As Peter King reported during Thursday’s pregame show, the U.S. rugby team wants Tim Tebow to join the effort. It could be the start of a trend.
A new pro rugby league has been soliciting NFL players who aren’t currently on NFL teams to play a sport that entails plenty of contact and no pads. A copy of one of the emails sent to NFL player agents has been forwarded to PFT.
The National Rugby Football League currently is being formed, with a Scouting Combine scheduled for March 2014.
It’s unclear when the league will begin playing, but unless there’s a fairly immediate effort to provide compensation and no other realistic NFL opportunities, we can’t imagine NFL players signing up in the next few months for something that won’t happen until next year. For now, they’ll stay in football shape in the hopes of getting a call at some point during the 2013 season. Come January, any players who can’t find a job when offseason rosters swell to 90 may be interested in changing sports.
Ultimately, their interest will be driven by the amount of money involved. We wouldn’t wager much that the wages will be all that much.