Football

‘It still hasn’t set in yet’: Tadhg Leader on paving the pathway for GAA stars to go to the NFL

Leader wanted to give other Irish athletes the opportunity of a lifetime that he never got

Tadhg Leader, head of Leader Kicking, leaning over a table smiling
Tadhg Leader Tadhg Leader, head of Leader Kicking, hopes to bring more Iirush athletes over to the states, be it college football or the NFL. Picture by Leader Kicking
By Liam Grimley

YESTERDAY, Irish sport changed with the announcement of the four Irish athletes being selected for the NFL International Player Pathway as kickers and punters but for Tadhg Leader, the news “still hasn’t set in at all”.

The NFL International Player Pathway will give the GAA players (Rory Beggan, Charlie Smyth and Mark Jackson) and one former Connacht rugby player (Darragh Leader), the chance to impress NFL scouts and staff and win professional contracts in the NFL.

Leader, who set up Leader Kicking to help Irish athletes get college scholarships, did not think for a second that this would grow to the size it has.

He said: “[I] do not think we’d be here this fast, we deserve to be here but did I think the door would open? Probably not this quick.”

The former USA rugby international and Connacht academy player has experienced success on both fronts, first with Ross Bolger and Ronán Patterson gaining scholarships for their ability and now the quartet who are going over to take on the big leagues.

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“It genuinely hasn’t set in at all,” said Leader.

“My girlfriend last night and my family said ‘Jeez you must be so happy and proud’, I need to do a better job of slowing down and enjoying it but the nature of this beast is that it keeps coming.

“Maybe after the combine in April hopefully I can really stop and press pause.

“I’m obviously thrilled and happy, when I log onto the NFL official Instagram page and see whatever amount of players there is, the most dominant flag on it is Ireland and knowing that if you didn’t exist, that wouldn’t be on there is cool.”

Leader has been working with athletes across a range of sports for up to two years, trying to maximise their potential and get their skillsets ready for the gridiron.

This is not just a passion for him though, as Tadhg’s younger brother Darragh Leader is one of the four athletes who were selected to travel out to the USA for the combine and IPP scheme.

Tadhg said: “It’s a mad one really, he tracked my journey and he understands how lucky he is that there is a door and a pathway now because he understood me bloody moving to Poland to kick American footballs, to get game tape and some randomness that I had to do more spending massive amounts of money to go around the world to do this.

“That’s been amazing to think that that’s now occurred but for him [Darragh], the opportunity wasn’t on the radar.

“We held trials around the world and some of the metrics that we had predetermined were not being met because we had to set bloody high metrics, so I just messaged him and said ‘Listen, can you go to a pitch and if you hit these metrics, maybe you’d be considered.’

“He was in Kansas and within two hours he got back (to me) and sent me videos of him hitting all the metrics and I mean look, he was in the Ireland squad when he was 20, during the Joe Schmidt era, if you look up the biggest rugby kicks, his kicks come up in that video.

“He is a cannon. It’s not my brother I opened the door for, he’s an elite professional athlete with an elite leg and now he’s getting the chance to do that.”

Tadhg and the four players will head out to Florida on February 8 to the IMG arena, where they will train alongside the other NFL International Player Pathway candidates, including Wales rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit, hoping to impress coaches and scouts at the NFL combine at the end of February.