Meet the Kiwi-bred ‘machine’
Rhett Ellison is only the third Kiwi to play in the National Football League. Aaron Lawton meets the man they call ‘‘The Machine’’.
FOR the better part of two hours, Kennedy Polamalu stands back from the line of scrimmage, eyes squinted in concentration and hoarsely barks commands at a tiring group of players on the University of Southern California football team.
If an unfortunate individual finds himself even an inch out of place during the session or, heaven forbid, runs the wrong play, he’s brutally berated in front of his peers. Practice for one of college football’s top teams, it seems, is not a place to make mistakes.
As the training run comes to a close, the towering frame of offensive co-ordinator Polamalu ambles determinedly towards the exit door.
Looking down at his feet, the former player-turned-footballcoach’s body language reveals an obvious hope that he will make it past the waiting pack of journalists and back to his office without being hassled. Today is not his lucky day. ‘‘You want to talk about Rhett Ellison?’’ He grunts, before slowly breaking into a grin. ‘‘Oh, I’d do anything for that young man.’’
And all of a sudden there is no stopping him.
It was American Samoan-born Polamalu, the uncle of Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy, last year who handed Ellison a nickname his former team-mates still use to describe him.
He was – still is, really, and always will be – ‘‘The Machine’’.
And even now, months after he departed the USC football team to take up a pro contract in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings, Ellison is still spoken about at his old college in revered tones.
The son of three-time Super Bowl winner Riki Ellison – a proud Kiwi with Ngai Tahu blood coursing through his veins – Ellison junior spent four seasons with the Trojans.
As a tight end or fullback, he was an unflashy player, ‘‘a grinder’’, in Polamalu’s own words.
But what he lacked in talent he made up for with an uncompromising work ethic.
He was the sort of player coaches love and it was unsurprisingly Polamalu who first likened him to a piece of unfailing machinery.
‘‘It’s just that he did everything right,’’ he gushes.
‘‘He did it continuously and he was just consistent, consistent in