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The incredible case of Chilean Sammis Reyes: he did not play a single minute of American football and today he makes his NFL debut

2021-09-12T15:42:12.045Z


He stood out in basketball and his idol was Manu Ginobili until a coach convinced him to change sports. He passed a test, signed a millionaire contract and this afternoon he makes his premiere.


09/12/2021 6:01 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • sports

Updated 9/12/2021 6:01 AM

Can you imagine Facu Campazzo playing the Champions League?

Gabriel Deck in the Wimbledon main draw?

Or Luis Scola trying his luck with Los Pumas in the Rugby Championship?

Something similar is about to happen in the most powerful sports league in the world, the NFL, with

26-year-old

Chilean

Sammis Reyes

.

At 14, Sammis went to live in the United States, played college basketball and was fixed in the calls of the national team before each South American tournament or for the World Cup qualifiers. His dream was to reach the NBA, imitating his idol Manu Ginobili, but the chance never came. However, fate had in store another award for his dedication

to training. healthy living and competition

.

At the peak of his college career, his physical prowess caught the attention of coaches,

not basketball

coaches

but football

coaches

.

And just when he seemed to leave behind that stage of his life linked to sport to devote himself fully to studying, he dared to try his luck on a campus where there would be scouts.

He learned the rules, played some "picaditos" with friends, transformed his body and traveled to Florida to bet his chip.

And broke it.

Sammis Reyes, the Chilean who will play his first game in the NFL with just a few months of training.

The

Washington Football Team

caught him and confirmed him a few weeks ago in the team after signing a contract for three years and a total amount of 2.5 million dollars.

This afternoon will be his official debut, when he takes to the field at the start of the 2021 season to receive the Los Angeles Chargers at a FedEx Field stadium that will be full, with 82 thousand spectators.

The game will be part of the

ESPN Red Zone

programming

, the marathon (and addictive) cycle of tevé that is a classic for NFL fans, with all the matches simultaneously, changing the scene according to the alternatives that arise in each court.

It starts at 2 p.m. (Argentine time) and goes on ESPN Extra and Star +.

In the clouds.

Sammis Reyes went from leaving the sport to one of the most popular teams in the NFL.


Ginobili fan

But the fault of the arrival of Sammis Reyes to the NFL is

Manu Ginobili

.

The man from Bahia marked him from a very young age and was key to his growth as an athlete, first in his homeland and then in the United States.

This is how the Chilean told Clarín.

It is that while Manu became golden in Athens 2004 and added rings in the

NBA

, on the other side of the Cordillera, this super athlete who today measures 1.96 meters and weighs 120 kilos, was a skinny man who ran towards the hoop and tried to overturn it imitating the "eurostep", the little step that our

Gino

patented in the unforgettable

San Antonio Spurs

.

"For me Manu Ginobili is an idol. From a very young age, knowing that he was on the other side of the Cordillera was a great inspiration. Chileans never had a player in the NBA. You have had several. So,

for us, look at Argentina was saying: “They are doing something well there

, you have to imitate what they are doing.” That curiosity to know what Ginobili did, what his philosophy was, I feel that it opened something inside me that made me continue his entire career. To this day he is an idol for me, "said Sammis a few months ago, from Washington DC.

Reyes joined the Chilean youth basketball team, participated in international tournaments and at age 14 he was a member of a delegation that trained for two weeks at CENARD, in Buenos Aires, where he played several friendlies against Argentina. "The one I remember the most is

Gabriel Deck

, a very good athlete. I met him very young and you could see that he was going to do great things.

He is my age and we played in the same position, we faced each other many times,

" he says with a smile. .

In those youth matches, he left such a good impression that some teams from the National League tried to sign him, including Atenas de Córdoba and Peñarol de Mar del Plata.

In the case of having accepted those offers, another would have been the story for the native of Talcahuano, a city of 160,000 inhabitants that overlooks the Pacific, 500 kilometers south of Santiago de Chile.

But his path pointed north

.

Sammis Reyes in his days as a basketball player playing for the Chilean National Team.

At that time, Sammis accepted a scholarship and landed in college basketball in the

United States

.

Meanwhile, he continued to compete with the Chilean national team, and was part of the team that fought for a place in the 2019 World Cup in China. He

wanted to be the first Chilean to reach the NBA but he couldn't

: his physique was so imposing that the Calls he received to continue his career were to ask him if he played football.

He never took them seriously, until one day he made up his mind.

For this he had to develop his body, change his diet and his entire training routine.

In addition, he spent ten weeks playing games with his old college classmates, incorporating terms and movements typical of a sport that combines strength, dexterity and brain.

Sammis Reyes had to change his body: he consumes 6 thousand calories a day.

"I took 365 days to change my body and learn the sport, the roles of each player on the court. I had to gain around 15 kilos, I went from weighing 105 to 120 kilos. I worked a lot on my speed and increased my strength a lot, my muscle mass.

I have to eat around 6 thousand calories a day to maintain this weight

. It's hard work. We all like to eat but sometimes I don't feel like it and I have to eat the same, "explains Sammis.

And he adds, with a serious tone: "A breakfast can be 1,200 calories: a protein shake, a mix of fruits, spinach, 5 eggs with additional whites, whole wheat bread, a banana ... It is a very large nutritional requirement".


Sammis Reyes had never played football.

He spent 10 weeks practicing with old college classmates.

His effort paid off.

This year, he received an invitation to try out on the

International Player Pathway

, an NFL program attended by athletes from all over the world except the United States and Canada.

Those who stand out above the average (very few), are assigned to a random franchise to integrate the training teams.

It is an NFL strategy to globalize the league beyond the borders of North America

.

However, Sammis was so shocking that the

Washington Football Team

laid their eyes on him and rushed to contract him outside the IPP program.

On April 13, the Chilean posed happily putting his signature in the offices of the "unnamed team", which last season left behind the famous nickname

Redskins

for being considered offensive and has not yet chosen a new one.

"The new incorporation", they wrote on Twitter, with a shocking video that shows everything that the Chilean is capable of doing.

The newest addition to our TE room 👀



(🎥: @NFL)



pic.twitter.com/eZwazupqAL

- Washington Football Team (@WashingtonNFL) April 13, 2021

In this way,

Sammis joins a select club, one of the only South Americans who made it to the NFL

: there appear three Argentines, three Colombians, two Venezuelans, a Brazilian, a Bolivian, a Paraguayan and a Guyanese, according to the online registrations from the

Pro Football Reference

site 

.

Of all, the most successful was 

Martín Gramatica

, the Argentine "kicker" who established himself with a Superbowl (unique for this part of the planet) kicking for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, when he scored 12 points.

"It makes me happy that there is a South American in the NFL. Physically he is a monster, he looks very strong and fast," Gramatica told a Chilean media.

In the case of Sammis,

his position on the court is that of "tight end"

, a function that makes him participate more in the actions of the game, blocking, running and catching the passes that could be thrown by the charismatic

Ryan Fitzpatrick

, again Washington quarterback.

The bearded veteran

Fitzmagic

, as he is called, is one of the most charismatic characters in the NFL world, he went through nine teams and is capable of doing genius like this.

#FinsUp lost in Las Vegas against #RaiderNation and their chances of entering the Playoffs were fading.

Until Brian Flores took Tua out and put Ryan Fitzpatrick on.

You can imagine what follows: Fitzmagic in its purest state.

Incredible pic.twitter.com/6NfFYOwkrq

- Andrés Schimelman (@andischimelman) December 27, 2020

Although rare, the move from college basketball to football has other iconic events in NFL history, including Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, and Jimmy Graham.

"I want to play, I want to win, I did not come to do this sport for fame or Instagram followers. I came to do this sport because I want to be on that court and fight it. To represent my team but also my country,

the youth they're going to be looking and saying 'we could be there,

' "says Sammis.

Sammis Reyes lives in Washington with Nicole, his American girlfriend.

And he is excited: "The day I score a touchdown I am going to dedicate it to my family

but also to all the people in Chile

, to a whole country, to those children who are 6 or 7 years old and are watching, let them see that. and feel 'he is Chilean, he is part of us' ".

Sammis came into the consideration of

Ron Rivera

, the Latin coach of the WFT who came to the franchise last year and took it to the playoffs, although he won another much more important tournament: he

overcame cancer in a lymph node

and completed his cancer treatment without missing a single game.

The specialists are amazed by the work of Reyes in the preseason.

Although he must improve his catch technique and career paths to break through rival defenses, he has a rare attribute: he is

not afraid of blows

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sammis Reyes (@sammisreyes)

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Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-09-12

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