Can he kick it? Bundee Aki tries his luck at gridiron
BORN in Otahuhu, a proud member of Manurewa High School’s first XV and a star player for Counties and the Chiefs, it’s fair to say that Bundee Aki has pulled a pretty major U-turn in his life after upping sticks to play in Ireland and then becoming a key player in the green machine’s team that last month enjoyed their history-making series win over the All Blacks. So imagine Chatterbox’s surprise when we came across a new YouTube video of him geared up in gridiron kit and tackling American football. Was Aki taking a punt on a new code? Actually, no. The padding and strips were legit, but the video was a hilarious promo for a US college football match due to be played in Dublin and Aki was testing his ball skills with former Ireland player Tommy
Bowe and current wing Mack Hansen.
Bowe has been over to the States to see for himself how huge the game is but reckons that even with his international rugby background he’d struggle to keep up with college football. He didn’t, however, think that would stop Aki giving it a go, telling Irish website Sports Joe that Aki and Hansen are ‘‘are massive into the NFL’’.
‘‘It was amazing to even see someone like Bundee trying to squeeze into all the pads and trying the helmet on. They both loved it. Bundee and Mack are at the peak of their powers. They probably do think they could give the game a good go.’’