The NFL is taking over the MCG this week, with the first game of the 2026/27 NFL season kicking off this Friday on the hallowed turf.
For the first time in history, an NFL game will be played in Australia, as the NFL aims to expand its market globally, but it's not the first time Australians have been exposed to the NFL.
Several former AFL players have made the switch to the NFL, using arguably an AFL player's best skill: kicking.
AFL players have been able to use the most common ability in AFL to carve out a role in the NFL and evolve the position of punting.
Saverio Rocca
Rocca was one of Collingwood's most important players during the 1990s, and one of the best key forwards in the league.
Kicking 748 goals in his 257-game career and led Collingwood's goal-kicking for seven straight seasons.
The key forward won the first-ever Anzac Day Medal, booting nine goals.
Rocca would then play six seasons with North Melbourne before retiring at the end of 2006 to pursue a career in the NFL.
He would sign with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2007 and break Ben Graham's record of the oldest rookie in NFL history, at age 33.
Rocca would play four seasons for the Eagles, where he played in all 16 games each season, before leaving the Eagles at the end of the 2010 season and joining the Washington Redskins.
Rocca was regarded as the Redskins best free-agency signing in the 2011 off-season, but would only last on the team for two seasons, returning to Australia in 2014.
