MASON Cox is bigger than Texas right now.

So big, in fact, that the most prestigious news organisation on the planet can’t even get an interview with him.

The New York Times, which not only reports the news but has been the news ever since Donald Trump became US President, made contact with the Magpies — only to be batted away. At least for right now.

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Finals Week 1

And they aren’t the only media conglomerate that has been forced to wait in the queue.

While the Washington Post wrote about him on the weekend and Sports Illustrated interviewed him at the Holden Centre on Monday, USA Today and Reuters will have to wait a bit longer to speak to the most fascinating player in Saturday’s Grand Final.

Such has been the level of interest in Cox since last Friday night’s dominant preliminary performance that the Magpies media department couldn’t possibly grant every request, even if they wanted to.

So how did an engineering graduate from Texas make it in a game he had never heard of until only a handful of years ago?

It all started when Collingwood first made contact with him at the United States combine in Los Angeles in April, 2014.

Mason Cox is in red hot form. Photo: Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images. Source: Getty Images

The Magpies recruiting guru, Derek Hine, knew he wanted Cox from the moment he saw the 211cm giant run three seconds flat in the 20m sprint and under 12 minutes in the three-kilometre time-trial.

Hine was the first person to interview Cox at the combine and made sure he was the only one who spoke to him, using a wily old trick to prevent the other six clubs in attendance from speaking to lanky Yank.

“My first contact was in Los Angeles at the combine. Derek Hine took up all the time so no one else could talk to me. He offered to fly me out to Australia that night,” Cox told foxfooty.com.au ahead of the Grand Final against West Coast.

“I didn’t even know what AFL was and I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I’ve still got to graduate college’. I went back and graduated two weeks later and the AFL flew me over. He was pretty keen to get me on board.”

Collingwood's final training session before the 2018 Grand Final. Mason Cox. Photo: Mark Stewart Source: News Corp Australia

Unlike in the United States where general managers like MLB genius Theo Epstein, who snapped an 86-year world series drought at the Boston Red Sox before lifting a 108-year curse at the Chicago Cubs, are worshipped and on mega deals worth $10 million per year, AFL list architects don’t receive anywhere near the same praise or criticism.

So given where Cox comes from, there is little surprise he thinks Hine deserves far more credit for taking a chance on the lanky Yank, and for Collingwood’s transformation than he has received.

“Credit goes to him. He has copped a bit of criticism over the past year and now I think some of the things he’s been doing for the past couple of years are now paying off and people are starting to shut their mouths,” he said.

“He is one of those people that probably doesn’t get put in the face of the media unless it is negative. I think a lot of positivity should go to him being where we are at, at the moment.”

Cox’s improbable pathway to the AFL arrived after he was invited to attend the US Combine by a scout hired by the AFL to sift through NCAA calibre players who weren’t going to make it to the NBA.

American Pie Mason Cox. Photo: Alex Coppel Source: News Corp Australia

He was only two weeks away from graduating from Oklahoma State and had already accepted a job at oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, but he didn’t see any harm in taking a peek at this peculiar sport played down under.

“They hit up our media guy (at Oklahoma State) and they said there is this thing for the AFL, they want to fly you out to Los Angeles. I thought, ‘a free trip to Los Angeles? Why not? I’m not going to say no to it,” Cox recalled after his dominant preliminary performance against Richmond.

“All you had to do is a few runs and a few jumps and then you could spend an extra day hanging out and having a few beers with your friends. I don’t know too many people that would let the opportunity go by.

“It was one of those situations where if the worse comes to worse and nothing comes off it you just move on with life and you go and do the job you were going to do anyway. Fortunately, enough something did come from it. And now I’m here.”

And now a guy from America, where the population ticked over 325 million people last year, and where almost all of them couldn’t care less about AFL, will play in Australia’s biggest sporting event.

It is a remarkable story that is no less remarkable than one blazed by an Irishman more than 30 years ago.

Cox never met former Melbourne champion Jim Stynes, who won the 1991 Brownlow Medal, four Melbourne best and fairest awards and is a member of the Demons’ team of the century, before he tragically lost his battle with cancer in 2012.

But he is halfway through Stynes’ autobiography and feels a connection to the international trailblazer, even crossing paths with some of the same people in the book, like his manager and former Essendon premiership player Adam Ramanauskas and revered sports photographer Wayne Ludbey.

“I think Tadgh Kennelly was the first person who mentioned his name — He was one of the people that first got me over here for recruiting. I was just interested in his story — it is an amazing story — and I’m reading his book at the moment.

“I’ve met a few people in the book that I’ve been in contact with over time. He talks about talking to Adam Ramanauskes who is my agent and he talks about Wayne Ludbey who takes photos for The Age; these people I’ve been involved with that I had no idea were connected and close with him.

“I’ve had some conversations with them about who he was and what he was about and what he valued in life. Every week I meet people in the media and I have no idea what their history or background is and then later in life you meet more about them.”

As for that New York Times piece, you can read it next week — if things going according to script at the MCG.