Kenyan rugby player now on cusp of the NFL

In this Aug. 29, 2013, photo, Sports Authority Field at Mile High stands under the lights during a preseason NFL football game between the Denver Broncos and the Arizona Cardinals in Denver. One ColorShow more

The NFL's Indianapolis Colts promoted Daniel Adongo to their 53-man roster on Wednesday.

This would normally not in and of itself be of interest to anyone. The bottom rungs of NFL rosters are filled with fungible players who usually shuttle back and forth between practise squads and an NFL roster and regularly get released and signed back up by another team seemingly on a whim.

While it might not seem like it, in reality the line between being one of the last handful of players on an NFL sideline on any given Sunday and being one of the hundreds of players populating the Canadian Football League and Arena Football league is awfully thin.

Being the 52nd or 53rd man on an American football team is, basically, a precarious position to be in, and it almost certainly means you haven't achieved much of any athletic notoriety yet.

Daniel Adongo, however, is a little bit different. Mostly because he isn't, or at least wasn't, an American football player.

Daniel Adongo is, or at least was, a rugby player.

His last club side was Southern Kings, a South African Super Rugby side where he played as a backup lock-flanker. From there, he jumped straight to the NFL's Colts, who signed him despite a glaring lack of experience in American football.

Brought on in July, Indianapolis brought him to training camp to show him, literally, how to play the game. Then they sent him to the practise squad, a collection of eight players every NFL team keeps on for depth purposes and, well, to practise against the regulars.

He's been there until this week, and, if things break his way, the converted linebacker will get a chance to hit the gridiron if the situation presents itself on Sunday after the Colts added the 6-foot-5, 257-pound (1.96m, 117kg) 24 year old to their active roster.

Adongo's situation is reminiscent of Lawrence Okoye, the 6-5, 304-pound British discus Olympian and former junior rugby union star who's now on the San Francisco 49ers' practise squad as a defensive end.

Adongo, who was born in Nairobi, started his rugby career with the Kenya Under-19 and Under-21 national squads before his pro career took him to South Africa and New Zealand, with stints at Blue Bulls, Natal Sharks, Eastern Province Kings and Counties Manukau.