HOUSTON — Nate Ebner sat back in his chair at the Patriots’ hotel Wednesday and considered everything he had experienced in the past year.
“It’s been a long year. It’s been a grind,” the Patriots defensive back said. “At the same time, it’s been an amazing ride.”
After New England’s season ended last year with an AFC Championship loss to the Broncos, Ebner took three weeks off.
He then began training for the Olympics, trying to make Team USA in rugby sevens. He made the team, played rugby in Rio de Janeiro and then returned to the Patriots four days later. Six months after that, Ebner is at the Super Bowl, preparing to face the Falcons.
“I’m just so lucky,” Ebner said. “There’s so many things that could have gone wrong along the way, and so many things have gone right. It’s been a blessing really.”
The biggest hurdle Ebner had to clear to get to Rio was getting the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick to go along with his dream and grant him a leave of absence so he could chase it. Ebner’s rookie contract expired after the 2015 season. During the negotiations on a new deal, Ebner discussed the Olympic dream with Belichick.
“I wanted to pursue this so I needed to voice that and be straightforward with them,” Ebner said. “It was well-received and they supported me the entire way. That’s another thing I look at and say I was lucky I had the Patriots support me the way they did. They easily could have said no and maybe I’m not here right now.”
Ebner is a special-teams star for the Patriots. He had 19 special-teams tackles in the regular season, tied for the most in the NFL. He was named second-team All-Pro behind teammate Matthew Slater.
Ebner, 28, had an interesting road to get to New England. He played rugby growing up and never had time for football. He walked on at Ohio State as a junior and learned to play on the highest level of college football with the Buckeyes.
“That was a humbling experience,” Ebner said. “I thought I would go out there and pick it up quickly and out-athlete some people. It was a humbling experience. I didn’t realize how much went into football, how much of a chess game it was, how much detail goes into all the formations and personnel groupings.
“I didn’t understand what Cover 2 was. I had no understanding of it. Luckily, I was athletic enough to get myself on the field playing some special teams and that’s kind of where I gravitated. They said, ‘Run down the field and tackle the guy with the ball.’ That’s what I tried to do. That was the most relatable thing for me that could get me on the field quickly.”
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This season, he got off the plane from Rio in August after the rugby team finished in ninth place, took three days off and then was back on the practice field.
“The first thing was just not to go too fast,” Belichick said of Ebner. “Not try to jump from the Olympics back into the National Football League. Preseason, training camp, practices, from one day to the next. There was a little bit of a break-in period, which I think was good for him. Nate has worked extremely hard this year.”
Ebner now can reflect on a crazy year that featured trips with USA Rugby to Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and, of course, Rio. Now he is hoping to end it all with a championship in Texas.
“Those are experiences I’ll never forget,” Ebner said. “To do all that within a year and then to have the season that we had and the success I’ve had personally, it’s just been a great year.”
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