Rugby player looks to stick with Steelers

Christian Scotland-Williamson looks the part.

Standing on the practice field with the rest of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the rookie tight end blends in seamlessly. The 25-yearold is tall (6-foot-9), big (275 pounds) and athletic.

Then Scotland-Williamson opens his mouth. A polite British accent comes out, the kind that would go unnoticed on a soccer pitch, but on a field crammed with dozens of players practically weaned on America’s Game, it raises eyebrows. Lots of eyebrows.

Scotland-Williamson gets it. The former rugby player who was raised in the London suburbs understands he’s a bit of a curiosity as a member of the second graduating class of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program. At the heart of it all, however, Scotland-Williamson figures the only thing separating him from his teammates is experience. Not passion. Not athleticism. And certainly not drive.

“It’s one of those things where when I was younger, if I’d been exposed to American football I probably would have played it at an earlier age,” Scotland-Williamson said. “But being a British kid, it’s not at your doorstep, so it’s quite hard.”

So Scotland-Williamson opted for rugby. He turned professional at 20 and spent four seasons with the Worcester Warriors of the English Premiership, the top rugby division in the United Kingdom. Then cameras caught him making a monster tackle in a game last spring and his phone rang, with folks wondering if he’d like to come to the U.S. and join the IPP.

Started in 2017, the IPP selects a handful of athletes from other countries to come to the U.S. to learn the finer points of pro football. If they make it through a four-month boot camp at IMG Academy in Florida, they can be assigned to an NFL club, where they will spend a season on the practice squad to prove themselves in what amounts to one of the most unusual internships on the planet.

Though Scotland-Williamson’s rugby career appeared on the rise, the prospect of heading overseas was simply too tantalizing to pass up.

“It’s kind of like that movie ‘Inception,’ once one plants that seed, that’s it,” he said. “I’m very much someone who doesn’t want to live with any regrets and look back at 50 or 60 years old at a bar with your mates and think, ‘ Oh no, what if I could have done this but didn’t.’ So that’s why I’m here really.”