Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Saverio Giovanni Rocca | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | 20 November 1973||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 263 lb (119 kg; 18 st 11 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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American football career |
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No. 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Position: | Punter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career history | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Saverio Giovanni Rocca (born 20 November 1973) is an Australian former professional sportsman. He played Australian rules football for Collingwood and the Kangaroos in the Australian Football League (AFL), and then switched to playing American football as a punter for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins in the National Football League (NFL).
Rocca was born in Melbourne. From 1992 to 2006, he played 257 AFL games as a full forward or centre half-forward, kicking 748 goals. He ranks fourteenth on the all-time goalscoring list. Rocca was his team's leading goalkicker on ten occasions (seven for Collingwood and three for the Kangaroos), and in 1995 won the Copeland Trophy as Collingwood's best and fairest player. Only two players (Matthew Richardson and Kevin Bartlett) have scored more goals in their career without winning a Coleman Medal (i.e., scoring the most goals in a particular season).
Known for his ability to kick long distances, Rocca retired from Australian football at the age of 32 to pursue a career in the NFL. When he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2007, he became the oldest rookie in the history of the NFL (breaking the record set by another Australian, Ben Graham).[1] After four seasons with the Eagles, Rocca joined the Washington Redskins in 2011, where he played three seasons through 2014. He then returned to Australia after the end of his NFL career, and worked as a kicking and ruck coach for the Carlton Football Club from 2015 to 2020.[2]