Perry Baker might be the best American rugby player of all time – right now, he just needs a job
Perry Baker is a three-time Olympian and two-time World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year, second for all tries scored on the sevens circuit. Live, he claims to be not only the greatest American sevens player of all time, but also one of the greatest rugby players of all time – from any country, in any form of game.
But right now he just needs a full-time job.
“I’m really enjoying my retirement,” Baker said, not long after confirming his decision to retire from playing at age 38. “Being with the kids more, being at home more.”
Baker has three sons, ages two to twenty. His two-year-old son buzzes around as we talk.
“But I also enjoy the role of assistant coach. It’s a time to give back, to shape the next generation.”
Baker assists Simon Amor, the new U.S. men’s sevens coach, at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, near San Diego. But “it’s only until January. I pray to God that I can land something that is permanent.”
It seems remarkable that such a talent – tall and lean as the wide receiver he was, briefly signed by the Philadelphia Eagles, fast as the wind, tougher than the proverbial Bill McLaren bag of weasels – have to look for work. But in the US, where rugby’s roots are shallow and there are few coaching and media appearances, that’s often how it goes.
Baker thought about continuing to play on the sevens circuit for at least another year. But the end of the Olympic cycle brought changes – Amor replaced another Englishman, Mike Friday, as coach, and players changed too – and Baker could “see that it was time to move on. Just know that your time is up.
“I love playing, and at some point I will still play sevens, but at international level, doing that day in and day out, and traveling, it just became a strain on the body. Now I think I’m ready to do something different and find happiness elsewhere. I was thinking about playing 15s. For example, if things don’t go well when I want to become an assistant coach at a national level, I will definitely consider taking the MLR.”
Major League Rugby, the American 15-year professional men’s league, will play its eighth season next year. The league is experiencing the usual ferment: the Dallas Jackals will not compete in 2025 – but Baker would bring serious star power.
“I know my age is a factor for a lot of people,” he says, “but I’m not old in terms of playing rugby yet in terms of body.”
Baker thought rugby was young, in Florida with the everlasting name Daytona Beach Coconutsbut didn’t pursue it full-time until the age of 27, in 2013 at Tiger Rugby in Ohio. He was soon a regular in the US and while a decade on the sevens world circuit would test anyone physically, Baker is a winger, not a striker who is constantly punching and dishing out hits, and he hasn’t done too badly in terms of injuries. Tom Brady won a seventh Super Bowl at the age of 43. Aaron Rodgers is looking for a second one at the age of 40. Baker could certainly shine in the MLR.
“For me it’s an IQ problem. I’m smart enough, I know how to play the game, understand the game, I read the field differently, I’m still athletic enough to play, I can still jump, I can still run for sure and those good things doing. So I definitely wouldn’t mind going to 15s for a while, just to have that under my belt as well, and maybe even get some exposure on that front as well. Because I have been playing sevens at national level for so long, I think I have a fan base.”
He does. He continues to light up the internet, especially with some World Rugby called “an attempt by the gods”, a 100 meters special against Fiji in Las Vegas in 2018, a flurry of steps and swerves to beat four men in the blink of an eye before a racehorse sprints to the line.
Baker’s Eagles won that tournament, beating Samoa, Australia, Spain, England, Fiji and Argentina. They also won other titles, but when it came to the Olympics, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, they fell short each time.
OOlympic glory wasn’t always the plan. As Baker says, “That was to finish college [Fairmont State, in West Virginia]go to the NFL and play in the NFL for eight to 10 years, then retire by the time I’m 32 years old. A knee injury, discovered after he signed for Philadelphia, that didn’t work out. There were a few seasons of arena football, then Baker switched to rugby. “So it’s like, okay, now I’m going to the Olympics. I’m turning 28, I’ll play for a few years and play a World Cup [Sevens]by the time I’m 32, I’ll be done. It didn’t work that way.”
When asked about the highlights of his Sevens career, Baker praises team spirit.
“To be honest, that’s what I miss the most about the stuff with the boys. The good times with the boys. I was with those guys so much and it’s like now everyone’s just gone and doing their own thing. People are married now. People have children now. You talk about it so much, but you only realize it when you’re no longer in it. When you look at this new group, it’s like, man…
When asked about low points, Baker goes to an equally wistful place. And keeps going.
“It just doesn’t do what we wanted to do: not finish the job at the Olympics. The first [Rio] was like the unknown kind of deal. Tokyo was the one we knew we could win, and we didn’t get the job done. And then I had the same thing with the last one, [in Paris] Sure, but the medal wasn’t for me.
after newsletter promotion
“In the end, I felt like I had let down so many people who had supported me over the past ten years. And why I say that is because I have nothing for them, nothing for the people whose support is behind us, who believed in us. I played this thing for 10 years. My wife sacrificed so much for me for ten years, and I just wanted to show her a damn medal from the Olympics. To let my kids brag about it. Like my two year old, I don’t even know if they still show and tell at school, but it would be something cool that he could take. To give to my family, my parents, the supporters, my friend who introduced me to rugby, he had him put the medal around his neck and hold it, just to see their reactions.
“That’s why I wanted this last one the most… Oh man. It’s just… I don’t know. Something I don’t think I’ll ever get over. When you watch sports, there are always highs and lows. But I think the Olympic Games are the pinnacle of everything, and that was the main reason why I chose to come and play rugby, to become an Olympian, to chase a gold medal, and to do it three times is not easy .
Baker chased a dream and missed. It’s a stark contrast to the sheer joy of the US women’s team after they won bronze in Paris with a last-second defeat of Australia. As Baker speaks, Ilona Maher, the women’s star, stars on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, an Olympic success that boosts Internet fame. Baker salutes the women’s achievement… and looks wistfully at what could have happened.
IIf the women’s success is anything to go by, there is work to be done if American rugby is to thrive ahead of the 15th World Cup in 2031 (men) and 2033 (women). Players need to be found and led to national teams, as Baker himself was.
To that end, Baker has teamed up with Dallen Stanford, a sevens Eagle turned commentator, and Steve Lewis, a mainstay of the sevens game based in New York, to FlagX: an American version of an Australian-born rugby organization that offers competition to men and women, with an emphasis on attacking skills and fitness, to better strengthen tackling teams in sevens and fifteens up to national level.
Baker has already walked away Perry Baker Rugby Camps“because I want to introduce rugby and grow rugby. When you think about rugby in America, one of the biggest things is that our skill level, our rugby IQ level, is so low. You can watch a million videos and start digesting them, but you’re not practicing any skills at all, and so we’re always behind the top 10 countries. So with [FlagX] we go one step further. It’s a way to introduce a sport to newcomers who are afraid of contact. So you eliminate the contact, you have flags, and then you’re still implementing the skill levels. Not only that, but it can now also be a fundraising tool. You raise money and it stays in the club, so now your club can be sustainable.”
The idea is to make FlagX “a bit like CrossFit”: a franchise model, where clubs post scores and compete virtually, a community committed to the game, but also having fun and staying in shape. The effort will keep Baker busy. But as he says more than once, he’s still trying to figure out what exactly the rest of his working life will bring.
“Heck, I’m everywhere. I try to laugh. My main thing I want to do is be an assistant coach and also do my FlagX rugby. Those are the two things I really want to do.” But it also houses one vivid dream from a complete career change – to law enforcement.
Years ago, Baker interned with the New York Police Department. Now he says: “I don’t want to be a police officer. What do I want to do? I want to be a homicide detective. I don’t know, I feel like it’s my calling to help others. If you can do that and you are in a position to help others, then that is life.
“So for me, being a homicide detective is about solving cases, giving people closure and things like that, just trying to bring some kind of peace to a family. Because I remember being a kid and one of my best friends [Dimitric Moore] was murdered. The case was never solved, but I just remember the detective being so close to my grandmother and being there for us, my small, close group of friends. He was so cool, and it was just a little bit of peace. He spread happiness. He became almost like family to us. And I just feel like that’s where I am with my life, where I always wanted to be: helping others, giving back.
“Rugby changed my life. I can’t tell you. I never thought I would be in crazy Hong Kong. I would be in China. I’ve been to Japan. I never thought I could do that without rugby. My mom always said, “Why don’t you send pictures?” I said, ‘You know why, Mom? Because I want you to experience it for yourself.” My mother has been there now. She’s been to Hong Kong, you know. My mother came over a few times. That’s what I wanted her to experience.
“I am forever grateful to rugby. I would like to give that back to other children. Man, rugby is such a cool sport. The values that rugby provides, just being able to play and throw around and have fun and have fun? Like, dope, man. I love it.”
Unfortunately, it’s over for now. Such is our time. Laughing, Baker says: “Put a PS message in there too. Tell them I need a six-figure job.