Build-up to Super Bowl: Nate Ebner (right) with New England Patriots teammates Brandon Bolden (centre) and Duron Harmon. Credit:Getty Images "George Gregan. I can't forget to mention him. He was an absolute animal." Then his memory clicks. There was one player he adored. It's on the tip of his tongue … "Who was the centre, fullback, fly-half for Australia about five or six years ago? If you said his name, I'd know. Little guy. White guy. You gotta help me out here, man …" That can only be one man. He played more than 100 times for the Wallabies. Scored almost 700 points. Little bloke. Green headgear. Kid Dynamite. Matt Giteau.

Ebner favourites: New England Patriots star Nate Ebner grew up watching and admiring Wallabies George Gregan and Matt Giteau. Credit:Getty Images "Matt Giteau!" Ebner, 28, beams. "He was the man. Little dude. He's had some bangers, he's had some concussions, but I enjoyed watching him play. He was good. I grew up watching those guys in Super Rugby and Tri-Nations. Currie Cup. When I was younger, I was into rugby so much more than football." When Ebner was playing college football, he threw his 183-centimetre, 100-kilogram frame around so much he was nicknamed "Leonidas", a reference to the Greek warrior-king hero of Sparta played by actor Gerard Butler in the movie 300. In the blood: After growing up playing rugby, NFL star Nate Ebner realised a dream playing sevens rugby for the United States at the Rio Olympics. Credit:Getty Images He didn't grow up like most kids from Ohio. He grew up in a Jewish household but it was also a rugby household. His father, Jeff, played college rugby. Tragically, in 2008, he was beaten to death by armed robbers.

As Ebner has said of him in the past: "My dad was my only role model. Looking back on it, you had your favourite players, but they were just players. But a role model, and the way you carry yourself and how you go about your work – what hard work really means – and to be a man ... every aspect of life. To me, my dad was that role model. There wasn't anyone else I wanted to be like more than him." As a junior, Ebner was a star for his country in 15s and sevens. He only really tried his hand at American football after two years of college, instantly dominating while playing special teams, and in 2012 was picked up by the Patriots in the draft. Three years later, he had his first Super Bowl ring. Despite this, there was something else tugging at him. Rugby had been included in the Olympic Games program for 2016. "Rugby hadn't been in the Olympics for almost a hundred years, and then the sport you grow up playing your entire life is included and you can play it … who doesn't want to be in the Olympics?" Ebner recalls. "The more I thought about it, playing touch rugby in the off-season when other NFL players are playing basketball, it dawned on me so much that it would be something that I'd regret not doing." He impressed the coaching staff while playing for the US on the World Sevens Series – although he's never played against Australia – but in Rio he and his teammates didn't advance past the pool stage. He did, however, score a try in a tight match against eventual gold medallists Fiji.

Ebner also achieved what rugby league's Jarryd Hayne could not: transfer from American football to rugby sevens. Hayne aborted his dream with the San Francisco 49ers to train with Fiji, but fell well short of Rio selection. "Most people do not have a clue until they go out and do it," Ebner says of the physical toughness needed to play sevens. "It's like soccer on steroids with tackling and wrestling. In terms of cardiovascular, endurance for sevens was one of the most challenging things I've ever put myself through in my life. Football is definitely challenging physically – but not really like sevens. The mental toughness needed to push through that ... That's a different level of things right there." He says training and playing sevens at the elite level has made him a better NFL player. "Physically, all that running doesn't hurt," he says. "I came back from the Olympics in the best shape of my life. It made running around in practice light years easier. But the biggest thing is tackling. The amount of tackling I did this summer, getting my body in the right position, especially in sevens with the one-on-one stuff, and wrapping up the body so they can't offload. It transitions so well into football, because I'm doing the same thing there. "I'd also say just player awareness and communication. In football, not many players are talking much out there. In rugby, that's all you do: talk. Some guys now think it's funny how much I talk on the field."

He was asked if any of his teammates, such as charismatic tight-end Martellus Bennett or wide receiver Chris Hogan, could switch to rugby for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Loading "I don't know if they want to run that much," Ebner smiles. "Sevens is real. But they'd be amazing on a rugby field." Andrew Webster travelled to Houston as a guest of ESPN. Unrivalled Super Bowl LI coverage LIVE on ESPN – Monday February 6, at 10am.