It is not uncommon for successful athletes to go on different career paths after their professional career is over. Some, like footballer Vinnie Jones went on to pursue a successful acting career. Some went to politics, like the boxing legend Vitali Klitschko. But what about rugby players?
You’d be surprised to learn that a number of people who played rugby in their youth have managed to get very successful in other areas. Some of them even became US Presidents!
George W. Bush, for example, played rugby at Yale and Phillips Academy. He played the role of fullback – when he wasn’t a cheerleader! Yes, you read correctly, the former US President was also a cheerleader. According to the BBC panel show QI, he even wore t-shirts with “Go Nads” written on them, which was a sort of a pun on the name of the team he was supporting.
George W. Bush wasn’t the only US President who played rugby at college. Bill Clinton did the same at the Oxford University. Actually, Oxford seems to be a nursery of celebrity ruggers. The author of Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien played rugby at this college, and so has singer Kris Kristofferson and the CEO of the Kmart Corporation, Julian C Day.
There’s something in rugby that makes politicians love it. The former French President Jacques Chirac was also a talented player in his youth. He was the number 8 at the Paris Institute for Political Studies and apparently was so good at it that his teammates nicknamed him “The Bulldozer”.
Another talent who switched from rugby to politics was Gordon Brown. The former PM has played for Fife’s Kirkcaldy High School until an injury made him give up on his dream of becoming a professional rugby player. Whether he would be better as an athlete then as a politician is up for question. There is no such doubt when it comes to Idi Amin. If he had pursued a rugby career, he wouldn’t have become the “Butcher of Uganda”.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was not too talented player, but he was absolutely obsessed with this sport. His enthusiasm went so far that he even had run a magazine called “Tackle”, back in the early 1950s. Apart from world leaders, many other celebs played rugby as teenagers. One of them is Russell Crowe, who used to enjoy placing free bets on the victory of his favorite team, South Sydney Rabbitohs in Rugby League.
It’s not a surprise that the Australian actor is a fan of this sport, but there’s also one rugger-turned-actor coming from Spain. The man in question is Javier Bardem, who played a flanker so well that he had even earned a spot in Spain’s U-21 national team.