Six years after captaining the likes of Owen Farrell and Elliot Daly in the England youth side, former sevens player Alex Gray has signed a one-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons as he leaves rugby behind to start a new career in the NFL.
Gray was one of four European players picked for the practice squads of the teams in the NFC South as part of the International Player Pathway program in May.
The 26-year-old most recently played Championship rugby for Yorkshire Carnegie, but after finding himself out of contract, decided to try American football in the NFL after speaking with his agent.
"Completely tongue-in-cheek I said, 'If nothing comes up that we like shall we just go to the NFL and make a load of money'," Gray told Press Association Sport.
"It was a complete joke but lo and behold two weeks later my agent had NFL scouts who really liked what they'd seen of me in rugby.
Gray is under no illusions about how challenging crossing from rugby to American football is. Lawrence Okoye, the ex-Olympic discus thrower, is yet to play a competitive down in the four years since he turned to the sport.
"It may happen that after people have seen me do it, you get every Tom, Dick and Harry from the rugby world saying, 'If he can do it, I can do it'," Gray noted.
"Like myself, they won't realise what the game is about. I thought the NFL was just a bunch of amazing athletes doing amazing physical things but it's a powered-up chess game. Rugby players can compete physically but the mental aspect of it is something rugby players have never experienced.
"For the first three weeks I was there I was in a hotel room and I didn't turn on my TV once. I was doing seven to seven every day, have half an hour for dinner, then until half 11 all I would be doing is studying my playbook.
"I thoroughly believe inside myself that this is where I'm supposed to be, that life has set this up for me."
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The regular season of home and away matches run from September to December 2017, culminating in PlayOffs from January 6, 2018 and the Super Bowl on February 4, 2018 at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota to determine the world champion.