England Sevens' Alex Gray aims for success in NFL

Former England Sevens star Alex Gray is looking forward to his stint with National Football League after signing a one-year contract with Atlanta Falcons.

Gray was a product of Newcastle academy and signed a two-year deal with the club at an early age of 17. He represented the Falcons in 2010-11 and switched to London Irish for a two year stint before joining Yorkshire Carnegie in 2016.

He has also captained the likes of Owen Farrell, Jonathan Joseph and Mako Vunipola in the Under-20 World Cup in 2011 and has a wide range of success leading the England U-18 teams. In 2015, he was named the RPA Sevens Player of the Year.

Despite, a promising start to his rugby career, the 26-year-old switched to National Football League without any experience of playing or watching the game previously.

Speaking about his move to pursue a career in NFL, Gray said he was excited by the challenge of entering an unknown territory.

“At the start of the year I was made aware of an opportunity - but one that could only happen if I was willing to give up everything and go after it,” said Gray in an exclusive interview to The Telegraph.

“Completely out of the blue I was informed I fit a specific profile that could make the transition into American Football.

“It presented a huge challenge for me, because rugby has been my life. But I had to ask myself: ‘Do I let this huge opportunity go and stick with something I know or do I give up everything and take this huge risk on?’

“I don’t know how it will pan out, but I wanted the ultimate challenge.”

Gray was invited for NFL's International Player Pathway program in Florida after he sent a video of himself completing a 40-yard dash, a box jump and a vertical jump and was later awarded a one year contract by the Falcons as a practice player.

A failure during the program would have meant, Gray's NFL dream would have been over but he took up the challenge and returned with flying colours.

“When I went over there I had never caught a pass before, I’d never put on a helmet before and I had never worn the pads,” laughs Gray. “At times I thought: ‘What have I done?’ When I first got there I was horrible at some of the stuff. There was some stuff I was naturally good at - they said straight away you catch the ball as well as anybody and the physical stuff is already there.

“But I had to unlearn and then learn how to move properly! You have to run a certain way for all kinds of reasons, such as to stop defenders reading you as they are taught to read your body language.

“In football, you run in pure right angles. They teach you the technique to get the job done, but if you are sloppy with your foot placement or getting your head round then you get hit in the back with the ball as you won’t be there quick enough.”