Rio de Janeiro – Nate Ebner has worn three of the most celebrated logos in American sports, has won a Super Bowl ring and is a member of the first U.S. Olympic rugby team in 92 years. He became a standout football player at Ohio State, plays for the New England Patriots and is taking a hiatus from the NFL to compete in Rio.

His sounds like the story of athletic royalty and yet is rooted in nothing more complicated than a father's love and nothing more grandiose than the club rugby program at the University of Minnesota.

Ebner might not have become an NFL player if not for his father, would not have become an Olympian if not for his father. And much of what his father learned about rugby, he learned in the Twin Cities.

"Dad was raised in Duluth, and brought up in Minnesota," Ebner said Wednesday in Rio. "He found his way to the University of Minnesota and I think he found his way to rugby there.

"He played football in high school like any other young American. A couple of injuries had him looking in other directions and he found his way to rugby and loved it and played it until he died."

Jeff Ebner died at the hands of a thief at the family business, Ebner & Sons auto reclamation in Springfield, Ohio, in 2008, shortly after advising his son on a career change.

Nate grew up playing rugby. He excelled as a junior player and at Ohio State for two years before realizing that many of his teammates didn't take it as seriously as he did.

Jeff told him that changing sports just to finish college didn't make much sense, but that if he planned to play in the NFL, he should do it. Jeff died the next day at the place where he and Jeff would fistfight the thieves who would frequently break into the lot of their business.

Nate, after a long period of mourning that included a pulled-up hoodie and endless hours of video games, rededicated himself and began wearing a bracelet reading "Finish strong," his father's mantra in and out of the weight room.

Nate played peewee football but gravitated to rugby. A fierce player, he has been nicknamed "Leonidas" after the warrior in the movie "300."

Asked if the Gophers recruited him as a football player, Ebner shook his head. "No one recruited me in football," he said. "I didn't play football in high school, so no one would have even known to recruit me."

Working under a two-year contract with the Patriots, Ebner had to ask permission to play rugby. He spoke with coach Bill Belichick and other members of the organization. On the first day of training camp, fellow special teams ace Matthew Slater wore Ebner's jersey to honor him.

"My mother got all worked up about that," Ebner said. "I've had the support of a lot of guys throughout the organization. They have all been amazing through this for me. I can't say enough about that.

"It was a tough decision to make but at the end of the day, you see a sport in the Olympics that you grew up playing your whole life, how do you not want to be a part of it? The decision was eating me up a little bit. I just didn't want to live with the regret of not trying."

Rugby is not a traditional Olympic sport and we don't think of our traditional Olympic heroes as those who take sabbaticals from high-paying professions, but Ebner's willingness to place his job in jeopardy to risk his vertebrae for his country qualifies as a unique and heartening Rio story.

"Bad things can happen," Ebner said. "There's risk involved. I have a career in football. But those weren't good enough reasons for me not to try for a once-in-a-lifetime dream."

He's in Rio, in part, because his father played rugby near Dinkytown.

Jim Souhan's podcast can be heard at MalePatternPodcasts.com. On Twitter: @SouhanStrib. jsouhan@startribune.com