Sav Rocca: Hit. Tested. One of 32.

Sav Rocca, thank you for joining Goal and Inches.

No, thanks for having me on.

Just wanna establish the legacy.

So from the NFL lens, when you look back at seven NFL seasons, there was 112 regular season games and more than 22,000 punting yards.

What do you think people in Australia most miss about the scale of that achievement?

Uh, well, I, I don't know if a lot of people understand the scale of getting over there and playing in the NFL, so the...

A lot of those stats they wouldn't necessarily recognize.

Yeah, they see 112 games, um, spread out over seven seasons but, you know, when you talk about yards, you know, in punting terms, I don't know if they totally across it.

But, you know, it's something that I've done and achieved and very proud of.

So before you joined the NFL, you'd already played 257 AFL games and kicked 748 goals.

What made you believe that this was a second serious career?

Well, I knew that, you know, from the likes of Darren Bennett going over, um, and Ben Graham, I, I knew that I could kick it, you know, pretty much similar to what those guys could.

And, you know, I just had the confidence in myself that once my AFL career, uh, was over, that I'd certainly wanted to give it a go.

I'm a very competitive guy and just wanted to test myself to see if I could get over there and make it.

And so being competitive a- and already being an established professional athlete, landing in Philadelphia, you had to win one of 32 punting jobs in the world.

How humbling was it to start again at the bottom of a new sport?

Yeah, that's certainly different.

Um, you know, winning that role, 'cause I had to...

I got over there in April and had to compete for my job for the next four months up until, or five months up until September.

And then I only got notified the week before the season that I'd had, I'd had won the job.

Um, but to be one of 32 at that time was, you know, you don't really put it in perspective, but now looking back you think, "Wow, there's only 32 guys in the whole world that do this." Um, and now looking back thinking, yes, that was a, a, a great achievement.

So going back and then, and being a rookie at the age of 33, uh, was certainly a little bit different.

I'd, you know, had a- an established career here in the AFL and then going over there, lining up for food and then guys, you know, cutting in line because they were veterans and I wasn't.

So it was like, "Yeah, but I'm like eight years older than you." [laughs] And you know, it's like a little bit, you know, awkward circumstances, but I just took it with a grain of salt and just went with the flow.

That's how they do it, that's how I'll do it.