By Joshua Stewart
Twitter: @JoshStewart47
The National Football League (NFL) Academy hosted its annual signing day where eight of its players signed scholarship contracts.
All eight players received offers from universities in the United States that included full scholarships for their college careers.
The players that announced where they would attend in January are Timi Oke (Northwestern University), Henry Lyes (Glenville State University), Lopez Sanusi (Boise State University), Elia Jeffry Ofosu (Glenville State University), Benjamin Kienz (Kennesaw State University), Daniel Akinkunmi (University of Oklahoma), Luke Yau Gayle (University at Buffalo) and Pape Abdoulaye Sy (Boston College).
Timi Oke will become the first non-US defensive back to play for Northwestern, which is part of the big 10 conference in the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) whilst Daniel Akinkunmi signed for the Oklahoma Sooners who are part of the big 12 conference and one of the most highly rated college football programmes in the world.
The NFL academy started in 2019 as part of an initiative to gain more international representation in the NFL. It is currently based at Loughbourough University where state of the art facilities and boarding facilities are provided to the players.
Currently hosting 62 players across 13 nations, the academy is constantly recruiting new players and takes an unorthodox approach in sometimes accepting players that have never played the sport before.
Video footage and physical tests that are most commonly and famously seen in the NFL Combine are used to help determine whether applicants are worthy of a spot instead of just purely basing entrance upon history and understanding of the game.
Nigeria, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Senegal and England were all represented at the event which was hosted at the NFL’s UK head offices in London.
Only six current NFL players were born in the UK, with the most well-known being Efe Obada of the Washington Commanders and Jamie Gillan of the New York Giants.
Not enough time has passed since the beginning of the NFL academy to allow a graduate to reach the NFL but hopes are high that the likes of Lyes, Akinkunmi and graduate Peter Clarke, who is currently playing at Temple University, will be able to pave the way for others to follow.
NFL Academy is recruiting for the next academic year, if you want to learn more about this life-changing opportunity, click here to find out how to apply
https://www.nflacademy.com/.
You can also follow the NFL Academy’s season and receive regular updates @nflacademy across Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
