Former England rugby international turned NFL star Christian Wade has detailed his gruelling stint in NFL with the Buffalo Bills between 2019 and 2022 after quitting the sport he grew up playing.
Wade made the daunting decision to call it quits with rugby in 2018 and then became a running back with the Buffalo Bills with the help of the International Player Pathway Program in April 2019.
Wade, who scored a 65-yard touchdown on his debut for the Bills in August that same year, spent three years in the program before returning to rugby after being released by the club having failed to make the regular season roster.
Christian Wade – From rugby to NFL
Now Wade has opened up on his experience within America’s most popular sport, outlining the difference between rugby and NFL. Speaking on behalf of BOYLE Sports, who offer the latest NFL betting, he said: “They’re both intense, but in completely different ways. As an athlete in America, you’re responsible for getting yourself physically and mentally prepared before you even arrive. When you get to the team, the demands are what they are. You will either keep up, or you’ll fall away, and if you fall away, someone else is ready to take your position.
“When I did a training camp for the Buffalo Bills, our days would start with an 8:00am meeting, and I wouldn’t get back to the dorms to rest until about 9:30pm. Most of the day would be meetings. We’d have a two-hour session on the field, which would be very intense—individual skills, team skills, special teams, offense, defence. Other than that, it is literally meetings and walkthroughs.
“Being in a rugby environment is more of a physical slog on your body. In the NFL, it’s more about your mind thinking quicker than other people. The strain or the stress on your body is just completely different.”
Wade added: “Right now the guys in NFL are on their summer break. They have a five-week block, and guys will be working with their own personal trainers. I’m about to go see my trainer after this, and there will be a couple of NFL guys there working on drills, catching, and blocking.
“There’s a massive personal responsibility to ensure you are at the fitness level you need to be. In the UK, they give you everything you need—they build you up to be ready. That doesn’t happen freely in the NFL.”
Wales superstar Louis Rees-Zammit is the most recent example of a rugby international trying his hand at NFL, and not quite making the grade like Wade. Despite not enjoying long careers in NFL, the 35-year-old believes it’s a ‘massive achievement’ just making it onto an NFL roster.
Wade finished: “You have to understand what it means to ‘make it’ over there. In the UK, people think ‘making it’ means getting a four-year, $60 million contract. That’s what gets publicized. But if you speak to anyone in America, just making it to an NFL roster is a massive achievement because so many people try and fail.”
