Dan Carter is one of the most admired sportsmen in the world.
The good looking All Blacks legend secured his status as one of the best players of all time with a flawless World Cup final performance last month.
The Kiwi is about to finish his career on the big stage in France in the next few months, but in an extract from his autobiography, he’s announced that his international rugby career was almost cut short by an offer of a move to the NFL and the current Superbowl champions the New England Patriots.
According to The Telegraph the flyhalf was approached by the NFL side in 2013 when he was on a year break from rugby.
Carter reveals that he met the team’s owner, Robert Kraft after getting a tour of the NFL’s side’s training facilities in the company of a friend, and the American businessman got straight down to business,
“Do you want to play football?”
“What are you going to bring to this team?” Do you think you can make the transition to the NFL?”
“I mumbled my way through some answers, looking across to Luke, who seemed equally lost. We spent 10 or 15 minutes talking through the realities of the sport, and whether it was plausible for me to make the transition.”
Carter admits that the offer of playing NFL was an interesting one to him, especially when he was shown the detail that the team went into in preparing their goal kickers,
“If I’m honest, my interest was piqued a little. I don’t think any competitive athlete could walk into an environment like that, be received in that way, and not feel a desire to rise to the challenge.”
“I ended up sitting with the head of special teams, who works with kickers and other specialists, and watching tape of elite place-kickers for a couple of hours, while he talked me through their technique.”
However Carter eventually ended up signing for Racing Metro, and he’ll join the Top 14 side at the end of this year.
The 33-year-old could have been a sensation in the NFL, but he admits that in the end the lure of playing in France and his love of rugby was too much for him.
“In the end the French contracts were too good to pass up. The idea of bringing the family to France for a couple of years holds real appeal, too. Above all else, the rugby situation has to be right.”
“With only a couple more years’ rugby in me, it was paramount that I play for a club that is moving in the right direction, that has a vision for success in the short term. Both clubs fit that category. So it’s the south of France or Paris — a good problem to have.”
