It’s a huge disappointment to coach Mike Friday and his team as they headed into the Games targeting gold with Super Bowl winnerNate Ebner of the New England Patriotsand speedsters Carlin Isles and Perry Baker on the squad.
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Ebner is taking a break from his “real job” as a special teams ace for the New England Patriots.
Asked about his first Olympic experience, Ebner said “It’s been a great experience, something I’ve never experienced before”.
Just then, the Brazilians made a good play on the pitch against powerhouse Fiji and the stadium shuddered.
Considered a dark-horse candidate to reach the podium in the first Olympic rugby tournament since 1924, the USA instead bowed out early after narrow losses to Argentina and Fiji in pool play.
“We’ve come from being given less than a 10 percent chance of even making the Olympics to being here and being contenders”, Friday said, according to USARugby.org.
Ebner was a standout rugby player growing up.
Instead, the Americans will be relegated to playing the loser’s bracket now. “After my knee injury, I decided football is not for me anymore and I got really into rugby”.
Nate Ebner is living his Olympic dreams in Rio.
“It’s been awesome. I wouldn’t have done anything differently”, Ebner told The Associated Press. “And it’s an honor to be here with this group of guys that works so hard”.
Seconds later, the Americans were out of contention with a 24-19 loss, and New Zealand got a backdoor pass into the quarterfinals at the expense of the United States.
Rugby sevens features two seven-minute halves divided by a two-minute halftime plus any stoppage time kept by the referee. “Football’s a violent game played right at one another”.
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“I’m going to have to gain some more weight because we don’t run as much!” he said of National Football League duties. “No one runs or tackles like this, it’s unreal”.
