Growing up in a rugby-loving household, Nate Ebner resorted to scouring the internet to watch his favorite team play the sport he adored. Across the world in New Zealand, rugby was accessible, but in the early 2000s when Ebner was young, he felt the physical distance.

Rugby had yet to crossover to the everyday lexicon of sports talk in the U.S., but now, years later, Ebner is helping ensure that rugby is accessible to young kids across the country.

Ebner and Patrick Chung are now part-owners of the New England Free Jacks, a Major League Rugby expansion team. The Free Jacks have just kicked off their inaugural season, and the team hosted a media event on Feb. 19 to introduce Ebner and Chung as part-owners.

"That was something I always wish I had," Ebner said. "I wish I could have gone right down the street and watch a professional rugby team and aspire to be these professional players, and that's something I could be. That wasn't something I could connect with, and now, that's here for the community."

For Ebner, the love of rugby was natural, something he learned from his late father, Jeff. In 2016, he took a warranted leave of absence from Patriots training camp to compete in the Olympics for Team USA in Rio. Rugby was his first love, but because he couldn't make a career of it in the U.S., he turned to football his junior year at Ohio State.

"The only reason I probably even looked in the direction of football was because there was nothing for me here in the United States. That meant my life would be uprooted if I wanted to play rugby professionally in a completely different country where I might not have even spoke the language the spoke," Ebner said. "[The inception of the MLR] is enormous. I can't say how big that is for rugby in the U.S. that we have this and it's doing so well."

As part-owners, Ebner and Chung have put their financial backing behind the Free Jacks, as well as their names, but the team's majority owner Errik Anderson made it clear that the Patriots did not join the organization simply for clout. They asked the right questions and believe in the team, he said.