IT ALL started when an unknown number dialled Sav Rocca's phone.

Rocca had always thought the 2006 AFL season would be his last. He'd just turned 32, he'd lost his place in North Melbourne's side, and he was coming towards the end of his contract at Arden Street. But as for what would come next, that still hadn't been decided.

Then he got that phone call. Glenn Parke, a member of a local Victorian gridiron side, had an opportunistic idea. Australians had started making a splash in America's biggest sport, so why wouldn't Rocca – one of the AFL's biggest kicks – like to try his hand, or more pertinently his foot, at punting?

Ben Graham, a 219-game great at Geelong, had joined the New York Jets a couple of years prior. Mat McBriar, who played school footy at Brighton Grammar, had established himself at the Dallas Cowboys. But Rocca, with 257 games and 748 goals under his belt, would be the AFL's biggest export yet.

So, Rocca took Parke up on his offer. After unleashing a couple of punts at a local ground, and filming a few more, the thought crystallised in his mind. He would officially retire at the end of the season, ending one of the most prolific goalkicking careers in Australian Rules football history, and pack his bags to head overseas.

Exactly 20 years on, with the NFL's growth internationally seeing the first official game come to Australian shores this Friday when the Los Angeles Rams meet the San Francisco 49ers in front of a sellout crowd of 100,000 at the MCG, Rocca remains one of Australian football's most high-profile success stories in the United States.

The former Collingwood and North Melbourne great enjoyed a seven-year punting career, ripping more than 500 punts and totalling more than 22,000 yards in the NFL, first at the Philadelphia Eagles and then at Washington. He would become a cult hero overseas, inspiring countless other Australian prospects to follow in his footsteps ever since.

But his journey was also one of persistence. Having used Parke's connections to eventually earn trials at the Green Bay Packers and the Buffalo Bills, Rocca was turned down by multiple teams and nearly called it quits. That was until an intervention from another ex-AFL player in Graham helped his burgeoning NFL career take off.

"It's crazy how it all worked out," Rocca told AFL.com.au on the eve of this week's game.

"I did some filming here and brought it all over with me. I attached that in an email to about 29 or 30 teams, all the teams except for those that already had Australians punting there. I got two responses back saying they weren't interested in me and no one else replied. I just thought, 'that's pretty much an indication of where I'm at'. 

"I'd already been there for a month by that stage, so I thought it might be time to just pack it up and come home. Then, a friend of mine said to stay another couple of weeks. He was living in New York, so I stayed with him and postponed our flight back.

"We thought we'd reach out to Ben Graham, who was over there. He got us in contact with his agent to see if she could help out. Then, literally two days before we were meant to come home, she said if I could get my arse down to Philadelphia they would be prepared to give me a workout. It all stemmed from there."

Rocca had experienced the highs of life in the AFL. He'd finished seven seasons as Collingwood's leading goalkicker, done that three more times at North Melbourne, won two Anzac Day Medals – the first after kicking nine goals in the famous 1995 draw, before adding another to his collection when he kicked seven goals in 1998 – and had a Magpies best and fairest in his cabinet.

But the NFL was different, in just about every way. After being invited to Philadelphia's 2007 training camp, he battled punting journeyman Dirk Johnson to earn his place in the squad. Rocca would win the starting spot, signing a contract that would make him the League's oldest ever rookie and pay him around $1.1 million USD annually.

"I just knew that I had to catch it and kick it," Rocca said.

"I knew I could kick it far and I knew I could kick it high. But that's pretty much all I knew. Once I got there and started learning the ins and outs of plays, not that I needed to know, but it was literally like learning a totally new language with all the other positions that are on the field.

"There's also always something going on over there. Having to get used to not playing the whole time, you're able to absorb everything else around it. There are breaks, there's music, there's announcements, there's cheerleaders, there's the half-time shows, there's the aeroplane flyovers in pre-game, there's the national anthems for every game, there's just always something going on.

"They really do hype it up. Pretty much every game was a sellout. They didn't have as many as 100,000, like what we do in the big games over here, but every game was pretty much 70,000 or 75,000 people. It was all an eye-opener for me."

Rocca's AFL career had started with a bang. He kicked four goals on his debut, six the next week, then four more the week after. He booted a bag of 10 in just his 23rd appearance, then kicked 10 more a fortnight later. Quickly cemented as a Collingwood champion, he became one of the League's most lethal goalkickers as well.

But although he regularly played in front of the country's biggest crowds, dominating the first ever Anzac Day game with nearly 95,000 people filling the MCG, nothing would prepare him for the pressures of the NFL lifestyle. He quickly learned that one bad punt could mean searching for your next team.

"The nerves at the NFL level were probably higher than they were here," Rocca said.

"It's such a cut-throat industry. If you screw up the next punt, it could be your last. It's happened to guys. Sometimes, they'll have one bad punt and the following week they're not there anymore. I've seen guys come in for training sessions and if they don't perform, they're gone before the next one. The pressure is always on."

Rocca relished the experience, though. He now describes former teammates in Philadelphia's Michael Vick and Washington's Robert Griffin III as the best players he linked up with, with Eagles safety Brian Dawkins not far behind.

He's also still using those experiences to his advantage as a coaching director at the Gridiron Company, helping teenage Australian footballers coming from school or Coates League talent pathway programs earn spots at the collegiate level in the United States. That now seems the best way to the NFL for discarded AFL talent.

Last season, ex-Collingwood rookie Mitch McCarthy helped Indiana claim a remarkable national title. Former Carlton and Western Bulldogs forward Billy Gowers has since joined him at the Hoosiers, while ex-Hawthorn trio Jackson Ross (Tennessee), Damon Greaves (Colorado) and Jasper Scaife (Notre Dame) are also trying their luck at successful college programs.

But as for whether anyone will follow Rocca's exact pathway again – a successful AFL career that reached its natural conclusion, then enjoying a second life as an NFL punter in their 30s immediately afterwards – that journey now seems a pipedream, especially given the evolution of the position in the United States.

"I don't think it'll ever happen again," Rocca said.

"We've got such great punters now that come out of college, so you probably won't see guys leave the AFL and go straight into the NFL like I did. But whether they go into college, I'm not sure. It's hard to do that, coming from the AFL level. But it's great seeing Australians get over there now from a young age."

Rocca's life in the NFL, just as it was in the AFL, is one well lived. However, in the Sav Rocca story, one big question remains unanswered. At least to the footy public, if not to him. When, if ever, will the former Collingwood and North Melbourne goalkicking champion earn his place in the Australian Football Hall of Fame?

Having been named in Collingwood's Hall of Fame almost 10 years ago, Rocca's passage into the Australian Football Hall of Fame has continually remained blocked. That's despite his 748 goals putting him 17th in the history of V/AFL football, with Rocca the only eligible player inside the top 30 of that group yet to be included.

"I don't know," Rocca laughed.

"People keep umm-ing and ahh-ing about it. I hear it from friends about what people are saying, but I don't really read too much into it. I've done what I've done. If they don't think I need to be in it right now, or later, or whenever, then it is what it is.

"To be honest, I don't really put too much thought into it."