Rob Burrow was a former professional rugby league footballer who spent sixteen years playing for Leeds Rhinos in the Super League, before retiring in 2017. An England and Great Britain representative, he spent his entire professional career with Leeds. At five foot five, and weighing less than eleven stone, Burrow was known for many years as ‘the smallest player in Super League’.
Despite this, he was one of the most successful players in the competition’s history, winning a total of eight Super League championships and two Challenge Cups, being named on the Super League Dream Team on three occasions, and winning the Harry Sunderland Trophy twice.
On 19 December 2019 it was publicly revealed Burrow had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). The BBC followed Rob for a year for their documentary My Year with MND. It was watched by over two million people. His autobiography Too Many Reasons to Live was a Sunday Times no. 1 bestseller. Together with Kevin Sinfield, he wrote an illustrated gift book, With You Every Step: A Celebration of Friendship. Rob died in June 2024.