CHARLOTTE — He had a perfectly secure and hard-earned job with a good accounting firm. But once he learned about the NFL and that he might have a chance, even this slimmest one, his mind was made up. That's what he wanted out of life.
And now, he has that shot.
That sounds like the American dream, never mind that it's held by a guy who never played so much as high school football, since he grew up an ocean away from America.
Of course, when you're Panthers outside linebacker Mapalo Mwansa — call him Maz — and you grew up in Peterborough, England, never having an American football context, none of that matters.
The dream is all that's on his mind right now.
"It's just something which I want; Just continue to get better at it, and it's given me a new purpose," Mwansa said this spring after a practice with the Panthers, which is still one of the first few dozen formal football practices he's ever been through. "From becoming a side quest, it's now the main thing, and I've just got to keep the main thing the main thing. I really enjoy the sport, and the Carolina Panthers have given me an opportunity to change my life.
"So I just want to continue doing that and help my family, and get 1 percent better every day."
For a guy who didn't grow up around football, Maz Mwansa sounds like a football guy already.
Now, he just has to learn how to play football.
Most 21-year-old NFL prospects have been playing for years. Mwansa's journey is measured in months.
Growing up in England (of Zambian descent), he participated in the usual English sports — rugby, track, cricket, and the other football that we call soccer. Which makes sense, he's big (6-foot-2, 230 pounds), and he's athletic.
He did it because it was fun, but nothing ever sparked. So he enrolled at Loughborough University and studied finance and accounting. But when the school had a "sports day," his trajectory changed.
He ran a 100-meter race in 10.48 seconds, incredibly fast for someone his size. And someone suggested American football, and the fuse was lit. He watched "Last Chance U" on Netflix, and signed up for the school's program and eventually made the Great Britain national team. He played defensive end and linebacker for the Nottingham Caesars, learning on the fly what the game was all about, getting up in the morning to work out before work, and then chasing whatever opportunity to play or train was available at night.
That work earned him an invite to a CFL combine (where he ran a 4.45-second 40), and eventually a spot in the NFL's International Player Pathway program.
Of course, that meant taking a break from the full-time job he had at Baker Tilly, a top accounting firm. That came with its own kind of risk. His mother was not only worried about his physical safety once she realized what football was all about (she wasn't crazy about rugby already), but also her son's financial security.
"I said, Mom, I'm going to America; I'm going to live in America for three months," he recalled of that conversation. "I was trying to explain the process to her. This could be a massive gamble. It could pay off or not, but it's just something that can be a cool story I can tell my kids.
"I told my parents, and they were kinda of like, 'OK, you're a grown man. I hope you know what you're doing. Go chase it.'"
His parents weren't the only ones who wondered why he'd give up a secure living for such a small chance to do something rare. Mwansa told his story to fellow undrafted rookies Bam Martin-Scott and Tuasivi Nomura, and it dawned on them that their backgrounds are very different, since they were playing at American colleges while he was pursuing his dream after working a full shift at an accounting firm.
"And they're like, you were an accountant, and we've played 11 years of football," Mwansa said. "They were like, you know, that's crazy. But I had an itch. I had to scratch it. I had a dream, and it's not something which you can look back at life and go 'Oh, I wish I did that' and whatever, so it wasn't really a sacrifice to me, it was an investment into my future, really. Hopefully, I can make that pay off, and it's just something which is incredible for me, like this whole process. To just have the opportunity to do something which I wanted to seek.
"Football, it's not a big sport in the UK, and it's growing globally because it's an amazing sport. But it's something that I went out to seek myself, and then I had a passion for it, and then I continued to try and work and get better, while working a 9-to-5 job. It did seem hard, and it was getting very expensive. I was not getting a lot of sleep, driving all around the UK to play football. It's not easily accessible."
But Mwansa was determined.
"It's a process which you eradicate all senses of security in your current life to go and chase something which definitely might not land for me," he said. "I literally came here with a suitcase and a dream. And it was four months of work and sometimes you're looking at your bank account thinking 'What?'
"But you just have to keep going and just know that with the work you put in. Having the faith is all good, but faith without works is dead, and you just know that with the work you've put in, and you've been trying. I know that God put something on my heart, which may seem impossible to to achieve. But you keep going."
That led to his first trip to the United States, for a 10-week training camp at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he worked with coaches there and one of the best pass-rushers in NFL history.
John Abraham remembers his first conversation with Mwansa and being immediately impressed with the chiseled physique and the maturity beyond what was then a 20-year-old.
"The first thing he said was 'I'm an accountant.' And I'm like 'What the hell?'" Abraham recalled with a laugh. "I'm like, dude, what are you doing here? I said, 'Bro, you've got to lead with that. People are going to love hearing about you, knowing that you've that kind of intellect. But you're choosing football for right now, but you always have something to fall back on.'
"You talk to him for a minute or two, you can automatically tell this guy is very knowledgeable about life, just at the age of 20. That's what's crazy to me, shoot, I was 21 or 22 when I got drafted. But his physique and how he picked up on things — he has potential. There were guys there who were good, but you could see the difference when he turned it up."
As Abraham put the IPP players through basic football drills, the kinds of things guys normally learn at the high school level, he saw the kind of raw material the NFL is looking for.
And he knows what he's talking about. Abraham is 13th on the NFL's all-time sack list. In 15 NFL seasons, he compiled 133.5 sacks, with 9.0 of them coming against the Panthers during his years with the Falcons.
"Yeah, they know me in Carolina," Abraham said. (Former Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme certainly does.)
And the more he worked with Mwansa, the more he thought he had a chance to make a name for himself, too.
Abraham said Mwansa has the kind of speed, the ability to accelerate while turning that football guys call "bend," the "fluid athleticism" that would have made him a top prospect if he were in the American system. In short, he has the innate ability to get off the line of scrimmage in a hurry. And Abraham noticed as the weeks passed that each time he worked with Mwansa, he knew a little more. The guy he saw at the University of South Florida pro day was not the same as the English accountant he met.
"I was like, wow, he worked on his skills. That's the biggest thing I can see. I can see him trying to get better," Abraham said. "That's a whole different guy. If I didn't know any better, you would think he was 22, 23, and played in college. It's amazing."
Abraham was also impressed by Mwansa's attention to detail, the questions he'd ask — his endless curiosity for the game.
"I'm hoping he gets the opportunity to give it a few years," Abraham said. "I think he has the potential to be a very good player, and I'm not just saying that because I got a chance to coach him. I'm saying that because he stuck out from everyone. And like I said, he's 21 years old.
"Once he gets the knowledge of the game, his flow is gonna get so much better because physically he has everything you need. The biggest thing he has is his brain, man. The guy is just such a smart guy. When you see a guy that can leverage his mind with his body, you're going to have a great player.
"If you talk to the guy, he doesn't have any distractions. It's not like he's, 'Oh, I got to go home for this, or I've got to do this, I've got to do that.' His family understands that he has a great opportunity. His family is behind him. He's looking for the bigger goal. But, he can end up being a good player."
This is the point where you have to point out, again, that he's an extreme long shot.
He's the 91st guy on the Panthers roster, and is clearly still learning the game. If he doesn't make the team's 53-man roster out of camp (and the chances aren't great) and he clears waivers (much more likely), they could keep him with an international exemption and a free practice squad spot for the year.
But it's also worth knowing there's a path that he knows, one that's been blazed before.
Former Panthers defensive end Efe Obada is a graduate of the IPP, and was on the Panthers practice squad in 2017. The next year, he made the 53-man roster, and in his first NFL game against the Bengals, he had a sack and an interception and was named NFC defensive player of the week. He played three seasons with the Panthers, signed with the Bills in 2020 and Washington in 2021, and has played 80 games in seven seasons.
He was also an extreme long shot. And Mwansa knows the story well.
Obada was three years into his NFL journey before he made it in Carolina, but he made it. And others have as well, including Eagles tackle Jordan Mailata (an Australian rugby player who might be the IPP's all-time success story, who earned All-Pro honors last season). Mailata also came to the IPP camp and talked to the next generation of hopefuls.
So when Mwansa thinks about their lessons, he applies them to his own.
"Efe is known as a player, not an IPP player; he's known as a football player," Mwansa said. "When I came to the facility, everyone said 'Oh, you're from the UK, Efe this and that.' So it's great to see that he's left a lasting good impression. Having a role model and someone who's been in this door and been in this system and it's worked out for them, that kind of fills you with more hope, like it's possible, it's possible.
"That dream, man, it fills you with belief, even though a day might be hard. It's a long, hard journey, and you have to think about that; it's a marathon. You're not going to see results instantly, and you'll be competing with guys who've been playing this game since they were 4 or 5 years old. It's going to take some doing to be able to compete at that level, so you have to make sure that you have that confidence in yourself and just believe that it is possible."
Of course, football's not the only thing he's learning about.
He's also a 21-year-old living in a new land.
The first time he flew into Charlotte was at night, so he saw all the big banks, and that was familiar to him, considering his old day job.
The second time he flew into Charlotte was during the day, so he noticed the thing all newcomers here notice.
"So many trees," he said with a grin.
Like a lot of undrafted rookies, he spent his first weeks here in the hotel near the stadium, so he could get to work with few distractions. And he loves how walkable the center city is, and that was the extent of his research, because he doesn't have a car and he's spending so much time in the facility anyway, trying to soak up as much as he can about this game he's fallen in love with.
He's learned a little about "Keep Pounding" already, but what he may not understand is that he's living it. He grins when he mentions the words, because the Panthers' mantra seems perfect for a guy who is fighting incredible odds, just to have a chance. (Sort of like a 5-foot-9 linebacker who got cut in the CFL and was teaching wood shop in a New Jersey high school before he made it to the NFL and eventually the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)
He might still be learning about Panthers history, but Maz Mwansa is very much living out the same dream.
After minicamp, he went back to England briefly to see his family, but when he returns before training camp, he's been offered a chance to crash with fellow rookie Nic Scourton, who has opened up his new home to his teammate and classmate.
That kind of welcome also resonates with Mwansa, as he undertakes this perfectly American experiment, a stranger in a strange land fighting to make something of himself. So he shares every step with his IPP classmates who are going through the same journey in different places.
"The closest thing I can compare it to is kind of being in the military," Mwansa said. "We're going through a process which obviously seems impossible, kind of does sound impossible. For some people, it would be impossible.
"But to compete in something you have to have a passion, that drive and the determination to go through that process. So the brothers I shared that experience with were the first locker room I was in. And we'll never forget that, and you saw the hardships of what your brothers beside you have gone through, and sacrificed so much to be here."
What he's trying to do is really hard. But he has a boundless enthusiasm for this process.
OTAs and minicamps can become rote work for guys who have been playing football for years.
But every day is a new experience for Mwansa, so he's coming to this with fresh eyes and an open mind.
That delights his position coach, AC Carter, who is also young in his journey. The 32-year-old Carter is in his first year as a full position coach, and with a background in eduction, loves the way Mwansa approaches all of this.
"I think Maz's personality is awesome," Carter said. "He's been displaying incredible knowledge of the game, and he's only been playing it for a few weeks, a few months. He's eager to learn. He wants extra meetings. He has athletic ability, which could potentially be something one day, and we're excited to have him. We're excited to work with him to develop some of the skill sets that he may have inside his body.
"He's very interested in knowing why we do it, what's going on, and he knows he's starting to learn a lot about stuff and the reason why we do it. His brain is really good."
So he's got the build for it, and the brain for it; he just lacks the body of work.
Mwansa admits that he fights "impostor syndrome," which is reasonable considering he just started doing this a few months ago and everyone around it has been doing it for years.
And Mwansa knows enough about to numbers to realize his chance will be eventual, if at all. So he relishes every rep, every chance to run down a kickoff in a practice in May and June, every opportunity to hold a pad while Scourton and Princely Umanmielen are going through drills before him.
There's a hope that causes his eyes to light up when he talks about this game and his chance.
It's not a great chance, by any stretch. And it might take years to come to fruition. But he has this faith rooted in his religion, and an idea that he's been set along a path and brought to this place for a reason.
"You have to just have self-belief, be a believer in yourself and your ability to feel like you belong. I just give thanks to God. To even have the opportunity to be here, which is something that I've dreamed about," he said with a grin. "This process is something which you have to think about long term, so I'm not trying to fixate on where I am at this moment in time, as I'm thinking about the bigger picture.
"I feel like if you put that measure on it, you can kind of get in your head and feel like I'm not where I need to be now. So for me it's thinking about that bigger picture. I feel like it's the mantra you have to have with football. It's 1 percent better every day, and knowing that what you're trying to achieve is something further in the future.
"Just attacking each day with full intensity, making sure you get what needs to be done that day and tick that off. That's what you need to do. Just having that, although you have a long-term goal, you need to set those short-term targets, such as 'let me just focus on this today.' And then when that day is done, you tick that off tomorrow. I want to focus on this and just say, hey, coach, like what's one thing I can improve on next week? Just small targets like that will make a big difference. You've got this massive task ahead of you, but it will make it go a lot quicker."
That dream of the future sustains him. What it looks like, he doesn't know. Maybe if everything goes perfectly, then maybe years down the road, he becomes a backup and a special-teams player.
But when you talk to Maz Mwansa, that doesn't seem like the kind of thing that someone who grew up in this sport might scoff at. To be able to stay here as long as he can, to absorb as much as he can, to continue to push himself to new places. That's the dream. Maybe one day he becomes the next Efe Obada. Or the first Maz Mwansa.
It's a big dream. But it's his, and he risked everything he knew to fight for it.
If he weren't so English, you'd almost say that dream was, ... well, American.
