Crowe gets NRL in US primetime
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October 24, 2007 12:00am
IT was publicity money just can't buy. Hollywood actor turned South Sydney owner Russell Crowe yesterday did what no other man has been able to do in 100 years of rugby league - promote the game on primetime American television.
The Oscar-winning actor appeared on ESPN's Monday Night Football show, using the halftime break in the Indianapolis Colts v Jacksonville Jaguars game to tell of his true sporting love - the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Crowe completed the interview wearing his Rabbitohs cap as the giant US cable channel showed footage of Souths games from this year. Monday Night Football is the most-watched cable TV show this year with an average 15 million Americans watching each big game.
And Crowe didn't miss his chance to introduce the US audience to his beloved Bunnies. "It is a competition called the NRL premiership and the team is called the South Sydney Rabbitohs,'' Crowe told a panel of NFL experts.
"The team has been around for 100 years. The last time they won I was seven years old. I distinctly remember the day, the celebrations and the cake. It was like my birthday. But it's been a long time between drinks as they say.''
ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski, Pardon the Interruption star and Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and play-by-play man Mike Tirico interviewed Crowe, who spoke about his enormous workload in re-inventing the Rabbitohs.
"If you think about the situation we're in, where we haven't won since 1971 and hadn't played in the finals for 18 years ... we had to reconstruct the culture from the ground up,'' Crowe explained.
"That required a lot of time and effort from myself and business partner Peter Holmes a Court. We spent the best part of nine months this year doing nothing else but rugby league. We made the finals too, broke that 18-year drought.''
Crowe has helped organise a trial match in Florida between Souths and England Super League champions Leeds. The game will be played at Hodges Stadium inside the University of North Florida.
"There will be a game here in Jackson on January 26 - a week before the Super Bowl,'' Crowe said in his best American accent. "It will be between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and a team from England called the Leeds Rhinos.
"They just won the championship there, it's the Super Bowl of the league in England. It will be a big game. We've already sold 1500 tickets in 36 different states and six different countries. So it's going to be a bit of an event.''
NRL chief executive David Gallop watched the Crowe interview and said he was grateful for rugby league's free exposure. "I saw it by chance. I didn't know he was coming on,'' Gallop said.
"What a great promotion for rugby league. It brought home what a big star Russell Crowe is. His passion for Souths and rugby league was clearly on display for millions of people who don't know about rugby league.''
Paris Hilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Samuel L Jackson have been previous co-hosts of Monday Night Football.
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Publicity money just can't buy ... Hollywood actor turned South Sydney owner Russell Crowe on ESPN's Monday Night Football show, using the halftime break in the Indianapolis Colts v Jacksonville Jaguars game to tell of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
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October 24, 2007 12:00am
IT was publicity money just can't buy. Hollywood actor turned South Sydney owner Russell Crowe yesterday did what no other man has been able to do in 100 years of rugby league - promote the game on primetime American television.
The Oscar-winning actor appeared on ESPN's Monday Night Football show, using the halftime break in the Indianapolis Colts v Jacksonville Jaguars game to tell of his true sporting love - the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Crowe completed the interview wearing his Rabbitohs cap as the giant US cable channel showed footage of Souths games from this year. Monday Night Football is the most-watched cable TV show this year with an average 15 million Americans watching each big game.
And Crowe didn't miss his chance to introduce the US audience to his beloved Bunnies. "It is a competition called the NRL premiership and the team is called the South Sydney Rabbitohs,'' Crowe told a panel of NFL experts.
"The team has been around for 100 years. The last time they won I was seven years old. I distinctly remember the day, the celebrations and the cake. It was like my birthday. But it's been a long time between drinks as they say.''
ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski, Pardon the Interruption star and Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and play-by-play man Mike Tirico interviewed Crowe, who spoke about his enormous workload in re-inventing the Rabbitohs.
"If you think about the situation we're in, where we haven't won since 1971 and hadn't played in the finals for 18 years ... we had to reconstruct the culture from the ground up,'' Crowe explained.
"That required a lot of time and effort from myself and business partner Peter Holmes a Court. We spent the best part of nine months this year doing nothing else but rugby league. We made the finals too, broke that 18-year drought.''
Crowe has helped organise a trial match in Florida between Souths and England Super League champions Leeds. The game will be played at Hodges Stadium inside the University of North Florida.
"There will be a game here in Jackson on January 26 - a week before the Super Bowl,'' Crowe said in his best American accent. "It will be between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and a team from England called the Leeds Rhinos.
"They just won the championship there, it's the Super Bowl of the league in England. It will be a big game. We've already sold 1500 tickets in 36 different states and six different countries. So it's going to be a bit of an event.''
NRL chief executive David Gallop watched the Crowe interview and said he was grateful for rugby league's free exposure. "I saw it by chance. I didn't know he was coming on,'' Gallop said.
"What a great promotion for rugby league. It brought home what a big star Russell Crowe is. His passion for Souths and rugby league was clearly on display for millions of people who don't know about rugby league.''
Paris Hilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Samuel L Jackson have been previous co-hosts of Monday Night Football.
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