CORVALLIS — Thomas Collins played hockey and tried his luck at soccer. It’s what kids who grow up in Gothenburg, Sweden, do.
But there was a problem.
“I kept getting penalties, because I was tackling people,” the Oregon State Beavers redshirt freshman said, smiling.
Finally, when Collins was about 13, a solution surfaced. As his friends started dedicating themselves exclusively to hockey, joining junior teams and beginning their professional careers, Collins learned that Gothenburg had a youth football team. His father was from the United States and played high school football in Detroit, so deep down, Collins said, he “always wanted to be American (and) play football.”
So he made his way to that youth football team, and after just one workout, Collins was hooked.
“We did an Oklahoma drill the first practice,” he said. “And I was in.”
It was the start of a unique journey that led Collins to the RIG American Football Academy in Sweden, the …