Former Bristol Bears winger to become Netflix star on 'Last Chance U'

The American Football prospect will make his way to Kansas to chase his dream of playing in the NFL, following in the footsteps of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill

Former Bristol Bears winger Tyrese Johnson-Fisher is set to swap the rugby ball for an American Football as he gets set to travel to Kansas and chase his dream of playing in the NFL.

Johnson-Fisher started his rugby career playing for for the Leicester Tigers youth teams, and shot to fame when a video clip of him dominating a game for Oakham School at the NatWest Schools Cup at the age of 15 went viral.

The video was viewed by more than 3 million people, and opened the prospect up to a life as a professional athlete, but also to the brutal world of social media criticism, something which he has admitted has affected him during his career.

In an extensive interview with the Daily Star, Johnson-Fisher has opened up on his early years in the States pursuing his American Football Dream, returning to sign for the Bears and his upcoming adventure in Kansas.

Johnson-Fisher made just one appearance in the Premiership Rugby Shield in October when he came off the bench against Exeter Chiefs. He left the club with immediate effect in February, and will now take to the screens and the American Football field, moving to Garden City Community College in Kansas to play this summer.

It's not his first taste of the game in the States. In 2017 he was the first non-American player to be invited to play in the All-American Game for high-school prospects despite never having played the game before and accepted an offer of a football scholarship from Coastal Carolina University.

He never pulled on the shirt for the college, and moved back to the UK to play rugby in August 2019.

Early career

Johnson-Fisher was thrown onto the scene thanks to his viral video at 15 years-old, and has admitted that there were challenges to face despite the positives of his sudden thrust into the limelight.

He told the Daily Star: “It was a fun experience, because it opened up all sorts of doors.

“America opened up, sponsorships opened up and so many different things which have helped me.

“But I guess at the time it was very difficult to deal with because it forced me to grow up very quickly.

“All the criticism you face after something like that, and it’s not just criticism to your face, it’s behind your back or in your messages from people telling you what you can and can’t do.

“All the comments, even if you don’t respond to them you can see the comments and people speaking bad about you when they don’t even know you as a person.

“It was just like, ‘how do all you people have so much bad energy towards a 15-year-old?’

“It was a humbling experience and it was good because it opened up many doors, but it was a very interesting thing to deal with.”

Rugby struggles

To-ing and fro-ing between the sports kept Johnson-Fisher's options open, but the more he was exposed to the professional rugby game, the more he believed he was far better suited to American Football.

Going against the grain of the background of a traditional rugby player was difficult, he admits, and left himself questioning whether he would ever fit in.

“In rugby, I’m a black male and I like to have fun, I like to listen to my music,” he says.

“I didn’t feel like I could really, truly, be embraced. I felt like I was always having to prove something to someone, or people were judging me for myself in regards to my enjoyment and social media.

“In rugby I feel like it’s very much looked down upon. They look down on people who like have fun on social media and have that certain energy.

“I’m a person who is very open, likes to have fun, I’m not scared to express myself and express my opinions and in rugby I just didn’t feel like I was in the right culture to be able to do that.

“The thing is, rugby is still very old fashioned. There’s a lot of mentality that I don’t necessarily agree with in regards to hierarchy.

“I always believe in respecting people because of their age, but I feel in rugby it’s sometimes more demanded rather than an unspoken truth.

“Sometimes I don’t like how a lot of the time you get all these people talking down to you, when really and truly they’re meant to be the people you’re close to but they try to talk down to you. I’ve never really experienced that in any other sport.”

Opportunity

It has been difficult for Johnson-Fisher to get the opportunity to get his second move to America, despite his previous experience being part of the Coastal Carolina University set up.

"It’s been difficult trying to get myself an opportunity to get out there again, because it’s difficult for us guys outside of America to get a chance.

“I’ve just had to be really persistent with it, and obviously leaving rugby just to have the chance to go out there was a big risk but I’m happy it’s going well.

“The people that knew me, they knew that this was the best decision for me because mentally, rugby wasn’t helping me in regards to my mental health.

“People that don’t know me all think that rugby decided I was a mistake, or I got fired and it was covered up or something like that, but that was never the case.

“A lot of people have doubted me but that’s never been a motivation of mine, it’s more a case of me proving it to myself.

“I know my abilities, I know I’m good enough for this sport and I know I’m better at this sport than I am at rugby.

“A lot of people will obviously have their opinions with regards to me doing different sports, but at the end of the day I know everything I’ve done has had a purpose and a reason behind it. It’s made sense at the time.

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“I’m happy I’ve had rugby as an experience, because when I was out in America, I was saying to my friends and my family, ‘what if I played professional rugby? What if?’

“Now I can say I’ve done that, I’ve given it a go and now I can go into American Football, all in and fully motivated and now I literally cannot wait to get out there.

"A lot of others have never had the experience before, so for them it’s a massive nuance.

“But I’ve done it before, I know what to expect and it’s going to be great to get back into it.

“Coastal taught me a lot. There was a lot of good things, obviously a couple of bad things, but I made some great friends there."

He believes that he can match the athleticism of his American counterparts, despite thoughts from some that English players would struggle when coming over to play the game. His experience in the All-American Game has stood him in good stead for what is to come.

He said: "A lot of people obviously tell you if you’re from England you’re never going to be as good as the guys out there because they’re the best in the world.

“But when I went out there, I matched up and was better than a lot of them in terms of my speed, my strength and a lot of the physical aspects.

“It was just obviously the knowledge of the game I lacked. It was a humbling experience for myself because it gave me the confidence to know that I am good enough to succeed at the sport, and also the confidence that if I can do it and compete with the top guys, I can do it with anyone else.”

Kansas awaits

His new school is no stranger to NFL superstars, boasting alumni such as Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill.

Like Hill and those who appear on Last Chance U, Johnson-Fisher is there for a way out, eyeing an opportunity to play Division 1 football for one of the top universities in America to give himself the biggest platform possible to eventually crack the NFL.

“Garden City are a very prestigious programme. It was one of the reasons why I chose them,” Johnson-Fisher says.

“People have seen how successful they’ve been, and it’s exciting to get a chance to go over there and better myself.

“I’m hoping for Power 5 come January.

“I’m aiming to go to a big school, then from there basically just try and project myself, make the most of the opportunities to try and get to the NFL.”