Nate Ebner repping the US rugby team (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
While discussing Patrick Chung in an edition of AAPI Heritage Month, we came across former NFL player Nate Ebner. The former safety’s talent on the field and inspirational story off the field made him the perfect man to highlight for Jewish American Heritage Month. Make sure to catch our first article of the month on Greg Joseph here.
Childhood Of Nate Ebner
First, let’s discuss Nate Ebner’s basic origin story. His parents, Nancy Pritchett and Jeffrey Ebner, divorced early on but shared their only son, Nathan. The couple had little Nate in December of 1988 in Dublin, Ohio. Nate would live in various locations in Ohio until he made it big in the NFL. Something we will discuss later.
Jeffrey Ebner alternated between working at the family auto business and other positions. Most notably, he became a principal of a Hebrew school called Temple Shalom in Springfield, Ohio. Nate often attended this school as a child and was also raised celebrating traditional Jewish holidays with his father’s family.
Both Nancy and Jeffrey co-parented incredibly well and took an active role in their son’s life. Until Jeffrey’s life was taken when Ebner was 19, another topic we will discuss later in this article.
Nate Ebner On the Gridiron
Ebner is an enigma in the football world. He didn’t play on a football team until his junior year of college, sans some little league. Even more remarkably, he was able to walk on at The Ohio State and was considered the team’s best special teams player that year, nicknamed “war daddy.” Not only did he make the prestigious team, but he was also drafted into the NFL after just two years.
What prepared Mr. Ebner to be such a beast on the field? His rugby career. Nate’s father, Jeffrey Ebner, was a rugby king in his own right, and this is a talent he passed down to his son. Nate was the youngest player to compete in the National 7’s, was MVP of the Rugby World Cup in 2007, and competed for the US in the 2016 Olympics. Is there a sport that Ebner isn’t an instant star of?
The NFL
Despite being a walk-on college football player, the NFL had their eye on Ebner. He wasn’t drafted as late as Brock Purdy, but he was close. In 2012, Ebner was selected in the sixth round, 197th pick overall, by the New England Patriots. A team he played for until 2019, when he was traded to the New York Giants. Ebner played two seasons for the Giants until retiring in 2021. That’s a remarkable 10-year, 3-time Super Bowl champ career for a rugby player who also played a little football.
There are many highlights of Ebner’s career, and we will discuss a few here. Most notably, he actually received a compliment from Bill Belichick. Ebner also was given permission from Belichick to take a leave of absence to participate in the 2016 Olympics. Concessions few players would ever see as a New England Patriot. 7 players have won a pro football championship and participated in the Olympics, but Ebner was the only player to do so in the same year. The term pro football championship is used since players like Jim Thorpe did both before the end of the season championship was named the Super Bowl.
Career Highlights
Throughout Ebner’s career, he was a slightly injury-prone but extremely motivated special teams player. He suffered from a broken thumb in 2014, a shoulder injury in 2017, and an ACL tear also in 2017, and he was put on injury reserve by the Giants before retiring in 2021. Ebner was always ready to try anything, including fake punts, dropkick onside kicks, and other trick plays the Patriots cooked up. The special teamer had a real knack for tackles in between injuries. Like wine, Ebner only got better with time and actually started the majority of snaps in his final season with the Patriots.
The Olympics
Ebner had been playing rugby with his father since he was just six years old. He played more rugby than he likely ever did football. He played as a child, in high school, in college, in the off-season of the NFL, and later with the US in the Olympics. The Patriots were very supportive and even made special shirts with Ebner’s Olympics jersey number to practice in.
The US rugby team struggled a bit in Brazil in 2016. Ebner made his presence known in the team’s 3 matches, scoring “tries” for the team. Had he avoided the sin bin for an illegal tackle in the team’s first match, he could have made more “tries.” The shutout blowout loss in their second match against the Brazil team was a foreboding forecast for their overall success.
They didn’t make it to the medal play and ultimately ranked 9th overall. It doesn’t really matter though—just going and competing is enough of an accolade. In addition to being the youngest player to compete in the USA Sevens team at just 17 years old,. A few MVP titles here and there also bolstered the young man’s rugby resume. Way to live up to your father’s legacy, Nate Ebner.
Jeffrey Ebner’s Legacy
Jeffrey Ebner resets the expectations on what fatherhood means. But before he was a father, he was an incredible athlete in his own right. After he became a father, he then died. Everything we know about Jeffrey seems to often come back to the love he had for his child.
Sports
Mr. Ebner was a rugby king. He played at the collegiate level in the late 1970s at the University of Minnesota. Jeffrey had a law school admission offer, but he opted for his first love—sports. Rugby is a bit of a wild card knowledge-wise for this author, but he continued to play for different leagues post-graduation while often navigating part-time jobs as well. Ebner returned to Springfield and played for the D1 Scioto Valley Rugby Club from 1979 to 2002.
The rugby flyhalf and center was both captain and president at various times for the club, worked incredibly hard to elevate it. Soon the club was one of the top five clubs in the Midwest. He made such an impression that he was enshrined in the club’s first Hall of Fame class in 2005. During his speech, he said his greatest legacy was his son. Did anyone else shed a tear at that statement?
In 1989 Ebner played for the US Maccabiah Rugby team in the Maccabiah Games and won bronze. Long story short, these Games are often nicknamed the “Jewish Olympics” and happen every four years, the year after the other Olympics. All Jewish and Israeli folks are invited, regardless of religion and background. It is the third largest sporting event in the world. For more information on these sports festivities, read here. Besides the Jewish Olympics, Jeffrey Ebner also played in the Magnificent Sevens tournament located in Toronto in the 1990s.
Fatherhood
Jeffrey Ebner’s role as father to Nate Ebner is probably the only role he took more seriously than being an athlete. Despite the divorce, Jeffrey had custody of Nate on the weekends, was his coach in high school, and would drive over an hour to visit his son on random weeknights and take him to dinner. In a world where the bar for fatherhood is often below the earth’s surface, Mr. Ebner personifies what it means to be an active father with both action and words. To Nancy Ebner’s credit, she supported this relationship wholeheartedly.
That was brave of Nancy because Nate was loading semi-trucks with crushed cars at 15 years old. The crusher/loader didn’t have brakes either. Jeffrey may have been a thoughtful father, but he was a bit of an OSHA nightmare. Nate has memories of years spent riding dirt bikes and four-wheelers for 10 hours a day. A child’s dream.
The Final Conversation
Nate always sought out his father’s opinions on everything, especially when there was a conflict. The rugby player was considering switching up his athletic trajectory mid-college, and he needed guidance. Nate recalls the conversation like this: “He said that, ‘If your end goal is to make it to the NFL, you should do it. If you’re just doing it because you don’t want to play rugby at a club at Ohio State, maybe you should find another outlet.’ But I wanted to play in the NFL. We decided that together the last time I saw him for dinner. Next thing I know, he’s dead, and I have to move on.”
Nancy watched her son fall into depression, drop out of school, and hide away—an understandable reaction to losing his 53-year-old father in such a tragic way. In a way only a mother can, Nancy motivated her son to continue on. She helped facilitate training so Nate could get physically in shape in a short period of time before the walk-on tryout and helped drag her son through the rest of college, where he used football as a conduit for his grief.
That passion fueled Ebner to meet his goal and likely provided him the motivation and distraction he needed to survive the loss of his best friend. His father supported the goal, which likely made all the difference. We often acknowledge the chip on players’ shoulders that motivated them to be great. Drew Brees comes to mind first. Nate Ebner knew a little something about channeling his emotions, stemming from tragedy, into playing the game. Those tackles must have hit a little bit differently than others.
Death
In 2008, the world lost an amazing individual when Jeffrey Ebner passed away a day after a failed robbery. He was brutally killed at the family business he was running called Ebner & Sons Auto Reclamation. Nate recalled many memories of people coming to the business that mostly turned old cars into scrap metal and attempting to rob it. It was a bit of a revolving door of thieves throughout the years. Unfortunately, this time a confrontation with a thief did become deadly.
It’s truly an odd crime scene. For one, it’s believed that the offender is also the person who anonymously called 911. The individual emptied Ebner’s wallet of any cash and took the money from the cash register but missed the several hundred dollars in Ebner’s shirt pocket. Despite appearing to possibly have a conscience, there is forensic evidence showing that Ebner was struck in the head when he was already on the ground, which feels particularly vicious.
Thankfully, Nate Ebner was there in his father’s final moments before uncontrollable brain swelling took its course. The defendant, Willie Anderson, took a guilty plea four days into the 2010 court case and received 15 years to life. He is eligible for parole this year, 2025. Nate Ebner channels his father’s tremendous strength by not responding to this situation with anger and resentment. He focuses far more on his best friend and father than he did on his passing or the perpetrator.
The Most Moving Trip
In 2019, Ebner was invited to go on an all-paid guided trip to Israel that Robert Kraft offers to Patriots players and alumni, along with a plus one for each attendee. The newly married Ebner was going to bring his wife, but she was unable to go because of work, so he took his aunt Ann. Ever since Ebner’s father passed away, Ann was at every college football game he played except for one. She also traveled to Brazil to cheer him on in person for the Olympics. Ann was a sort of surrogate figure for her deceased brother’s son. She was the perfect pick for the trip.
Aunt Ann was, of course, Jewish as well and had never been to Israel either. The two could visit a place that Jeffrey Ebner had a strong appreciation for and remember him as well as build their own memories. Before the trip, Nate felt close to his father in the weight room and on the rugby field, and after the trip, he added Tel Aviv. A place that Jeffrey Ebner loved. Both aunt and nephew felt just a little bit closer to Jeffrey in Israel while feeling a strong connection to the place as well. Nate Ebner read a hilarious, informative description of his first trip to Israel here.
Where Is He Now?
Nate Ebner has a pretty low profile. He is married to his wife, Chelsey, and they plan on having children that they will raise both Jewish and Christian. Morals, rather than a particular religious title, are what the Ebner parents want to impart to their children. Nate learned a thing or two from his own dad, which he described in his first book, ‘Finish Strong: A Father’s Code and a Son’s Path,’ which was published in 2021.
Besides being an author, entrepreneur, and family man, Ebner also was a rugby analyst in the NFL off-season once in 2018. Rumor has it he is currently a sports commentator for NBC as well. Ebner actually tried to enter into the 2020 Olympics but was sidelined by an injury. Nowadays, he is a founding member of a tech company and gets his rugby in by being a minority owner of the New England Free Jacks alongside former teammate Patrick Chung. That feels like a full-circle moment for Nate Ebner.
In Conclusion
Jeffrey, Nancy, and Nate Ebner are the personification of wholesome. Jeffrey Ebner passed away tragically, but his legacy lives on since he was so dedicated to being a man and a father, personifying those traits for his son. Nancy Ebner loved her son through life circumstances, helped him achieve his goals, and fostered the relationship between her ex-husband and son. Ms. Nancy was very open-minded about her former husband’s religion that he shared with Nate. This sounds like a fairly common thing, but sadly it often isn’t.
Nate Ebner is a great athlete, man, son, nephew, and husband. He clearly was a man of character since Belichick bestowed him with a compliment. Jeffrey Ebner was diametrically opposed to half-assing anything, and Nate is the same way. He put his all into the NFL, rugby, and now being a husband and entrepreneur.
Nate Ebner is the personification of individuals we wish to highlight. He is such a role model for children who can look up to him and think they can be like Nate Ebner too. Jewish players are, and have been, positive influences on the NFL, and Nate Ebner is no exception. May his story motivate many to reach for their goals, see a place for themselves in the NFL if they want it, and, for goodness’ sake, not half-ass anything!
