Solved: The mystery of the American football star's Welsh tattoos

Tyson Bagent is an up and coming name in the world of American Football.

As a college football star, he smashed records and now hopes to do the same in the NFL.

The young quarterback who plays for the Chicago Bears was recently pictured on social media with two prominent tattoos in Welsh on his chest.

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There was the word 'teulu' which means 'family' in Welsh, then there was a block of Welsh words tattooed underneath an image of a plane.

The words read: 'Teimlais fy holl mywyd fy mod i fod i hedfan' which translates as 'My whole life, I have felt like I am meant to fly'.

Look at this. @NFL & @ChicagoBears QB @tysbagent has some #Cymraeg #Welsh tatooed on his chest.

‘TEULU’ is Welsh for family.

I wonder how he came to have this as his tatoo? #NFL #DaBears pic.twitter.com/FganOuXFK3

— Efan ap Ifor 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@EfanIfor) March 8, 2024

The 23-yea-old grew up in Martinsburg in West Virginia and played university football for the Shepherd Rams breaking a number of college passing records before joining the Chicago Bears in 2023, where he was back-up quarterback before breaking into the team as a starter.

In 2019 there were pictures of him with only one tattoo on his body, the word 'teulu' on his chest. He has now added to his ink collection, with the Welsh quote.

Thanks to the online detective work of Sgorio commentator Mei Emrys, who unearthed an interview with Tyson where he explains why he has the tattoos, the mystery can be solved - the young NFL star says he's Welsh!

DIRGELWCH WEDI EI DDATRYS!

Mae taid Tyson Bagent yn Gymro! Gweler y fideo yma (ewch i 1:24.07):https://t.co/dfxIHhtSsn

Dwi'n 99% sicr mai at ei daid ar ochr ei fam mae o'n cyfeirio, achos 'Humphreys' yw cyfenw chwaer ei fam.

🏈🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿👍@NewyddionS4C @EfanIfor @PopethNFLCymru https://t.co/TyONEbw1Ut

— Mei Emrys (@MeiEms) March 11, 2024

In answering a question from a fan on why he had 'teulu' on his chest and what it meant, he explained: "It's the first one I ever got. It means family in Welsh.

"My grandad is Welsh. I got it because I'm a big family guy. I'm Welsh. I've got Welsh in me. So it's a family tattoo."

When you consider that Tyson is from West Virginia it makes sense. There was a sizeable influx of Welsh immigrants, especially those that worked in the industries of tin, steel and coal to the area in the 1800s.

He comes from something of a star-studded family. If you thought Tyson had a strong arm, then his father Travis is a multiple arm-wrestling world champion, so it obviously runs in the family.

And there we all were thinking that Louis Rees-Zammit was going to be the latest Welshman to play in the NFL.

Let's hope LRZ is successful in his NFL quest and ends up at the Chicago Bears. Just imagine one Welshman throwing the ball for another Welshman to catch it!

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