Wallace stopped playing football at Glenn High School in Kernersville, N.C., more than a dozen years ago to concentrate on basketball. It paid off in the form of playing time at three different colleges - Ohio State, DePaul and Seattle. In the summer of 2012, Wallace was looking into the possibility of playing pro basketball overseas when he was approached about participating in an Australian Rules Football combine.

"August came, I was like, 'It's a free trip to L.A. Why not?' " Wallace said. "Out of about 35 of us, three of us got invited to the real combine in Melbourne, Australia. Out of those three, North Melbourne signed me."

Wallace ended up playing three seasons in Australia as a ruckman,

"The big guy who enforces things, kind of like a basketball center," he explained. "It's a very physical sport, with no pads. It's fast-paced, nonstop like basketball. Guys are clearing half-marathon numbers during a game. It's also highly skilled. Everybody has to be able to kick, run, catch.

"It's a different physicality. The AFL is more free flow where you've got a man and you guard him. The NFL, it's more head-to-head, trying to stop a 270-pound man running at you."

Wallace decided to return to American football after getting advice from some former NFL players he knows, among them defensive end Simeon Rice. Wallace got his foot in the door by scoring an invitation to the New Orleans Saints' rookie minicamp, and now he's come full circle by returning to play football in his home state.