Pretoria man joins USA football team
“American football is definitely more dangerous than rugby.”
A Buffalo, New York-based American football team has scooped 23-year-old Gerhard de Beer as an offensive lineman for the team.
De Beer, a Centurion bred man will be taking to the field in Buffalo Bills gear in August.
He moved to Arizona in the United States in 2013 following exceptional skills as a discus thrower that put him in a position to be head-hunted by various US universities.
De Beer said he took an interest in the sport at the University of Arizona “because he wanted to try something different”.
He said knew he was in the right sport after his very first tackle.
“There is no greater feeling than hitting someone and putting them on their back,” he told Rekord.
“It gives you a sense of accomplishment.”
He said he never played football prior to moving to the US and had to start with the basics.
Torn between the three sports – rugby, discus throw and American football – he said it was hard to say which sport he loves the most.
For now, he is putting his all into football though and plans to play the sport for as long as he can.
“Football is a very complex and intricate game but I love playing it,” said Gerhard.
Gerhard said most people think the pads and helmets in American football make the sport safer and softer than rugby.
However, in actual fact, that is not the case as they are used as weapons to take down your opponent.
“The hits in football are way greater than any sports that I have ever seen so,” said Gerhard.
“It definitely is more dangerous than rugby.”
Many football players have pre-game rituals such as not washing their jock-straps for big games and so on.
Gerhard said he was not a superstitious person, however, he just goes on with his normal weekly training regime, which involves a lot of hours in the gym.
It seems to be a strategy that is working.
Did you know?
Gary Anderson from Parys, in the Free State, was the first South African to appear in an NFL regular season as a placekicker. He went on to play in the league for 23 seasons with six teams and he has the second-most number of NFL games of all time with 353 games under his belt.
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