PETER JACKSON
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW
THE latest phase of his footballing reincarnation took Louis Rees-Zammit to a school run by an American superstar whose contract runs from seven figures into nine.
There are big deals to be found all over the National Football League and then there is the one Patrick Mahomes signed for the Kansas City Chiefs: $503,000,000 over ten years which crunches into more than a few cents north of £400,000,000.
The numbers, as confirmed by those at Forbes who base their global reputation on this sort of thing, give some idea of the company the Welsh flyer is keeping on a crusade from The Shed at Kingsholm guaranteed to earn him shed loads more in Missouri.
Rees-Zammit’s three-year deal as a member of the Chiefs’ practice squad is worth $2.85m or £2.28m, loose change compared to what the same employer pays Mahomes but positively gigantic when compared to salaries in Rugby Union.
In one context, the former Gloucester wing’s pay, more than trebling his annual earnings in the Premiership, represents another big deal for someone who has never played a competitive game of gridiron in his life. If the Super Bowl champions think he’s already that good, the sky’s the limit as to what he can achieve.
The off-season camp hosted by Mahomes in his native Texas gave the Chiefs’ on-field commander-in-chief an opportunity to put Rees-Zammit and the other new wide receivers through their paces. That meant plucking Mahomes’ missiles out of the sky at full throttle.
The Chiefs’ ringmaster, nicknamed ‘Showtime’ from childhood by his father, a former baseball pitcher, is renowning for fizzing passes over distances of up to 80 yards. Not for nothing do the cognoscenti refer to the rocketry in his right arm and the left arm isn’t bad either.
Reports from those who know about these things suggest that Rees-Zammit came through the Mahomes sessions with flying colours. He has yet to do it for real but the feed-back suggests that he could achieve his major goal of a place on the Chiefs’ 53-man roster at the earliest opportunity, come September.
The double-barrelled newcomer has already caused quite a stir in NFL circles. Asked about Rees-Zammit in particular and the others in general, Mahomes said: “Guys like Louis have done a great job in creating healthy competition. What stands out with all these guys is how hard they work. They really want to be great and that’s awesome. I’m excited to see these guys.’’
The admiration is mutual, certainly in Rees-Zammit’s case. As he told his social media followers: “Pat is my best mate now…’’
Mahomes refers to the Chiefs’ squad as ‘the greatest of the greatest’. Head coach Andy Reid calls his quarterback ‘The Grim Reaper’, a tribute to the Texan’s knack of finding an escape out of the grimmest
