Jordan Mailata, an Australian NFL player, is in negotiations with the NRL about taking on an ambassadorial position to promote the code’s historic double header in March.
The move comes as the NRL started promoting the sport through television advertisements on Fox in the United States this week.
If Mailata agrees, the Sydney-raised man mountain will go to Las Vegas to conduct media and help promote the NRL contests, which will take place during Super Bowl week on March 2, according to News Corp.
The Brisbane Broncos will play the Sydney Roosters, while Manly will face the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Allegiant Stadium in Sin City.
Ticket sales for the matches have surpassed 25,000, with authorities wanting to sell 40,000 in the interim – and Mailata’s influence during Super Bowl week may increase interest.
The 26-year-old from Sydney first grabbed the attention of scouts from the Bulldogs’ NRL team, and he joined their under-18s program in 2014.
After missing more than 18 months due to a health crisis, he played for South Sydney’s under-20s and reserve-grade teams before his sheer stature of 203cm and 142kg rendered him unsuitable for elite level competition.
Mailata was accepted into the NFL’s International Pathways Program and thrived on the gridiron, signing a $88 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022 after excelling as their offensive line’s left tackle, one of the most crucial and difficult positions to perform in the sport.
Despite rugby league’s reputation as one of the harshest and most relentless contact sports in the world, he makes it sound like the two are in no way comparable.
“If you play [offensive] line and [defensive] line, it’s tougher than rugby [league] because the pads don’t do s**t,” he told the New Heights podcast hosted by his colleague Jason Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs star brother Travis, who is presently dating Taylor Swift.
When people ask, “Do you wear pads?” You are a bunch of p***ies, [I say] what?
‘The bloody pad that goes on your chest is about this thin, and you’re wearing a f**king helmet to the sternum.
‘That hurts, dude.’
The Eagles lost the Super Bowl last year against the Chiefs, and Mailata is still upset about a phone call he received from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese right before the big game.
‘This is the guy that called me the night before the Super Bowl and said, ‘Oh, I just want to say congratulations, and I wish you all the best,” he recounted.
‘The next morning, I wake up, and it’s all over Instagram and Facebook, as if the motherf**ker was filming on his end.
‘I was like, oh my gosh, that’s a wonderful political move right there.
