If Japan is going to finally get its foot in the NFL door, it could be on the strength of the country's legs.
Three kickers, including two from the same X-League team, were among six Japanese players selected to attend next month's NFL regional combine, the first step on the long road to making the top football league in the world, NFL Japan announced Tuesday.
Asahi Beer Silver Star kickers Yoshitaka Sakurai and Takahito Maruta, along with the Panasonic Impulse's Eita Saeki, made the cut from among 41 hopefuls who attended the NFL Japan combine on Sunday in Tokyo.
Unaffiliated quarterback Tomotsuna Inoue, Waseda University running back Tomokazu Sueyoshi and Asahi Soft Drinks Challengers offensive tackle Takehito Noda will also attend the regional combine in Florham Park, N.J., on Feb. 25-26.
"I think the kickers were impressive," Cornell Gowdy, one of two former NFL scouts who ran Sunday's combine, was quoted as telling NFL Japan's website after the workout. "Several guys showed very good leg strength and accuracy. If there is a position [for a Japanese] that has a chance in the near future to play in the NFL, I believe it will start with the kicking."
The regional combine will serve as the tryout for the "super regional combine" to be held at Detroit's Ford Field on March 29-31, in front of a number of NFL scouts. A good showing there could lead a contract to attend a team's training camp as a free agent, but the competition will be stiff.
Football remains the lone major North American sport that has yet to have a Japanese-born player. In recent years, two players made it to the final cuts of training camp: linebacker Masafumi Kawaguchi with the San Francisco 49ers in 2003 and wide receiver Noriaki Kinoshita with the Atlanta Falcons in 2007.
Sakurai was Asahi Beer's main kicker this past season, during which he converted 20 of 21 extra points and five of seven field goals, including a 42-yarder.
Maruta and Saeki both saw little or no action this year, but impressed Sunday with their size and power.
Maruta, a hulking 1.82 meters and 90 kilograms, was also a defensive lineman in college who now specializes in kicking. He spent the season on the Silver Star's practice squad. Saeki was the backup to Kenji Ogasawara at Panasonic.
The 25-year-old Inoue, a 1.90-meter, 98-kilogram former star at Waseda who did not play in any league this season, will be making his second trip to the U.S.-based combine, having been one of three selected last year.
The 1.77-meter, 93-kilogram Sueyoshi is the lone collegian, a title he also had on Japan's national team at last summer's world championship, at which he scored six touchdowns.
Perhaps the longshot of the group, Noda, an All X-League selection, will match his 1.93-meter, 138-kilogram girth against top American prospects.
