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.
