Las Vegas was the center of the football universe over the weekend and next month it will be the epicenter of the footy universe when the National Rugby League takes center stage at Allegiant Stadium.
And Australia’s biggest sport is using one of the country’s most recognizable voices to help promote the NRL’s first venture to the United States.
Hollywood heavyweight Russell Crowe has voiced a new promo video that was released over the weekend to promote a National Rugby League doubleheader in March and explain the rules to American audiences being exposed to the sport for the first time.
Crowe, 59, has been a lifelong fan of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which will be one of the teams playing at Allegiant Stadium.
He has also been a part-owner of the club since 2006.
“Rugby league is football, but maybe not as you know it,” Crowe says in the opening moment of a dramatic promo video. “Arguably the fastest, most aggressive ball-in-hand football game that exists.”
The video, which features bone-crushing hits and impressive feats of athletic ability, goes on to explain the rules of the game in a way that compares and contrasts the game with what NFL fans are accustomed to.
“No helmets, no pads, no timeouts, no blocking, no forward passes,” Crowe explains further in the video.
In addition to the Rabbitohs, the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos will be featured in the regular season-opening doubleheader, which was announced in August of last year.
The Rabbitohs take on the Sea Eagles in the first game at 9:30 pm ET, whole the Roosters and Broncos square off at 11:30 pm.
The games will air live on FS1 and can also be viewed on the Watch NRL App.
Tickets for the games can be purchased here.
The games are part of a five-year deal that will see Allegiant Stadium host NRL games and the league hopes to expand their footprint to other parts of the United States.
“There’s a lot of action and continuity that goes into it. U.S. sports fans, not just NFL, will engage with the sport because it is so action-packed and because it is fast,” NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said in December, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
While Crowe’s Hollywood star power is sure to draw attention to the sport in the US, he wasn’t the only celebrity who has been trying to raise the profile of the NRL.
Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jordan Mailata was in Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend as an ambassador for the National Rugby League.
Among his promotional efforts, Mailata was filmed talking to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and asking Johnson his “thoughts on the ball” used in rugby.
While rugby doesn’t have a massive footprint in the United States, there are already some inroads.