The globalization of North American football took another step forward Wednesday when the University of Ottawa announced it will be adding British-trained quarterback George Reynolds to its team for the fall of 2021.
Reynolds, a 19-year-old from Kent, England, who has spent the past two years attending the NFL Academy in North London, is believed to be the first European-trained quarterback coming to U Sports football since Bernd Dittrich, a native of Austria, played for Simon Fraser University in 2009.
The NFL Academy, opened in 2019 for elite players 16-19 years of age, describes itself as “a major U.K. initiative by the NFL, which aims to use American football to create life-changing opportunities for young people.”