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Ex-Delaware State football player will bring sport to New Zealand

Jarin Giesler, an NFLPA contract adviser, is planning exhibition games for players on cusp of NFL.

KELLEN KEMP still remembers the first time he saw Jarin Giesler arrive on campus in 2006 at Delaware State University in Dover.

Kemp watched as a raised Ford F-150 with 6 inches of lift added and 40-inch rims drove up.

"The first thing everyone is thinking is, 'Who is this?' " Kemp said. "Out of that hops a 5-7, 200-pound long snapper. Everyone is looking around, going, 'What is going on here?' "

"It kind of stuck out like a sore thumb," Giesler recalls.

Add to the equation that Delaware State is a historically black university, and Giesler's arrival to the football team as a short white kid from Cortez, Colo., was certainly out of the ordinary.

Giesler and Kemp, an offensive lineman from Cardinal Dougherty High School, became friends when they both played on the offensive line.

So when Giesler went to law school at Oklahoma City University and became a certified NFLPA contract adviser, among other business ventures, he hired Kemp to play a big part in his company, Giesler Sports World-Wide.

"This game forges lifelong friendships," Giesler said. "I look at Kellen as a brother. He was always there for me, and so I brought him on as the chief financial officer of the company."

The two are currently tackling their biggest project yet: trying to globalize football while helping fringe NFL prospects get contracts in the league.

The Douglas Webber Group, which is responsible for bringing freestyle motocross, rodeo and ice hockey to New Zealand, contacted Giesler with interest in bringing American football to New Zealand.

The goal isn't to create a league, at least not yet. Targeting New Zealand at an introductory level, Giesler Sports aims to provide exhibition games for football players on the cusp of an NFL roster. They will host two exhibition games in March in what they'll call the Southern Bowl.

"We're not trying to compete in any way with the NFL," Kemp said. "I think that was one of the biggest misconceptions. We're just trying to aid in the process of getting players developed and helping them, almost like a farm system."

Giesler and Kemp serve as the project's North American directors, and Giesler also serves as the general counsel. Kemp, who currently coaches the offensive line at Del-Val Charter while working at Einstein Medical Center, might serve in an assistant-coaching role at the games in March. He also is involved in scouting and developing potential prospects for the game.

Though Giesler's only NFL client is Kenny Horsley, a defensive tackle on the Redskins' roster earlier this year, Giesler saw the success of prospect games like the Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine games and wanted to expand on them.

"I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for us to make a veteran version of that," Giesler said. "And what we want to do is make this game absolutely as authentic as possible, and we want to get the NFL scouts in attendance at these game, the absolute best coaches we can find, and that brings the absolute best possible players.

"Our dream for this is for people to extend their careers out of this game. We want the guy that maybe was invited to the Eagles' training camp and maybe had a Grade 1 hamstring strain, and instead of the team getting to watch him, he was on the stationary bike."

Tryouts for the two games are in three locations, beginning with the University of California-Berkeley on July 11. On July 18, there will be another at UNLV, before the third and final tryout will be held at Fordham University in New York on July 25.

The first of the two exhibition games will be played March 5 at Eden Park in Auckland and the second will be at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

The group has booked Australia as its 2017 location for games and is looking at Tokyo for 2018. Other potential future markets include China, Singapore and the Philippines.

"We look for indicators that show us that these are emerging markets," Giesler said. "We look at viewership for regular-season games and postseason games."

Players who are under contract with an NFL team will not be permitted to play in the exhibition games, even though the games will be out-of-season. Giesler said they're working with the NFLPA to disseminate game information to as many scouts and agents as possible.

Giesler is also interested in recruiting high-profile former coaches to work with the teams.