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Australian teenager Daniel Faalele could be the next big thing in the NFL

James Buckley
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Remember the name Daniel Faalele.

This 17-year-old from Melbourne who tips the scales at about 180kg and stands more than two metres is on track to be the next Australian in the NFL and, unlike Jarryd Hayne, Faalele looks set to make a career out of American football.

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Two years ago the powerfully built youngster barely knew what a down was, let alone a sack, an offensive lineman, an end zone or a snap.

But since last August he's been bunkered down at the IMG Academy in the rather obscure Floridian city of Bradenton, learning the intricacies of American football and forging a reputation as one of the brightest prospects the sport has seen.

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That puts the best part of 16,000km between him and his family – mother Ruth who had the massive task of keeping Daniel fed for the first 17 years of his life, and younger brother Taylor.

Daniel weighed a fairly average nine pounds and four ounces when Ruth gave birth, but within three months he was already showing signs of his future enormity.

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"He never settled until he was full, until he'd had enough and I couldn't even keep up with him, as mothers do with their newborns with breast feeding – he took to the bottle at three months because of that," Ruth said.

"You've got your baby books and you go for the health checks and so forth and every time he was measured he was just off the charts. He was just a big kid, big everywhere, feet, hands, body."

By 12 years of age Daniel was already six feet tall -  1.8m  - and 100 kilograms.

He used to play junior rugby union, but quit the sport because he hated injuring opposition players when he tackled them. On one occasion the opposing parents even pulled him from the field accusing him of being too old.

Basketball followed and he was instantly successful, developing his footwork and agility in the process – skills that will hold him in good stead as he pursues his NFL dream.

All the while his mother was tasked with keeping up with Daniel's appetite.

"I started to worry a little bit because the nutritionist and the doctors and even his school used to say 'You're putting too much lunch in his lunch box and we've taken some out'," she said.

"When he was a baby going into solids, he loved his pastas, any sort of pasta.

"As he grew older the pasta started to become the side dish and it was meat and pasta. He'd have a pasta meal made up and then he'd have his steak or his chicken breast.

"I'd cook about two kilos for us, for instance chicken breast, and he'd have a bit over a kilo of that, on top of the pasta side dish."

Faalele was discovered by a Hawaiian football coach while working out in a Melbourne gym. After one look at the sheer physical dimensions of Faalele, he offered him a college scholarship on the spot.

News of the Australian giant spread like wildfire around the United States junior American football community, and last June a team of coaches from Michigan set up a satellite camp outside of Melbourne during which Faalele was put through his paces.

Within months he'd started learning the intricacies of American football at the IMG Academy, and in a matter of weeks he'd established himself as a kid with a potential the size of his hulking frame.

IMG offensive line coach Derrick Elder told Sports Illustrated last month that Faalele was doing things on the training paddock that he'd never seen before.

As an offensive lineman, one of the major components of Faalele's craft is to stop the pass rusher. Elder told him the most effective method was to punch the opponent with both hands then grab his chest.

That's just what he did at practice one day – the pass rusher went from a raging bull to a seemingly lifeless form underneath his shoulder pads.

"He had grabbed [the defender's] collarbone," Elder said.

"His hands are steel. If he gets them on you, it's over. Doesn't matter if he has good technique or bad technique, it's over."

Such tales of Faalele's dominance on the practice field certainly don't shock the woman who knows him best.

"If he was to rest for the whole day, he would still need over 3000 calories to survive," Ruth said of the physical testing Faalele underwent when he first moved to America.

"I was in the waiting room, I wasn't allowed in the testing room. I heard the scientist say to him 'picture your mother and brother at the end of the street and you've got to get to them as quick as you can'.

"He went off on this machine and he reached its peak. I'm pretty sure the cable snapped or came undone, the guy was just like that's the most I've ever measured on that machine, ever."

Much water needs to pass under the bridge between now and an NFL career.

In theory the pathway is simple enough – accept one of the many college scholarships that keep rolling in for next year, play at NCAA level for three or four years, and then nominate for the NFL Draft.

Should he be drafted, he'll join an NFL franchise. Then everyone will know his name.

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