Former rugby union player Travis Clayton has been selected by the Buffalo Bills in the 2024 NFL draft.
The Englishman’s selection sees him join former Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit in American football.
Clayton, 23, was selected with the 221st overall pick in the seventh round despite having never played a game in the sport.
The reaction from Travis' friends and family back home in Basingstoke, it means so much 🫶 pic.twitter.com/Jj7tAmWyLj
— NFL UK & Ireland (@NFLUKIRE) April 27, 2024
The six-foot seven athlete, who played rugby for hometown club Basingstoke, was selected from the NFL’s international player pathway programme as an offensive lineman.
In a social media post, Clayton thanked fans in the UK for the support he has had on his journey.
He said: “Just want to shout out all the UK fans for sticking by me and supporting me and look, I’ve made it to the NFL and now it’s time to represent and show the rest of the world exactly why UK athletes should play in the NFL.”
Clayton recorded his 40-yard dash in 4.79 seconds during the draft combine, which the Bills said was faster than all offensive lineman have recorded over the last 10 years.
BUFFALO SOLDIER!!Our man Travis Clayton drafted by the Bills. Proud is an understatement. #Basingstoke on the NFL Map! Go smash it Trav!! #NFL #BRFC #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/EDLnqqRRHe
— Basingstoke Mens Rugby (@BasRFCMens) April 27, 2024
It comes after Rees-Zammit signed for Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs in March.
Rees-Zammit, who announced his decision to leave rugby union in January, impressed the Chiefs during his time on the NFL’s international player pathway, with running back and wide receiver his designated positions.
The former Gloucester, Wales and British and Irish Lions wing stunned the world of rugby in January by quitting the sport in an attempt to secure a contract with an NFL team in 2024.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here