YouTube taught a Japanese teen how to kick field goals. Now he’s in the NFL.

NFLYouTube taught a Japanese teen how to kick field goals. Now he’s in the NFL.Kansei Matsuzawa, 27, became the first Japanese-born player ever signed by an NFL team when he agreed to a deal as an undrafted free agent with the Raiders.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Kansei Matsuzawa, nicknamed "the Tokyo Toe" by a University of Hawaii teammate, is a kicker for the Las Vegas Raiders.Vanessa Leroy / NBC News; Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 15, 2026, 6:05 AM EDTBy Andrew GreifCOSTA MESA, Calif. — Kansei Matsuzawa made up his mind to become an NFL kicker knowing almost nothing about the NFL. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.It was 2018. Matsuzawa was 19, lived in Japan and had never kicked a football. He knew two players — Joe Montana and Tom Brady — and not a single rule.A million high schoolers play football annually in the U.S., and nearly 80,000 go on to play in college. Between active rosters and practice squads, there are only around five dozen placekicking jobs in the NFL. “But I was like, I’m 19, and I think I still have a chance,” Matsuzawa told NBC News. Eight years, hours of self-taught YouTube kicking tutorials and one NCAA all-America season later, the crazy part is no longer Matsuzawa’s belief that he could come to the U.S., speaking almost no English, and become a pro in a sport he had barely played. It’s that the plan worked.Last month Matsuzawa, 27, became the first Japanese-born player ever signed by an NFL team when he agreed to a deal as an undrafted free agent with the Raiders — a team co-owned by Brady. Arriving at the team’s rookie minicamp last month outside Las Vegas was “an emotional time a little bit,” Matsuzawa said. “I was so excited. Especially Raiders, in black and white, is really cool.” He’s not the only person who thinks so. Four social media posts by the NFL about Matsuzawa’s unlikely route to the league have generated about 3 m...