomsula may draw on his own background. As he started his coaching career, he took jobs as a night janitor, carpet salesman and newspaper delivery man to make ends meet, and was even forced to live in his car. Now he has one of the most coveted jobs in America's favourite sport. "He can be brutal, but he cares," Okoye said.

Okoye certainly has physical presence. He also knows he is trying to pull off something extraordinary. Three years ago, the 22-year-old from London was scoring a try at Twickenham for Whitgift School in the National Schools Under-18 Cup final.

A year later, he broke the British discus record, which had stood for 13 years, and went third in the world rankings. He put law studies at Oxford University on hold to pursue his 2012 ambitions, then spoke about a possible return to rugby union, where he had played for London Irish and Wasps at academy level, garnering the moniker "the schoolboy Lomu".

Now he is fighting a lonely battle. He played in three pre-season games before damaging a knee against the Minnesota Vikings. The 49ers could have cut him, but they had seen enough to retain him and place him on the injured reserve list, which means that he cannot play again this season.

He has been, in effect, told to learn the game. Harbaugh still thinks that he could make it. "What interested me was that he had been a rugby player and within two years he was throwing the discus at the Olympics. That spoke volumes. There have been some positive signs. I can't tell you whether it's going to work eventually, but he's on the right track."

THE TIMES