I couldn't read the article but I doubt they were looking at Paseka as a running back or receiver etc.
Probs more a lineman
In a dingy New York bar, Manly star knocked back NFL scout’s offer of a lifetime. This is why
by Dan Walsh
Over a hoppy IPA in a dingy New York bar, Manly’s Taniela Paseka very nearly traded in a burgeoning NRL career for a helmet and pigskin.
But the 197-centimetre, 124-kilo man mountain will land on US soil next week, taking rugby league to America, having barely given the NFL a second thought.
Not even when scouts for the NFL’s international pathways program pursued his signature again two years later, chasing the Manly prop and Melbourne’s Nelson Asofa-Solomona – a combined four metres and 250-plus kilos of serious offensive line potential.
Paseka’s 207cm wingspan and impressive junior footy highlights package had NFL scouts interested as early as his under-20s days at Wests Tigers.
Will Bryce, now head of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program, got serious about luring Paseka in 2019, putting him through testing and outlining the same path Jordan Mailata took from Bankstown to last year’s Super Bowl and a $US64 million ($98 million) deal.
“And then I was over in America on holiday and they flew me and my missus to New York,” Paseka says.
“I met with one of the guys from the Indianapolis Colts. We went to a bar and I’ll be honest, all the bars look the same to me in New York – they’re all dark, but we were on the IPAs, they were eight per cent (alcohol content) and it was all sounding pretty good.
“We spoke about what my life would look like in America, where I had come from and my family. He told me about himself, too, and we did end up talking contracts and money and how it would all look. I was very intrigued. How could you not be, right? It’s the NFL.
“That’s why those conversations took place. One thing led to another, and I had the option to go into the IMG academy.”
Family – and job security – swayed Paseka against taking a gamble on the NFL pathway. Mailata’s stunning pay day is a long way off from those first few years trying to crack a foreign game, when the money presented was roughly half his Manly salary.
“I would have been walking away without a back-up plan and the risk was just too much,” he says.
It was the same story when the question was asked by NFL types in 2021, when Paseka had two years to run on his Sea Eagles contract.
The same genetic gifts and athletic talent that intrigued American scouts have long had Paseka touted for big things in the NRL.
Career-best form in 2023 had the 26-year-old on the way to delivering on that potential after a steady rise through the ranks, only for his campaign to be cut short by knee surgery in July, two weeks after inking another three-year extension.
“I’m fully fit now and missed the Tonga tour [of the UK last December], so I’ve got some catching up to do,” he says.
“I’m loving life at Manly and always have since I signed here really. I haven’t thought about going anywhere since those NFL talks.
“I watch the Super Bowl and love it, and watching Jordan [Mailata] last year was awesome, but it didn’t pique my interest again or anything like that. I get into the NFL, but that’s enough for me now.”
