Former Eagle Kaufman gets kicks in Aussie Rules football

If there is one person who might be a perfect fit of toughness for tackle football without pads - a.k.a. Australian Rules Football - it would have to be former Eastern Eagle wide receiver Brandon Kaufman.

Remember, he was the guy who played practically an entire football season - the 2010 national championship campaign - with a separated shoulder?

But along the way, it was Kaufman who laid himself out and flew across the goal line totally horizontal in Frisco, Texas for the first Eastern touchdown in the third quarter of the national championship game with Delaware. It was the start of the memorable rally that saw the Eagles come from a 19-0 deficit and beat the Blue Hens 20-19.

A few days later, when the championship trophy was shown off in a rally at Reese Court, Kaufman strolled nonchalantly out with his arm in a sling. He later revealed the injury occurred Sept. 18 against Montana, Eastern's third of 15 games in the march to the title - and still led the team in receiving with 76 catches, 1,214 yards and 15 touchdowns.

A hand injury sidelined him four games into the 2011 season but after gaining a medical redshirt Kaufman again topped a talented group of Eagle receivers with an even better 91 catches, 1,850 yards and 16 TDs in 14 games as Eastern reached the semifinals in the Football Championship Subdivision in 2012.

He left Eastern following his junior year, hoping for a shot at the NFL draft. He was touted as a guy who could catch in the dangerous territory in the middle of the field.

The draft call never came, but Kaufman signed a free agent contract with the Detroit Lions in 2013. He was cut on Aug. 30 before being inked to the practice squad in December. Kaufman tried to hook on with another Lions' team, the Canadian Football League team in Vancouver in 2014 but was released.

"All the injuries kind of piled up," he said. "It kind of organically faded out," he said about the North American pro career that included 15 tryouts with different teams.

Aussie Rules football was the latest - and likely last - stab Kaufman has taken in his professional sports path.

Zach Frederick from Denver had forged some connections in Australia through an export company he owns. He was with a business colleague at an AFL (Australian Rules Football) game and the light went on.

"Oh man, we've got some guys in the States who are working in a cell phone kiosk at the mall because they got cut from an NFL squad, they could do well with this," Frederick said.

Frederick quickly earned his agent's credentials and began work with candidates, including Kaufman, who had been doing personal training and operating a wide receiver academy in the Denver area.

After a crash-course in kicking, Kaufman was able to sign a deal about a year ago with the Gold Coast Suns "reserves team" in the Northeast Australian Football, the U.S. equivalent of AAA baseball.

The game is played by 18 players per side on an oval field where in its simplest form points are earned by kicking an oval-shaped ball between a pair of tall goalposts.

"The hardest thing to explain is it's not regular football," Kaufman said. "Ooh, did you play quarterback down there?" was a reply he might hear. To the contrary, Kaufman, who turned 26 Oct. 26, was signed as a defender.

Another challenge he found was learning how to kick the ball. "I ended up getting the hang of it," he said. They are so accurate that Kaufman could run a standard pass route and have a player kick it to him, not unlike like Bo Levi Mitchell might have done flinging him a pass when the two were at Eastern.

And Aussie Rules Football is all about endurance, not necessarily athleticism and strength, of which Kaufman has plenty in his 6-foot, 5-inch frame. The game has the never-ending motion of soccer, but with no yellow or red cards for rough play.

Gold Coast passed on signing Kaufman to another season. The team "Was worried about my injuries," he said.

He's been in contact and had workouts with other teams. But after spending six months "Down Under" and away from his wife, former EWU soccer player Lauren Jacobsen, the idea of returning for a season that begins soon, 11 time zones away is not that exciting.

Deciding to pull the plug on a professional sports dream might be one of Kaufman's most painful endeavors.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].