Leader: ‘Mark Jackson or Niall Morgan or another player, they will be full-time in an NFL roster’

Tadhg Leader rules Leader Kicking, a coaching programme that brings Irish athletes from all sporting backgrounds to the attention of American football scouts and recruiters.

ATTRACTING ATTENTION: Leader Kicking is helping Irish athletics to be noticed by American Football scouts and recruiters. 

In his Killeshin home, Ross Bolger had Pittsburgh Steelers posters plastered all over the wall. His mother once painted him a picture of star player TJ Watt. Last month he was pitchside during an NFL game as a remote childhood fantasy suddenly became an attainable reality.

The former minor and U20 Laois footballer signed a two-year scholarship with Division One college football school Idaho State earlier this year. The man who helped him do it is Galway native Tadhg Leader. Leader stood alongside him at that Steelers vs Baltimore Ravens game, the pair having been invited by owners the Rooney family.