As has been the trend of the last few months, another international rugby player has been signed by the NFL. This time the players has been pulled from the USA Rugby Sevens team. USA Seven’s star, Carlin Isles, was a officially signed to the Detroit Lions practice squad today.
Earlier this week Carlin Isles talked on his Facebook page that he had done some workouts for the Lions, where they clocked him running a 40 yards sprint at 4.22 seconds. If compared to recent NFL Combine times, would have been one of the fastest 40 times this past year.
There was speculation that he might be another crossover, but he followed his post with another one
It is not a complete surprise that Isles being worked out by the Lions. Despite being known primarily in Olympic track running, he was also a kick return and WR for Ashland University in Ohio. So he does have experience in Football.
Now that we know that the Lions have officially brought him on to the practice squad, we have to ask what that means for Carlin Isles status with the USA Rugby team. He has had some good play in the most tournaments, but it is well known that he had been dropping down the rosters. Now with the USA Las Vegas Sevens Tournament coming up on January 24-26, what is his status going to be going into the tournament. We soon will find out what his decisions will be. Whether this forces him to change the direction of his career or whether USA Rugby can hold on to him. Only time will tell.