First Japanese Player to Play in the NFL
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by Behbigben15
Tonight, Noriaki Kinoshita became the first Japanese-born player to play in the NFL. He returned the second-half kickoff for the Atlanta Falcons, he returned the kick for 23 yards. Kinoshita earned his spot in Training camp this year, but still has to make the team by proving himself during the preseason. Kinoshita has played 3 seasons in the NFL Europe league, and I guess Falcons coaches were impressed with his play. Kinoshita is 5'10 and around 180 pounds, and has tremendous speed, he was a return specialist when he played for Amsterdam in the NFLE, he averaged 19.2 Yds per punt return with one TD.
Here is a quote from Kinoshita:
"I want to be, ummm, how do you say it? A pioneer? Yes, I want to be a pioneer"
And that is what I see Knishita as, a pioneer for other Japan-born players to come to the U.S. to play in the NFL. Kind of like Jackie Robinson being the first African American in Major League Baseball, I think this is just the begining of Japanese-born players coming to the NFL. Perhaps the NFL will someday (many years from now), be a worldwide game, and get into the Olympics (though I highly doubt that will ever happen). But that would be pretty cool.
