ARRYN Siposs stood metres away from Tom Brady at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay in January and couldn’t believe he was actually in the presence of greatness, under the brutal spotlight of playoff football on Super Wild Card weekend.
The seven-time Super Bowl winner got the W in front of 65,077 people, in what would prove to be the penultimate game of his career. But Siposs got the memory.
How had the boy from Beaconsfield gone from being delisted by St Kilda to punting in the National Football League in the space of a handful of years? It is a question the 29-year-old still thinks about. One minute Siposs was a full-time footballer living out his childhood dream for the club he grew up supporting and the next he found himself labouring on a building site devising plan B after his 28-game career came to close at the end of 2015.
Truth be told, Siposs was happy with life after the AFL. He quickly turned his attention to playing VFL football for Williamstown, studying exercise science and teaching at Australian Catholic University and coaching the seconds at Brighton Grammar.
But plan B didn't last. His chances of being drafted by another AFL club were slipping away when he decided to finally take up an offer from Pro Kick founder Nathan Chapman to see if his sublime ability to roost a Sherrin could translate to a Wilson
Within six months of that first trial at Gosch's Paddock on a windy Wednesday afternoon, Siposs and his then-girlfriend, now-wife Rachael, were in the United States after he accepted a scholarship to play college football for Auburn University in Alabama. Two years later he was on the practice squad at the Detroit Lions and then last year he arrived at Philadelphia.
Now Siposs has played 18 matches in the NFL and is preparing to return to Australia for the first time since reigniting a professional sporting career that looked over when he packed up his locker at Seaford six years ago.
"I do think about where I was after footy a fair bit, I really do. I could even go back to before Brighton Grammar and doing my degree. I was doing labour work after I got delisted from the AFL; I was just trying to find a job. Going from being in the AFL system to hard labour is a tough thing to deal with," Siposs told AFL.com.au from Philadelphia this week.
"I think back and I was very content and happy with what I was doing. It was definitely a path that I wanted to take and probably still want to take after all this is finished. If I can last as long as possible over here and give myself a decent career, it just makes things more comfortable going back to Australia.
"I'll finish that degree over here. Getting into the teaching side of things or the coaching side of things and being a lot more comfortable about everything. It is still something I think about because it is something that I still want to do. That's the honest truth. Obviously this opportunity just came around and you can't knock it back. We'll enjoy the ride while we can and worry about things later down the track."
Siposs signed a three-year deal with the Eagles last July, but NFL contracts aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, especially for punters. Unlike the AFL, you can arrive one morning and be cut before lunch is served at the facility. It is that brutal.
But after banking nearly US$700,000 in 2021, Siposs has almost already matched what he earned during his AFL career and could earn plenty more in Pennsylvania, where his three-year deal is worth a total of US$2.5 million if he continues to play.
Siposs punted the ball 61 times this season, starting inside the Atlanta Falcons' US$1.6 billion cathedral, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in week one, as well as in front of 93,267 Cowboys fans at AT&T Stadium in Texas, and the Raiders' shiny new home in Las Vegas, before ending at the hands of Brady and the defending champions in Florida.
"It's been an incredible journey. The last six months has been a bit of a whirlwind and the experience is something I'll never forget," Siposs said via Zoom after the Eagles were beaten by Tampa Bay in the Wild Card game.
"Going in and being extremely nervous in your first game and not really knowing what to expect and not too sure how you're going to play. Us making the playoffs too was pretty cool, given we started pretty poorly and didn’t know if we were going to make it – there has been a lot that's gone on this season.
"Overall, it was an unbelievable experience. Even though the season has just ended, you kind of can't wait for it to come around again because you just want a little bit more. It has been unbelievable and I can't really put it all into words about the experience."
While plenty has changed since Siposs became the fifth Australian punter on an NFL roster last season, the former Saint won't be lulled into feeling any sense of safety in Philadelphia. He wants to play for as long as possible but knows he has work to do to solidify his position at the Eagles.
"I'd love it to be (a long career), but at the same time I can't necessarily have that mindset because maybe there's a little bit of complacency that could come with that. I just need to have the mindset that I had going into last season and prepare myself again as if someone is coming in to take it away from me. I've got to put in all the hard yards again to repeat what I did this past season," he said.
"While it was a good season, and I'm happy with where I'm at, there is always room for improvement. The business doesn’t allow you to feel comfortable, especially from a punter's aspect. Until you really establish yourself on a second contract, you've got to have that mindset; anything can change in any given moment."
Not many people in the AFL community know the challenges Siposs has overcome – and the challenges to come – better than Geelong great Ben Graham. The Cats' Hall of Fame member spent eight seasons in the NFL at the end of his 219-game AFL career, playing for the New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, Arizona Cardinals and Detroit Lions.
Graham was the first Australian to feature in a Super Bowl, after his Cardinals defeated Saverio Rocca – the former Collingwood and North Melbourne star – and Philadelphia in the 2008 NFC Championship game.
"It's an incredible story," Graham told AFL.com.au. "Anyone from Australia, regardless of the path they take into the NFL, whether it's through college or direct through the AFL like Darren and Sav and I, it's fantastic because when you first think about there are only 32 jobs in the world. They are very, very hard to get and just as hard to hold on to. Once you're in the League doesn’t mean you're in the League for long; your performances will fluctuate but he had a great rookie season.
"He showed enough to have a sustained career in the NFL, but there are so many factors that come into it year-in, year-out. One thing is to get into the l=League, the next thing is to stay in the League. Statistically he had a better than average year, but I'm sure that he'll know there is plenty of improvement there also."
Chapman founded Prokick Australia in 2007 after spending time at the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, following a 76-game career for Brisbane and Hawthorn. The program has netted 190 full scholarships to American colleges and 15 professional contracts, launching the careers of current punters Mitch Wishnowsky (San Francisco 49ers), Michael Dickson (Seattle Seahawks), Cameron Johnston (Houston Texans) and Jordan Berry (Minesota Vikings).
Back in 2017, the untrained eye could tell you that Siposs possessed one of the purest kicking actions going around. He had the tools but needed to commit. It didn’t take long for Chapman to see that the former Saint had the commitment required to turn a dream into a reality – first at Auburn and then in the NFL.
"We had to make him stop playing footy, so if you stop playing footy there's your commitment right there," Chapman told AFL.com.au this week.
"He was put through the wringer a little bit because he had to do some uni work to become eligible. They put some workloads on him that he had to complete and that had to be done before he went across. To stop playing footy, get stuck into the uni work, it showed he was committed from the start.
"He turned up to all our sessions, was in the gym and got his uni work done so he was able to go. The ability was always there. We've got plans of being back here and catching up and getting some skills and training in, as well as when I get across to the US. It's another showing of his commitment to wanting to get better."
If you happen to be in Glen Iris or Caulfield in March, you might find Chapman and Siposs working on their craft in a local park as the leaves start changing colour, a world away from the Brady compound in 'Billionaire Bunker', Miami.
