First guy to play for both the Eagles and the Union, sort of. Jay Ajayi is now a pro FIFA player representing your local soccer team.

Here’s the gist –

MLS does this competition every year called ‘eMLS,’ which is really rather boring. It’s FIFA players competing against one another, and each team is represented by one person. Philly’s rep used to be this guy named “Doolsta,” and he won the entire thing last year before leaving to join Nashville for whatever reason. His replacement is the former Eagles running back and Super Bowl winner, Jay Train.

Anyway, here’s part of the press release:

CHESTER, Pa. (Jan. 7, 2020) – Philadelphia Union today announced Super Bowl Champion and Pro Bowl Running Back Jay Ajayi as their eMLS esports pro gamer, one of the first pro athletes and first NFL player to become a professional gamer. Ajayi will represent the Philadelphia Union during the 2020 eMLS Cup campaign, beginning with eMLS League Series One in Philadelphia on January 10. The Union swept every eMLS league series title in 2019.

“Philadelphia will always hold a special place in my heart. I am blessed to be able to represent the city through esports and to be one of the first pro athletes to become a professional gamer,” said Ajayi. “Representing the Philadelphia Union for eMLS combines two of my greatest passions outside of football, soccer and gaming. I’m a competitor, so you’re going to see me give my all for the Union at every eMLS event this year.”

eMLS is incredibly dumb, since we should be spending our time watching real sports instead of watching other people playing video game sports, but I give the Union and their marketing department a lot of credit here. This story was picked up by TMZ and other outlets in England, where Ajayi is from. They pushed their relatively small brand out globally, similar to what they were able to do with the Chief Tattoo Officer gig from a few years back. Kudos to Doug Vosik and his crew.