In the U.S. men’s rugby sevens team’s 26-0 win over Brazil on Tuesday, 27-year-0ld New England Patriots safety Nate Ebner scored a try and received a yellow card for a an illegal hit. Not to worry, Nate, this one won’t bring a fine from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Ebner made history earlier in the day, when he became the first active NFL player to compete in the Summer Olympics in the U.S. team’s 17-14 loss to Argentina. A sixth-round draft pick in 2011 out of Ohio State, where he played football and rugby, Ebner received permission from the Patriots to train with the U.S. Olympic team earlier this year. He plans to rejoin the Patriots when rugby sevens competition concludes on Aug. 11.
Back at Patriots training camp in Foxborough, Massachusetts, New England Coach Bill Belichick wore a USA Rugby shirt in support of Ebner and arranged for his players to watch the United States’ second game as a team.
“Bill is all about America, our country, a true Patriot,” New England safety Devin McCourty told NESN. “I just know Bill and figured one way or the other it was going to be an option where the game was playing somewhere in the building.”
One could forgive Ebner’s NFL teammates who gathered to watch his game if they were confused about the format of rugby sevens, which differs from traditional union rugby and is making its debut as an Olympic sport. As the name suggests, rugby sevens features seven players per side, as opposed to 15. Games consist of two seven-minute halves and the rules are designed to place an emphasis on speed. Fans who like watching the NFL would probably enjoy rugby sevens.
As The Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore, who watched the U.S. women’s team make its rugby sevens debut in Rio, wrote: “If you would like to replicate playing rugby sevens, it’s easy. Sprint to the end of your street and back, then run into an oak tree before climbing into a running dryer full of rocks for a few seconds. Repeat for seven minutes, take a knee for 120 seconds, and then do it again.”
Rugby sevens is the fastest-growing women’s sport in the United States, according to an HSBC report, and there’s hope among the American rugby community that the exposure of the Olympics and NBC Sports’ partnership with Premiership Rugby — the top club rugby league in England — will continue to spur the sport’s growth.
“Once viewership in this country increases, there’s going to be companies out there that are going to want to put their name on a jersey or put their name on a stadium wall,” former U.S. sevens rugby captain Gary Hein said before the USA Sevens Rugby tournament in Las Vegas in March.
Having an NFL player as an ambassador for the sport can’t hurt.