Louis Rees-Zammit was the subject of calls and texts directly from Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach as the Super Bowl champions moved to sign the former rugby union standout.
Former Wales international Rees-Zammit turned his back on his rugby career earlier this year when he declared his intention to try out for the NFL as part of the league’s International Player Pathway Program (IPPP).
After an impressive showing in last month’s IPPP pro day, the Chiefs moved to sign the 23-year-old, who has penned a three-year deal with the reigning back-to-back Super Bowl champions.
Rees-Zammit’s next challenge is to earn a place on the team’s final 53-man roster for his new team, but he clearly has the backing of his new coach.
Speaking on The Big Jim Show, James Cook, the head of the IPPP and Ree-Zammit’s NFL mentor, spoke about the lengths that the Chiefs went to in order to secure the NFL convert’s signature.
"Credit to the Chiefs, their coach Andy Reid was texting, calling him, their General Manager Brett Veach was texting, calling him,” said Cook. “I had scouts calling me, asking me what was important to him in choosing a location to go to.
“When you see that kind of buy-in from the club, you know they’re serious about it.
“The GM told Louis: ‘Coach Reid doesn’t call everyone, he doesn’t even call everyone on their 90-man roster when they go into training camp. So believe that we’re all in on this and we’re committed to you’.
“That was Louis’ big thing from the beginning,” Cook added. “He wanted to go somewhere where they had a plan for him, where they could see him being a contributor in X number of years and they were able to lay out a blueprint of how they were going to get him there.
"I think he’s fallen into a great spot, a great position. He really took his time over it and he weighed up a lot of options before he ended up settling there. We’re all over the moon and the more I hear from him and the team, the more excited I get about the match that we’ve got there."
Rees-Zammit will jet out to Kansas City for the team’s open voluntary offseason program which starts next, with a rookie mini-camp following next week.
Live on DAZN PPV: Haney vs. Garcia on April 20. Click here for details.