Nate Ebner grew up between two worlds. School weeks in Columbus, and weekends and summers in Springfield, Ohio, working the family junkyard with his father Jeff. Lifting off railroad-tie dumbbells they welded themselves. Chasing robbers through the yard on Sunday mornings.

Jeff Ebner was the kind of man who kept a notebook of every workout his son ever did, so they could look back together at what the work had built. He was also the kind of man who made everything an experience worth having. Nate remembers that time more clearly than he remembers most of high school.

The day before Nate decided to walk onto the Ohio State football team, he had the best conversation of his life with his dad. The next day, Jeff was murdered at the junkyard. Nate was 19. He dropped out of school and spent weeks in the dark, sitting near the weights they had built together, close to something he couldn't have come back from. Then his mom walked upstairs and said a few sentences that changed the entire direction of his life.

What followed is one of the more remarkable athletic careers of the last two decades. A walk-on at Ohio State under Jim Tressel. A sixth-round draft pick of Bill Belichick's New England Patriots. Three Super Bowl championships. The 2016 Olympics in Rio with the US rugby team. An All-Pro season. Now an author and part of the team at Goodwin, Nate tells the full story here: the junkyard, the grief, the grind, and what it looks like to carry someone with you all the way to the Super Bowl.

Connect with Nate:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ebs43/

Book: Finish Strong: A Father's Code and a Son's Path:

https://www.amazon.com/Finish-Strong-Fathers-Code-Sons/dp/0525560858

Goodwin: https://www.teamgoodwin.com/

Goodwin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goteamgoodwin/