Australians in American football and rugby union have been linked to potential NFL careers. The punting specialist position requires similar skills to those used in Australian Rules football. Salaries are up to five times higher and the position lends itself to longevity: Australian football players generally retire at around 30, whereas American football punters can play well into their 40s (in fact, one of the players listed below, Darren Bennett, played 11 seasons in the NFL after leaving behind an Australian rules career when he was nearing 30). Initially Australians sought out American football careers, although now NFL scouts are more often actively seeking
United States national American football team national team was selected to encompass a cross-section of amateur football in the United States, and as such USA Football used strict criteria to select team members. This does not permit the top American football players in the United States to compete as the restrictions include: These criteria are applied to make international tournaments more competitive. The United States competed for the first time in the 2007 IFAF World Cup. The team's first ever game was a 77–0 smashing of South Korea in the first round of the tournament. The Team USA defense set an IFAF all-time tournament record in