Can 'Tokyo Toe' Kansei Matsuzawa kick his way to the NFL? - ESPN

WHEN KANSEI MATSUZAWA, a 19-year-old Japanese tourist, walked through the gates of the Oakland Coliseum in 2018, he did so out of curiosity. He knew little about the NFL or American football before watching the Raiders host the Los Angeles Rams that day, but by the time the game was over he knew he had found a new path in life.

«The enthusiasm, the stadium, atmosphere and everything was new to me,» he said. «And I felt something: 'I want to be an NFL player.'»

Specifically, a kicker.

It was an audacious dream that anyone vaguely familiar with the sport would have dismissed as next to impossible. But for a naïve first-time visitor to the United States, the odds didn't matter.

He didn't care that no one from Japan had ever played in the NFL. He didn't comprehend the scale — that tens of thousands of American kids grow up kicking a football, chasing the same dream, but only a select few get anywhere close to one of the 32 jobs available on any given Sunday.

Two years earlier, Matsuzawa twice failed a college entrance exam that derailed his plans in life. He figured he would go to college, where he could keep playing soccer, but with college in Japan off the table, he was left directionless.

«I was at rock bottom,» Matsuzawa said. «I had nothing. I didn't want to do anything in Japan.»

A trip to the United States was born from his father's concern. After seeing his son adrift for so long, he thought a two-week, solo trip to America and exposure to a world outside his comfort zone might spark something.

That something led Matsuzawa down a path that has turned him into one of the most improbable NFL prospects ever.

After returning to Japan, he leaned in. He studied kicking on YouTube, practiced on his own and started to teach