Second Thoughts

NFL rookie adjusting to U.S. football

Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jordan Mailata of Australia, leaves the field after an NFL rookie camp in May. Mailata, who played rugby in his native country, was puzzled in the early going trying to figure out the equipment to play American football.
Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jordan Mailata of Australia, leaves the field after an NFL rookie camp in May. Mailata, who played rugby in his native country, was puzzled in the early going trying to figure out the equipment to play American football.

Rookie Jordan Mailata reached into his locker and plucked out a thigh pad. Just four months ago, he had no idea which body part it was supposed to protect.

"When I came into rookie minicamp, I said, 'What are these?' " Mailata, the first-year Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle, told British newspaper the Guardian. "They said, 'They're your pads.' I said, 'Well, where do they go?' They showed me the shorts, and they said, 'They go here and here and here.' '"

The Eagles had selected Mailata in the seventh round of the NFL Draft even though he had never played American football. But Mailata, a 21-year-old Australian who stands 6-8 and weighs 346 pounds, was so powerful and nimble as an under-20 rugby league player for the South Sydney Rabbitohs that the Eagles thought he could be converted into an NFL offensive lineman.

How raw was Mailata? Well, the Eagles opener was the first NFL regular-season game he had ever seen live.

"I was sitting on the sideline," he said, smiling, "and I was like, 'I'm on the same team that's playing.' It was very surreal. Who would have ever thought that my first ever game I went to was after I made the league? It's kind of funny it turned out that way. It's not even just about learning the game. It's about doing certain things. Just to have that new experience is a unique experience. Every week it's like that."

The Eagles' decision to draft Mailata was seen by many as a gamble at best, and a gimmick at worst. But Mailata impressed the defending Super Bowl champions during training camp and preseason, and he earned a spot on their 53-man roster. It was not an insignificant transaction.

As a third-string left tackle, he has not played in a regular-season game yet, but at least he has seen a few now. His debut is probably still a way off, but Mailata is committed to the process.

"I'm still taking baby steps," he told the Guardian after practice last week, "and when the coaches think I'm ready, I'll play."

Worst of the worst

ESPN.com senior writer Ryan McGee doesn't focus on the best teams in college football each week. Instead, he does an All-Power 5 Bottom 10 ranking. His most recent rankings, which were released on Tuesday, included a dig at himself when it came to a certain team's position in the poll:

  1. No-braska (0-3) "Its 56-10 loss to Michigan was the worst beatdown in Nebraska history since July 27, 1804, when, according to the journal of Lewis & Clark, the explorers were run out of their campsite near future Omaha by 'a thick and troublesome' cloud of mosquitoes. 'Twas the 19th century ancestor of Cornhusker postgame call-in shows," McGee wrote.

  2. UCLA Boo-ins (0-3)

  3. Ar-kan't-saw (1-3). Here's where McGee takes a shot at himself, posting a tweet by sports talk radio host Bo Mattingly on whose show McGee said his favorite hire of the offseason was that of Coach Chad Morris. "Hey, who was the genius who spent all spring telling everyone that the Hogs made college football's best sneaky offseason coaching hire?! LOL! What an idiot!!" McGee wrote.

  4. In a Rut-gers (1-3)

  5. #GoACC Coastal "It would have been easy to simply plug Virginia Tech into the coveted fifth spot all by itself. But VT is located in the ACC Coastal, the spaghetti pile of Power 5 divisions that includes the No-kies (2-1), the UNC Achilles Heels (1-2) and the Georgia Tech Not State Or Southern Shambling Wreck (1-3)," McGee wrote.

  6. Good Ol' Rocky Slop (2-2)

  7. Pur-don't (1-3)

  8. Ore-gone State (1-3)

  9. Flori-duh State (2-2)

  10. UTEPID (0-4)

Sports quiz

How many division championships have the Philadelphia Eagles won in franchise history?

Answer

13, including last season.

Sports on 09/28/2018

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