American Football
Irish rugby sensation Neff Giwa's viral NFL clip leads to Gamecocks deal
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Irishman Neff Giwa's route to the SEC was unconventional, to say the least.
The son of Nigerian parents, raised in the small town of Cashel, County Tipperary, Giwa spent his sporting life on rugby fields - until a viral clip caught the attention of college football's biggest programmes.
Within a week, he had five Power Four offers and chose the 10-time bowl-winning Gamecocks over Tennessee, Miami, North Carolina and others.
South Carolina counts Super Bowl-winning Seahawks Nick Emmanwori and Ernest Jones among its famous alumni, alongside former first-rounder and lockdown Panthers' cornerback Jaycee Horn.
The magnitude of the moment isn't lost on Giwa.
“I knew that there’d be a journey there, but I could never have anticipated this,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Despite his lack of American football experience, the recruitment frenzy makes sense. Giwa is 6′7½" and pushing 300 pounds, with arms that measure 37 1/2 inches.
His 40-yard dash time of 4.88 seconds would have beaten every offensive lineman at this year’s NFL Combine.
“If you can create a tackle in a laboratory, this is what you want him to look like,” said Brandon Collier of PPI Recruits, who discovered and visited Giwa to watch him work out.
“Then he has the toughness,” Collier added. “You can have all these measurements, but if you’re not tough mentally and physically, then you probably won’t make it.”
Giwa, who represented Munster Rugby and was selected to the Ireland U18 Clubs and Schools squad for 2022, toured several campuses on his first-ever trip to the US and came away converted.
“You kind of have to be here to understand just how special and how big it is here,” he said.
Giwa, whose full first name is Oluwanifemi, hasn’t forgotten where he came from, or what his immediate future would look like if that clip had never gone viral.
“I’d just be a regular guy, doing what 90% of the world is doing, just trying to make a living. That’s why I’m so grateful because I’m able to do something that I really love now,” he told the Associated Press.
DAZN News will be following Giwa's story with keen interest. Stay tuned to hear more about his exciting journey.
