Suzy Allman for The New York Times  At 26, Hayden Smith decided to abandon a promising rugby career to relocate to the United States from England so he could learn to play tight end for the Jets.  CORTLAND, N.Y. — Hayden Smith hails from a magnificent part of this planet, the Blue Mountains of Australia, about 90 minutes west of Sydney. A national park brimming with gorges and waterfalls and breathtaking lookouts abut his postage stamp of a hometown, Bullaburra, where he flourished in basketball, dabbled in cricket and enjoyed a pleasant upbringing with doting parents and two younger brothers. There is nowhere else he would rather have grown up, he said.  And yet, from time to time Smith wonders: what if he had been born in a football hotbed like Texas or Ohio or Florida? For sure he would have played as a youngster, in high school, in college, chasing a traditional path to a roster spot with the Jets instead of the journey described by friends as “bananas,” “unheard-of” and “absolutely crazy.”  At 26, Smith decided to abandon a promising rugby career to relocate to the United States from England — his third transoceanic move for his third sport in eight years — so he could learn to play what is widely regarded as the most demanding and nuanced game in the world at its highest level. In April, the Jets signed Smith to a three-year contract, hoping to mold a 6-foot-6, 255-pound athlete into a viable tight end. In May, at their rookie minicamp, Smith put on a helmet for the first time.  “I came into this wanting to be successful, not, ‘Oh, we’ll see what happens,’ ” Smith said. “I’m 100 percent committed to football. It’s something that I desperately wanted to do, and I didn’t want to live my life with any regrets. I couldn’t live with myself if I never gave it a try.”  Since attending his first game, Baltimore at Denver on Oct. 9, 2006, when he barely knew that a possession consisted of four downs, Smith has been enraptured by what he called “the very physical form of chess.” In embarking on this quest, Smith, now 27, appears guided by the philosophy of the British mountaineer George Mallory, who, when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, quipped, “Because it’s there.” The lure of blazing a trail — not a raging ego or a plea for attention — is what motivates Smith, same as it did four years ago.  On a whim, after his basketball scholarship at Division II Metropolitan State in Denver expired, he played his first game of rugby since childhood. Within weeks, he was added to the United States national team, the USA Eagles. Within a few months, he had signed with Saracens, a top club in England.  This challenge, as Smith readily acknowledged, will be much more difficult. But in many ways, his background in basketball and rugby has prepared him.  “I’ve always said of a coach, ‘You can’t put in what God left out,’ ” said Scott Johnson, the former USA Eagles coach who discovered Smith at that club rugby match outside Denver in 2008. And Smith, particularly for a man his size, possessed exceptional leaping skills and hands so soft that a former coach at Saracens, Paul Gustard, compared them to a pillow.  “What set him apart was how strong he was in the air, how he fought for the ball,” Gustard said. “If someone else tried to snatch the ball away, Hayden would never lose that fight. He would always take the ball down.”  It is a special talent, and one that is valued just as much in the N.F.L., where raw projects can morph into elite tight ends. One of them, Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers, was shaped by Tim Brewster. At the request of Smith’s agent, Jack Bechta, Brewster flew to California in March to spend a week tutoring Smith.  About eight months earlier, before deciding to pursue an N.F.L. career, Smith walked into Bechta’s office wearing a rugby uniform of short shorts and a tight sleeveless shirt. Bechta said he immediately thought of one person: Rob Gronkowski, the New England Patriots’ hulking tight end with power forward size but wide receiver speed. By the end of their week together, a week loaded with footwork drills and route concepts and defensive-front recognition, Brewster was referring to Smith as Gronk.  “There’s no way to really express how far behind the eight ball he is,” Brewster said. “But let’s think outside the box a little bit: because he’s never done it, does that mean he can’t?”  Proceeding to answer his own question, Brewster said, “I’m here to tell you, I believe he’ll make it happen.”  Mike Devlin, the Jets’ tight ends coach, added: “It’s going to click. I just know it.”
Hayden Smith played basketball in Australia and rugby in England. Now he is learning a new sport as a tight end at the Jetsâ training camp.