Morris relishing NFL Academy

By Lethbridge Herald on August 28, 2025.

Charisse Mae Duco Photo Nathan Morris receives a handoff from Viktor LaChambre, who is also a Canadian, during the Academy’s first game last week.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Former LCI Ram football player Nathan Morris has taken the opportunity to go in depth in  the sport by travelling overseas to participate in The NFL Academy in the U.K.

Morris was one of the four players from  Canada this season to be selected from a camp this past spring  to the NFL’s U.K. Academy at  Loughborough’s centre of sporting excellence, which is a world-renowned facility, and is supported by their college and university.

The NFL Academy allows  student-athletes with talent an opportunity to have their full-time  high education integrated  with learning about American football through intensive training, which is guided by a group of professional coaches.

Once Morris has completed the Academy, he wants to have a better football IQ.

“ I’m learning new spots I never knew,” said Morris.

“I’ve been just really  excited to learn more. I wanna leave a little bit faster.”

Morris said the style of play is faster.

“Everyone comes down faster and then reading it is a lot harder because now you have to read things pre-snap, post-snap (and) during the snap,” said Morris.

Morris suited up in his first game last Friday against the Hun School of Princeton.

“My first play in was a touchdown; I was really happy about that,” said Morris.

“But after that I really saw how different the game was. My first play was a good play, (in my) second play I just got hit so hard by a linebacker and I was like, ‘Wow this is so different.’”

After Morris’s dream of playing at  a Division I school in the U.S.A did not pan out after his senior year at LCI, the NFL Academy came calling and gave him an opportunity.

“I was like I’d be an idiot to not …  take this up and try my best to get to a Division I school,” said Morris.

Morris enjoyed the camp experience in Montreal in March  because he was able to participate with a couple of friends and interact with Division I coaches.

“I really got to see firsthand how the Academy resources could help you talk to coaches,” said Morris.

“I performed pretty good in the 1v1s (one versus ones) and all that stuff,  and the coach (was) pretty happy. And then he started telling me how they wanted to use me in the offence. So, it (was) really enlightening to see how much they really wanted me to be here.”

The Academy picks up players from ages 16 to 18 years old from many countries, except for the U.S.A., who  come from an array of sporting backgrounds.

The Academy competes against U.S.A high schools that are considered highly regarded.

Football scholarships to colleges in the U.S.A. are worked on to secure through the year.