Despite recent personal issues, Sam Burgess is one of the toughest men to grace a rugby league field but he was choked up on SAS Australia.
Former NRL hardman Sam Burgess has been brought to tears on Channel 7’s SAS Australia as he remembered his father.
Burgess has been the biggest drawcard for the show after his messy divorce from his ex-wife Phoebe, court appearances and a drug-driving charge already proving to be reality TV gold.
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It was revealed that Burgess was paid between $150,000 and $200,000 to take part in the show — more than double what most of the other celebrities earned and he’s live up to that top billing so far with some difficult admissions.
Having been the big drawcard with his recent scandals, Burgess had already been interrogated in episode one of the series, opening up on his drug driving charge and “an affair with a girl — a woman in Melbourne”.
In 2018 he was involved in a texting scandal with a woman in Melbourne — the screenshots unveiling the alleged affair that started a year before.
Now five episodes into the series, Burgess’ toughness is undoubted as he was dragged into another interrogation.
Asked “where do you see yourself within the pack”, Burgess believed he was a frontrunner, which the interrogators confirmed.
Told his approach to the show was “military”, Burgess was asked “where does your work ethic come from?”
“I guess my work ethic comes from my dad,” Burgess said. “He was just a hard grafter. I’ll never forget when we were kids, we dug the cellar out of our house where we grew up. He was sweating, sweating so much. I said ‘Dad, why are you sweating so much’. He said: ‘son, when you do the job properly, you sweat. I was only a young kid then but it stuck with me for the rest of my life. But that’s where my work ethic comes from, just do the job properly.”
He was asked if his father was his biggest influence.
“Yeah, massively,” Burgess added. “He was just a good man. He was just a really good man. He had four boys and was just kind and he was tough and he was just a great man. We lost him when I was a bit younger which was sad but he taught me enough before he passed away to carry on my life.”
Burgess’ father Mark was a former rugby league footballer himself with the four brothers — Luke, twins Tom and George and Sam all playing Super League and in the NRL.
Tom, George and Sam were all part of the 2014 NRL Grand Final winning South Sydney Rabbitohs side.
Sam played out the game despite breaking his cheekbone in the first tackle of the match.
But Mark, who suffered motor neurone disease, died when Sam was 18.
“Crap disease, it’s awful,” Burgess said.
“It’s pretty demoralising. Your muscles sort of eat away and everything just stops – you become just a body, really with the same mind. Everything just stopped until he passed away.
“He actually passed away while coming to watch me play. I played first team for Bradford in 2006, made my debut at 17. I told him not to come because I’d worry about him in the stand when I wasn’t with him. It was freezing and I knew he was deteriorating. Anyway, I saw him in the crowd. I started shaking my head, I was laughing that he got his way to the game through one of the parents. And he was freezing cold and from that night on he was in hospital for a couple of weeks and he passed away a couple of weeks after that.
“One of the biggest things that hurts me in life is he never saw my brothers play professionally. At that age, you just never know how far they’re going to get in their careers and they’ve all gone on to have wonderful careers. It’s one of the biggest things that hurts me – he never seeing us all play together.”
Burgess choked back tears and wiped his eyes at the thought.
“My dad was a pretty amazing man, he was pretty heroic,” Burgess added. “I spent every day with dad. I’d carry him up the stairs at night. I would help him in and out of the bath. It was a very pivotal time in my life.“
Burgess previously opened up on the downfall of his personal life, cheating on his ex-wife Phoebe Burgess and checking in to rehab to deal with a drug problem.
Burgess was medically retired from rugby league in 2019.
“They found cocaine in my system while I was driving my car. Pretty embarrassing. Pretty embarrassed about that,” he says. “The last 18 months, I felt like a loser. My marriage broke down. I’d just retired from sport. My ex father-in-law had taken an AVO against me. … Two days after I retired, I separated my marriage-”
“Was it already on its way out?” one of the soldiers asks.
“Yeah, a little bit, yeah. I don’t think I was the greatest husband at times. I embarrassed my wife. I had an affair with a girl – a woman in Melbourne. Yeah. It’s true. I was away on tour. Regretful that it happened.”
Burgess went on to admit he just completed 28 days of rehab after 18 months where “Everything I touched turned to s***”.
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