One of the great stories at the 2016 Summer Olympics is New England Patriots special teams ace Nate Ebner competing for the USA Rugby Sevens team. Ebner starred while playing rugby for the USA and Ohio State and has carved a niche in the NFL despite his limited football experience.
Ebner walked onto the Buckeyes football team at Ohio State in his junior year in college after a successful collegiate and international rugby career. His special teams impact was so great at Ohio State that the Patriots drafted him in 2012. In his four year NFL career, Ebner has 47 tackles in 57 career games and just signed a new two-year contract with the Patriots earlier this spring.
After signing his new contract, the Patriots granted a leave of absence to Ebner so he could go back to rugby with the sport’s return to the Olympics. Ebner not only made USA Rugby’s team as what is believed to be the first active NFL player to compete in the Olympics, he got on the scoresheet in Rio.
Ebner scored the second of USA Rugby’s tries in their pool play encounter with host nation Brazil on Monday night. Ebner’s try came after the first half siren as he broke through the Brazilian team which was playing a man down thanks to a yellow card.
Ebner delivered some pain on the defensive end as well, getting his own yellow card for a massive tackle that was a bit late on a Brazilian player.
Nate Ebner sinbinned for this massive blindside hit. Just like special teams. BB smiles somewhere pic.twitter.com/SSQrHuTHcb
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) August 9, 2016
The good news for Ebner and USA Rugby is that they beat Brazil comfortably by a score of 26-0. However, a heartbreaking loss against Argentina earlier in the day leaves them in precarious position when it comes to a potential quarterfinal berth. The top two teams from each of the three groups as well as the top two third place teams qualify for the final eight. Right now as it stands, USA Rugby may need a result against gold medal favorite Fiji in their final Group A match to ensure qualification for the knockout round.
