The 23-year-old is completing a 10-week training and development camp as part of the International Player Pathway (IPP) in Bradenton, Florida.
The initiative is designed to attract players from outside the US to American Football.
On 20 March, Rees-Zammit will attend a Pro Day alongside 15 fellow attendees. It’s a showcase for their talents at which NFL team scouts will assess their suitability for a contract.
In an interview with Sky News, Rees-Zammit – nicknamed Rees Lightning because of his pace – talked of his ambition, his inspiration and of the NFL’s biggest fan, singer Taylor Swift.
On pursuing an NFL career
I’d regret this for the rest of my life if I never gave this a go. I fully believe that I can make this happen.
My dad has always been a role model to me and he played as a teenager – he loved the sport and brought me up to love the sport.
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Image: Louis Rees-Zammit
He always supported Washington. We had a season ticket at Manchester United for the 2014 season, so I would have been 13 and, literally every journey up, I used to watch someone called DeSean Jackson – I used to watch all his videos on the three-hour journey up to Manchester, I’d watch all his videos, his documentaries and stuff like that.
I want to continue (my dad’s) legacy and create my own and inspire however many people I can back home to give this a go and believe in themselves.
On telling his Wales coach Warren Gatland and colleagues
My teammates are so supportive, I couldn’t thank them enough. They all messaged me straight away, good luck messages.
Image: Pic: PA
Gats (Warren Gatland) was so great with me. He only found out five minutes before the announcement, so it was tough for him and it was tough for me, because it was definitely the toughest decision I’ve ever made in my life.
I gave him a ring and he was like: go out there, smash it.
He asked ‘if it doesn’t work out, what happens?’ For sure, I’d be going back to rugby. So, he left it like that and I’m so appreciative of that and I can’t thank the boys enough for the support they’ve given me.
On the challenges of switching to NFL
The transferable skills, in terms of ball in hand, playing running back… is going to be a lot easier for me.
Obviously, the helmet and pads are completely different. The first few days were difficult, in the sense that you’ve got to use your peripherals (vision) a lot, but we’ve been doing it for seven weeks and it’s one of those things where you just get used to it.
It’s more route running, being able to accelerate and stop on a dime.
You’re trying to run a route and then, all of a sudden, you’ve got to turn around and try and catch a ball, with a helmet on, but you just get used to it.
We do hundreds and hundreds of repetitions so, after a few, you get a feel for where you are.
Mentally, you have to be so switched on. It’s such a cut-throat business that the margin for error is so small, you can’t forget anything.
Image: Rees-Zammit believes he can use skills from rugby to help him in the NFL. Pic: AP
A lot of it is mental and being able to transfer the stuff you learn in the classroom to the field.
In rugby, there are probably, like, 20 plays. In the NFL, you’ve got to try and learn 80-100 a game.
On Pro Day, the showcase for NFL scouts
It really excites me to be able to show people what I can do in this sport. I’ve worked incredibly hard over the past seven, eight weeks to get a feel for the game, not just on the field but off the field as well.
I want to show these scouts what we’ve all learned and I’m just so excited to get to that day and perform.
I fully believe that I can make this work. If I had any doubt in my head that I couldn’t do this then I wouldn’t be here.
On Taylor Swift, the musician and celebrity NFL fan
I think it’s great for the sport. She’s attracting people to love the sport and it’s great. I like Taylor Swift as a singer, as well.
There are a lot of people that have mixed reviews or mixed opinions, but I think it’s doing really good for the sport and it’s attracting a lot.
Image: Taylor Swift embraces Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce after the NFL Super Bowl. Pic: AP
On the Welsh team he left behind
It’s a new World Cup cycle in there, so we’ve got a lot of youngsters, which is great. We’ve had very good periods of play, it’s just putting an 80-minute performance together is the issue at the minute.
I have no doubt that the more games you play, the chemistry will get better, the boys will know how each other play, how each other run.
It’s difficult to just throw a load of players in there and just say “get better”.
What would success look like?
It’s not about money, it’s not about location, it’s about having a plan.
I don’t want to look too far ahead. I have no preferences on teams, I just want to be at a club that supports me and I will do everything for them.
For my dad to be able to say that his son’s in the NFL would be the most proud moment of my life – not just my dad, my brother and mum are so supportive of me and I could never do this without them.
We’re so close, we do everything together, I mean, they’re going to come out and live with me.
They’ve supported me since I started sport at six, I think they probably missed about eight games in my whole life and that was purely because of lockdown.
They’ve travelled the world with me and I can’t do enough to give back to them.
If he returns to rugby
I started at Gloucester and I’d want to finish at Gloucester. Ultimately, if they didn’t give me the opportunity to play professional rugby then I wouldn’t be here today.
So I absolutely love Gloucester, I love the club, I love the supporters, I love everyone there. So, Gloucester would be my preference.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
Image: The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
More on Donald Trump
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Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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5:07
The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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3:27
How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
Tanking stock markets, collapsing world orders, devastating trade wars; economists with their hair ablaze are scrambling to keep up.
But as we try to make sense of Donald Trumps’s tariff tsunami, economic theory only goes so far. In the end this surely is about something more primal.
Power.
Understanding that may be crucial to how the world responds.
Yes, economics helps explain the impact. The world’s economy has after all shifted on its axis, the way it’s been run for decades turned on its head.
Instead of driving world trade, America is creating a trade war. We will all feel the impact.
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0:58
PM will ‘fight’ for deal with US
Donald Trump says he is settling scores, righting wrongs. America has been raped, looted and pillaged by the world trading system.
More from US
But don’t be distracted by the hyperbole – and if you think this is about economics alone, you may be missing the point.
Above all, tariffs give Donald Trump power. They strike fear into allies and enemies, from governments to corporations.
This is a president who runs his presidency like a medieval emperor or mafia don.
It is one reason why since his election we have seen what one statesman called a conga line of sycophants make their way to the White House, from world leaders to titans of industry.
The conga line will grow longer as they now redouble their efforts hoping to special treatment from Trump’s tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer among them.
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President Trump’s using similar tactics at home, deploying presidential power to extract concessions and deter dissent in corporate America, academia and the US media. Those who offer favours are spared punishment.
His critics say he seeks a form power for the executive or presidential branch of government that the founding fathers deliberately sought to prevent.
Whether or not that is true, the same playbook of divide and rule through intimidation can now be applied internationally. Thanks to tariffs
Each country will seek exceptions but on Trump’s terms. Those who retaliate may meet escalation.
This is the unforgiving calculus for governments including our own plotting their next moves.
The temptation will be to give Trump whatever he wants to spare their economies, but there is a jeopardy that compounds the longer this goes on.
Image: Could America’s traditional allies turn to China? Pic: AP
Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister who coined the conga line comparison, put it this way: “Pretty much all the international leaders I have seen that have sucked up to Trump have been run over. The reality is if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”
Trading partners may be able to mitigate the impact of these tariffs through negotiation, but that may only encourage this unorthodox president to demand ever more?
Ultimately the world will need a more reliable superpower than that.
In the hands of such a president, America cannot be counted on.
When it comes to security, stability and prosperity, allies will need to fend for themselves.
And they will need new friends. If Washington can’t be relied on, Beijing beckons.
America First will, more and more, mean America on its own.