Indianapolis Colts running back Tyler Varga rushes the ball as Buffalo Bills’ Nickell Robey, left, defends during the first half at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sept. 13 in Orchard Park, N.Y.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Ralph Wilson Stadium shook and boomed as the rabid red-white-and-blue-clad Buffalo Bills faithful hollered in wild anticipation of the season-opening kickoff. The Indianapolis Colts trotted an undrafted rookie free agent into the ear-splitting noise to field Buffalo's kick, a Canadian kid few would have banked on to make it to the NFL.
Tyler Varga, a running back from Kitchener, Ont., took his spot deep in the end zone, taking in the fruits of his unconventional road to the NFL. Lined up in a stadium he had visited often while growing up, a thought flashed through his mind.
"I recognized the chants from the crowd and I remembered I was sitting up there doing those same chants, like, five years ago, so I took a quick look around and soaked it in," Varga said. "Who knew my first regular-season game as a pro would be so close to home?"
The 5-foot-11, 225-pound tailback, who sports a superhero-like physique, is the son of two former elite bodybuilders, and began his own sporting life as a competitive gymnast. He narrowly avoided a leg amputation after a serious football injury as a teen, and overcame it to play at the University of Western Ontario and then at Yale.
He electrified the Ivy League, while also earning an evolutionary biology degree, striving toward a career in orthopedic medicine at a university more known for producing billionaires, doctors and U.S presidents than pro athletes.
Some projected Varga as a late-round NFL Draft pick at best, which would have made him the first Yale player selected since 2011. He went undrafted, but the Colts scooped him up as a free agent, and he proceeded to nab the 53rd spot on the roster. Now, in addition to his special teams roles, Varga is one of three tailbacks on the depth chart beneath starter Frank Gore, lining up in the backfield alongside star quarterback Andrew Luck.
Varga is playing a position few Canadians have played in the NFL.
The running back was born in Sweden during his parents' brief stop there, but they soon moved to Canada. His mother, Hannele Sundberg, who hailed from Finland, was an elite alpine skier and rugby player, and shared a passion for competitive bodybuilding with her husband John Varga, who had moved from Croatia to Canada as a boy.
Varga got his penchant for fitness from his parents. From their first father-son tosses of a football, the playful youngster pleaded for his dad to zip the Nerf ball hard enough to knock him over. The boy quickly tapped his parents' expertise through one-on-one drills and, in later years, in the weight room.
"We always had a formal training regimen for him, living the diet and nutrition, too, and you would always find us training together on one on the local high school fields. He asked for it all the time," John Varga said by phone from his home in Cambridge, Ont. "Still, being a pro football player was never part of our conversations – he was always more focused on his academics. I would joke with him that he should stay in school and own a team some day instead."
He played at Kitchener's Cameron Heights Collegiate and for a club team, too, the Cambridge Lions, where the speedy tailback began scoring at will by the time he hit his teens.
"He changed our program – people would come and fill our stands to watch him," said Bill Martindale, then a coach with the Cambridge Lions. "He was a kid who paid attention to every detail – like making the team a disc of songs for pregame stretch. He was so much better than any kid in the league, yet also had a rare ability to never act cocky."
In the final game of his high school career, Varga suffered a torn tendon on his calf, which quickly led to a serious condition called acute compartment syndrome, which essentially killed the nerve in his calf. It went undiagnosed at first, so doctors didn't operate – the usual emergency treatment for an ailment that often ends in permanent disability or an amputation.
"Our concern was not whether or not he could ever play football again at that time, but whether he would ever walk again," his father said. "He managed to keep the muscle alive while the nerve regrew – it took extensive physiotherapy five to six times a day over four to five months."
He recovered in time to play his first college season at the University of Western Ontario in 2011. At just 17, his first game was a three-touchdown effort, and he went on to be chosen player of the year in the Ontario University Athletics conference as well as the country's top freshman.
He transferred to Yale, where he played three seasons. As a senior there, Varga had 223 carries for 1,423 yards and 22 touchdowns in 10 games. He had long since earned the attention of a former Yale player and coach Joe Linta – now an NFL agent regarded league-wide for his talents in discovering undrafted treasures most have overlooked.
"When he wasn't graded by the scouting services, I thought that was a tremendous injustice, so I made a call to the Phil Savage, head of the senior bowl, and asked him to take a look at Tyler, and as soon as he saw him, he loved him and invited him to play in the Senior Bowl."
Varga rumbled for two touchdowns at the Senior Bowl and showed the things Linta had liked: his jack-of-all-trades nature, his discipline, fitness, football quickness and equal abilities to run over and run around defenders – things the Colts also noticed once they got him in camp and watched him score a touchdown in preseason. Colts owner Jim Irsay raved about his talents on a preseason TV interview, likening him to the kind of little-known treasure Bill Belichick typically uncovers.
On a day when the Colts looked lacklustre on offence, Varga saw significant playing time. He took a few kick returns – one he returned 30 yards – and spelled Gore at tailback a lot in the second, a starter the Colts are limiting to keep him fresh. The Canadian rushed once for two yards in a dismal Colts' 27-14 loss and also caught one pass for 18 yards that briefly showcased his ability to spin off defenders.
A large pack of supporters stuck around rainy Ralph Wilson Stadium for an hour after the game to see Varga and crowd together with him for a photo. They made sure to unravel their Canadian flag.