Another NFL player is going to Rio.
Patriots safety Nate Ebner has made the American rugby sevens team that will compete in next month’s Summer Olympics, his agent told Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Ebner is the second person with NFL experience to qualify for the Summer Olympics. The first is former Lions running back Jahvid Best, who was chosen to the Olympic team of his father’s home country, St. Lucia, last week. Herschel Walker, who played in the NFL from 1983 to 1997, participated in the Winter Olympics in the bobsled in 1992.
Rugby is Ebner’s first love: He played only rugby, not football, in high school and was the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. national rugby sevens team when he was 17 years old. He then continued playing rugby in college at Ohio State before he was persuaded to play for the Buckeyes as a walk-on. He played so well that the Patriots took him in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft.
Ebner has spent the entire offseason focusing on rugby and will be in Rio while his teammates are in training camp, but Patriots coach Bill Belichick says he supports Ebner’s pursuit of his Olympic dream and trusts him to be ready to go when the season starts.