Australia’s Jeremy Crawshaw capped off a whirlwind week on the weekend, when he became the latest punter from Down Under to be selected in the NFL draft.
On top of that, Crawshaw married his partner Elle just days earlier, four weeks after he popped the question on the beach.
“Oh, definitely not. No,” Crawshaw told Nine’s Today when asked if being drafted topped getting hitched.
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“My wife is an amazing human being. I wouldn’t do life without her, so she’s amazing.”
The 23-year-old from Sydney’s Emu Plains, selected in the sixth round by the Denver Broncos, had been battling away in the college system for five years at the University of Florida, where he started in 53 games for the Gators and averaged 46.2 yards per punt.
Crawshaw joins fellow Australian punters Tory Taylor (Chicago), Mitch Wishnowsky (San Francisco), Michael Dickson (Seattle), Cameron Johnston (Pittsburgh) and Matthew Hayball (New Orleans) in the NFL.
His career-long best punt was 69 yards, which caught the attention of NFL scouts.
Crawshaw is set to compete with veteran Matt Haack, who signed a one-year, $US1.25 million contract ($1.94m AUD) in March, for the Broncos’ starting job.
Crawshaw, who played rugby and AFL growing up focused on his passion for the NFL and how he could pave a way there.
He approached Prokick Australia for help and they assisted in getting him over to the United States.
Prokick’s founder, Nathan Chapman, is a former AFL player who who signed with the Green Bay Packers in 2004. He came back to help other Aussies fulfil their dreams of becoming a punter in the NFL.
“I’m very grateful to Prokick Australia that has that program. You know, we kind of take those skills that we learnt in Aussie Rules and that fine touch and we put it to use and coaches over here in America love it. So we just do the best with our abilities and it’s getting us this far,” Crawshaw said.
“Every week, I swear I was playing another Aussie and it’s just great to have a familiar on the other side of the ball.
“And a lot of these boys I trained with back in Australia, so the brotherhood keeps growing and I’m looking forward to see where it goes.”
