{"id":886912,"date":"2026-09-10T12:54:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886912\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T12:54:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:54:54","slug":"billy-coffey-how-the-newcastle-coach-went-viral-teaching-nfl-superstar-myles-garrett-to-tackle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886912\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Coffey: How the Newcastle coach went viral teaching NFL superstar Myles Garrett to tackle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iain<\/p>\n

September 10, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s been a crazy week for Billy Coffey.<\/p>\n

The former Newcastle rugby player turned defence coach opened up his Instagram feed at one point, and it was mind-blowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scrolling through and for two minutes, every single post was me,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cI just went, \u2018Oh geez, what have I done here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffey went well and truly viral this week \u2013 globally \u2013 when a clip of him teaching NFL megastar Myles Garrett how to tackle<\/a> spun around the internet.<\/p>\n

As the reigning NFL defensive player of the year, and with one of the most imposing physiques in American sport, Garrett could already hit people hard.<\/p>\n

But vision of a nuggety Australian showing Garrett the technique to really smash people \u2013 and then himself getting smashed by Garrett in the same July training session \u2013 was suddenly everywhere.<\/p>\n

With the NFL season starting this week, and Garrett playing for the LA Rams at the MCG on Friday<\/a>, the total views were north of 100m, and shared by accounts with a cumulative audience of well over 100m as well, including 33m followers on the official NFL Instagram account alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a crazy week,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cI have an interview with the Los Angeles Times after this, and then Good Morning LA. It\u2019s full on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Novocastrian was thrust into the spotlight after his work in coaching Aussie league and union players how to \u201cwhack\u201d got noticed online, and led to several trips to the US.<\/p>\n

Coffey was a well-known rugby figure in the Hunter for a long time, playing centre and wing for the Merewether and Wanderers clubs over 22 seasons. At the same time, he grew a strength and conditioning business, and opened a gym popular with many NRL and union players, and UFC fighters.<\/p>\n

\"MylesMyles Garrett (right) at Marvel Stadium with LA Rams teammate Jaylen Watson.Getty Images<\/p>\n

While briefly working for the RunIt League<\/a>, Coffey buried himself in study of the biomechanics and principles of dominant \u2013 but safe \u2013 tackling and contact work. He left RunIt amid concerns about safety, but continued to teach the art of big hitting, and videos online quickly spread around Australia and the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI released one post that got 18 million views, and I went from 90,000 followers to 250k almost overnight,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cAfter that I got a message from Micah McFadden, who plays for the New York Giants, and I flew to Tampa to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffey also worked with Danny Stuntsman (New Orleans Saints), Segun Olubi (Las Vegas Raiders) and Bobby Okereke (Carolina Panthers), and was invited into to work with the UCLA college program too. Somewhere along the way, Garrett\u2019s agent reached out, wanting to book in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote back, \u2018No worries, here\u2019s my number\u2019,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cI had no idea who Myles Garrett is. I called up Bobby Okereke, I said, \u2018Myles Garrett, he any good?\u2019 Bobby goes, \u2018Just the best in the league\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BillyBilly Coffey playing for the Newcastle Wildfires in 2015.Brock Perks<\/p>\n

Garrett, standing at a monstrous 194cm and 123kg, was voted the NFL\u2019s best player by his peers in the 2025 after a dominant season for Cleveland Browns. The 30-year-old broke the all-time NFL record for most sacks in a season (23) and won his second DPOTY award.<\/p>\n

\u201dIf the aliens came to earth and said, \u2018Let me see the best human that you have\u2019, you go with Myles Garrett,\u201d Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez said recently.<\/p>\n

After nine seasons with the Browns, Garrett was traded to the LA Rams in the off-season on a $288m contract.<\/p>\n

Coffey was working at UCLA when he told them about his impending work with Garrett, \u201cand they were like, \u2018OK, we\u2019ll shut the whole facility down\u2019.\u201c<\/p>\n

\"MylesMyles Garrett was voted the NFL\u2019s best player in 2025.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to him, \u2018Mate, am I teaching Michael Jackson some dance moves?\u2019 Like, what am I going to teach you?\u201d Coffey said.<\/p>\n

Coffey worked with Garrett on biomechanical tweaks like foot and hip placement, and as the guinea pig running in with a pad, the Aussie felt the full effects, over and over, in the week-long tuition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not been hit that hard in my whole life,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cHe is hungry. I left there with not one bit of knowledge in my head, he just drew it all out of me and he just absorbs it,\u201d Coffey said.<\/p>\n

The vision of Garrett nailing Coffey took a few weeks to get picked up, but this week a few re-posts went very viral.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a strange feeling for me with the whole world kind of seeing it,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cI\u2019m not an influencer. I\u2019m just a coach, and I just love coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffey had already been approached to work with more NFL and college football teams, and messaged by many players. And that pace has only picked this week after the Garrett vision went crazy. He has even been asked to work with offensive coaches.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Rams<\/a><\/p>\n

Coffey has recently sold his gym and is planning to spend two to three months in the States each year, and to use the rest to tour around Australia coaching juniors.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be in Melbourne on Friday to watch Garrett and the Rams take on the 49ers.<\/a><\/p>\n

Coffey laughs when you mention one comment on social media: \u201cThis dude teaching Myles Garrett to hit even harder needs to be charged as an accessory to murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you right now, he\u2019s the best athlete in the world,\u201d Coffey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got one significant force factor that we\u2019re working to tighten up. If he tightens that up, yeah, I\u2019ll hand myself in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more on the NFL Melbourne game:Save<\/p>\n

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\"IainIain Payten<\/a> is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 10, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-886912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}