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National Rugby League Player Jarryd Hayne Rejects Historic Offer To Pursue NFL Dream

National Rugby League side Parramatta player JARRYD HAYNE "turned his back on the opportunity to become the highest-paid player in the game's history in order to pursue his dream of becoming the first professional rugby league player to make it in the NFL," according to Honeysett & Read of THE AUSTRALIAN. NRL CEO DAVE SMITH has "discretionary powers to tap into the game's coffers to top up the contract of a player." Smith, however, soon realized that "no amount of money was going to stand in Hayne's way." The Parramatta and NSW fullback said he had "nothing left to achieve in the game and was keen to challenge himself in a new arena." Smith: "I was in contact with Jarryd, his manager and the Eels management last night and this morning to see if there was anything we could do to keep him in the game. But Jarryd has a dream and he deserves the chance to pursue that dream" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/16). FOX SPORTS' Hall & Taylor wrote Hayne "may be a star in the NRL but former NFL players have a message for Jarryd Hayne: you're about to enter a whole new world." Former Australian Rules footballer MAT MCBRIAR has made "two Pro-Bowl teams and played 138 NFL games over 10 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers." He predicted it will be "tough for Hayne to break into the NFL." McBriar: "He is definitely up against the odds. The competition is really stiff and he is not the only guy who is quick and strong." COLIN SCOTTS was a "former Australian Schoolboy rugby union player and the first Aussie to win an NFL scholarship, going on to play for the Arizona Cardinals -- and while he backed Hayne to follow his dream he also had a warning for the work he has ahead of him." Scotts: "It’s the most intense, complex explosive game in the world. You put that fibreglass helmet on and everything changes. You start hitting 140-150kg men that can do Olympic speed. [Hayne] has no idea what he's walking into." BEN GRAHAM is "perhaps the most successful Australian to play in the NFL." He said, "If I was Jarryd, I’d say now it’s time to shut up shop. Keep a low profile and get to work" (FOX SPORTS, 10/15).

'ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE': In Sydney, Phil Gould opined, "I've been in and around this game for a long time now." Very few things "surprise me anymore." But this, "my friends; this is no 'run-of-the-mill' rugby league story." This is "incredible." In fact, it's "almost unbelievable." One of the "biggest names in our game is walking out the door to try his luck in a totally foreign environment, right when he was about to enter the prime time in his career in this code." This decision is "not about the money." Hayne "has money." It is not about "being sick of the game." Nothing could be "further from the truth." He would love to be "playing for Australia in the Four Nations series about to start." This is about a young man "believing he has achieved all he can in one sport, and looking for a challenge to conquer another." Hayne wants to "follow his dream and to prove something to himself, for himself; no one else" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 10/15). In Sydney, Will Swanton opined if you are not "growing as a sport, you’re shrinking." Is the "NRL growing?" It is a "small and insular competition that the superstars are outgrowing." They are "running out the door or being run into the ground by cumbersome scheduling." If blokes like Hayne are "bored with the NRL at the age of 26, what chance the rest of us?" League might "not be shrinking." But it is "not growing." Athletes like Hayne "want to grow." He was "electrifying in Origin because Origin was electrifying him." The premiership itself has "lost its zing until the finals." Hayne: "I'm done. I didn't feel like it was challenging me the way I'll be challenged now" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/16).

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