FINISH STRONG

An elite athlete lays out his motivations for pursuing his athletic dreams.

Ebner’s father, who ran a junkyard, loved to play rugby on the weekends, and Ebner soon followed in his father’s footsteps, learning the ins and outs of the game at an early age. “Rugby asks for a certain humility. It’s an egalitarian game. No player is above another. Each is a link in the chain of the team,” he writes in a narrative co-written by Daugherty. Ebner and his father trained together, lifting homemade weights in a dingy garage, where they pushed themselves to do better every day: “You finish strong. This was his mentality. Working hard is a skill. Practice it enough, it can be second nature.” Even after his father was murdered when the author was 19, he stuck to his father’s mantra and continued to play rugby and put in hours at the gym honing his physical skills. He went on to play football at Ohio State and in the NFL with the New England Patriots, where he earned three Super Bowl rings. In 2016, Ebner returned to rugby as part of the U.S. Olympic team. The book is filled with the highlights and disappointments that come standard with any high-level athletic career. Taking risks and pushing oneself to the limit are strong themes, as well, and the loving bond between a father and son is evident throughout. “Rugby was our connective tissue,” writes the author, “the living bridge between who Jeff Ebner was and who he wanted me to be.” This book is a fitting continuation of that bridge, a tale that will appeal to sports fans and those who appreciate the determination and physical and mental toughness required to thrive at the top level of sports. Former OSU head coach Urban Meyer provides the foreword.

Fond memories of hard work, football, rugby, and an indelible father-son bond.