Ezra Mam has declared that being booed in every NRL game he plays “doesn’t bother me” and only pushes him to play better against the home team he’s trying to beat instead.
Mam was inundated with booing at Brookvale Oval in Round 13, which marked his first away game since he was suspended for nine games — a ban he well and truly earned after crashing his ute in Brisbane’s west last October.
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The crash, which was highly publicised throughout the NRL and wider media in the following weeks, left three injured, including an Uber driver and his two passengers, one of whom was a young girl.
Mam was later charged with drug driving and driving without a licence, which landed him an $850 fine.
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Though he was mostly welcomed back positively in Brisbane in Round 11 when the Broncos lost to the Dragons (there was some booing from the home fans early in the match) the Round 13 journey to Manly was the first time Mam had to face the music away from Suncorp Stadium — and to begin with, he didn’t even realise it was for his ban.
Instead, Mam responded to the boos through most of the match thinking they were heckling him for calling out racism. Mam was called a “monkey” by Roosters player Spencer Leniu in Las Vegas last year, then spent much of 2024 being booed.
“It doesn’t really bother me – I’m just happy to be playing footy,” Mam said after the Saturday match, where he scored a try.
“It’s not going to stop my performance. The only thing that will stop my performance is myself. If anything, that only motivates me more to prove people wrong.
The Broncos five-eighth continued: “[Racism] has been in my life my whole life, it’s second nature to me. When you’re one to call something out, it comes back a bit harder. I’m not afraid to stand up for myself and my people, and people who look like me.
“I’ll keep doing that as long as I want… if that means I get booed, I get booed.”
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When Mam was told the boos were likely because of his offseason crash, he pointed complaints to the police. “In regards to the off-field incident, I’ve done the punishment I was given, and if people don’t agree with it, they can take it up themselves [with authorities],” he said.
“I’ve dealt with those punishments, I’ve come back to footy… that’s my main goal now.”
The Broncos went on to lose, but Mam played well and said the booing “motivated me to play hard.”
