SYDNEY, Australia — To his family, all the rest of them, the NFL meant bright lights so far off in the distance they could have been stars in the sky. Jordan Mailata made his case to the whole clan how the NFL really might be the sport for his 6-foot-7, 300-plus-pound self.
Nobody else could see it. To his parents, his three brothers and a sister and their various partners, all sitting there in Bankstown, a suburb southwest of Sydney, rugby was the sport. Their family produced rugby players. The kid was the best of them, a breath from the big time, one break from Australia's top tier, the National Rugby League.