When Houston Texans center Dieter Eiselen made a carefully timed switch from rugby and weightlifting to American football at the end of his high school career, he never dreamed that he would be here today, in his fourth year as an NFL player.
Eiselen played top level rugby at the prestigious Paul Roos High School just outside Cape Town, with the likes of international stars Herschel Jantjies and Edwill van der Merwe, and initially only planned on playing Yale football secondary to his education.
Instead, he became a 2× First-team All-Ivy League player with Yale Bulldogs, made 11 appearances in the NFL for the Chicago Bears, and he has followed that up by breaking into the Texans team this season after initially being on the practice squad.