The NFL is turning its focus to the continent to search for the league’s next generation of star athletes.
NFL agents have launched a talent scouting drive to seek out untapped talent in Africa to nurture them so that they can then make the transition to the American Football League.
World Wide Scholarships (WWS) and Jim Ulrich from Enter Sports Management have teamed up to create via the WWS Football Camp (WWSFC).
“We’re excited to be launching WWSFC to open a pipeline of African sporting talent,” said Ulrich. “We think African talent has great potential in the NFL.”
Ulrich added that creating a pipeline for African athletes to transition into the NFL had been challenging in the past.
“Opportunities for African talent in the NFL have been restricted by high equipment costs, but the demand for elite competitors in this high-profile sport – which remains the greatest spectator draw among American sporting codes – has risen to such an extent due to the high level of competition that NFL teams are scanning abroad for the right blend of skills and physical attributes to turn African talent into NFL stars,” Ulrich says.
“This collaboration will take the talent of Africa and put it in front of NFL teams so the NFL dream will no longer be a dream or foreign concept for Africa’s great athletes.”
The first camp will be held from Aug. 6 through Aug. 9 in South Africa’s Hoërskool Transvalia in Vanderbijlpark.
NFL veteran Brian Baldinger, Jim Mora (former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks), and John Murphy, former VP of Football Operations and player personnel at Saskatchewan Roughriders, will also be in attendance.
