Not all Superheroes wear capes. Some wear snoods.

These were the words of Rob Burrow, broadcast into a tear soaked and emotional interview conducted by BBC Breakfast with Kevin Sinfield. Kevin had just completed his 7th Marathon in 7 days, raising over ï¿¡2M towards MND Research and family support, in honour of his friend, and former Leeds Rhinos and England team mate, Rob Burrow.

Rob has lost the use of his voice, so this phrase was transmitted from his phone from a bank of phrases and words that Rob recorded before he lost his voice. Rob punched up the words and they emerged with Rob’s daughters sitting alongside him. It choked up not just Kevin, and the presenter, but most people watching.

As Chair of the RFL, being an Ambassador and promoting the best of the sport is part of my job. But at times like this, seeing Rugby League people being a force for good in society, it is easy to be proud of the family of Rugby League.

But Kevin's effort is worthy of even more praise and is exposing the best of our Rugby League family to a far wider audience. This on a day when the fundraising from Kevin's marathon runs has passed a staggering ï¿¡2m, with donations coming in all the time.

He was not the only one undertaking superhuman efforts to raise money for this cause. Oliver Holmes of Castleford Tigers cycled 100km per day for 7 days , and his social media encouraged donations either to his effort or to Kevin’s. The Rugby League family has informally adopted the MND Association and the need to raise funds for research and care for those suffering. Countless acts of charity and challenges have raised not just vital funds but also awareness. Perhaps this is all because of the fact that one of our best, most respected and popular players, Rob Burrow, has been so cruelly afflicted so soon after he retired from playing.

There are shirts being auctioned, challenges being undertaken, special events held.

Rugby League does this kind of thing instinctively. We reach out and support our own and widen our appeal for the benefit of wider society. The sports industry rarely sees this, but I see it all the time and it is a source of enormous pride. Rugby League’s social impact is huge, in inverse proportion to the attention generally given to our great sport by the mainstream media and the lifestyle media.

But, perhaps, we are beginning to see some cut through for Rugby League. Much of this will have come from the coverage that BBC Breakfast and BBC News has continued to give of MND and how Rob Burrow, along with Doddie Weir (Rugby Union) and Steven Darby (Football), are fighting against this cruel disease.

We examined the interactions for sports on Facebook in December, which showed that nearly 300,000 interactions were recorded for Rugby Football League and England Rugby League. This was nearly three times as many as for Rugby Union, where England won a trophy on Sunday, more than Cricket, where there has been a tour of South Africa and more than twice that of football. This awareness has come when our season is finished, but when the Rugby League family is doing such amazing things.

Our digital team at the RFL have done a great job. Content with passion, purpose and engagement is exactly what you want from a digital offering.

Rugby League is a force for good and as I have said before, it is high time that it receives wider coverage and appreciation for the social impact that it has.

Rugby League’s social impact is estimated at ￡185M. We reach the hard to reach communities disproportionately and in this way, RL can uniquely improve health, reduce crime, provide education, life satisfaction and volunteering.

• 46% of players are from the lowest socio economic groups
• 42% of our players are in the lowest quartile for education.

We reach those that society is leaving behind. Crucially, we are embedded in the communities of the North that are so central to this Government’s “levelling up” agenda.

And we are diverse. We are the only leading sport in the UK that has developed Women’s, Wheelchair, Physical Disability and Learning Disability formats of the game, all played under the badges of their professional Clubs and with England representative teams.

In fact, the Rugby League World Cup 2021 will be the first tournament of a major sport that will simultaneously hold, in the same country, at the same time, Mens, Women’s, Wheelchair and Physical Disability World Cups.

We have wonderful stories, characters, role models and heroes to work with across all levels and formats of the game. We have people who provide articulate stories about what impact they are able to have on their communities.

During lockdown, Rugby League players mucked in first and asked questions later.

Players did amazing challenges to raise money for research into MND. They got out delivering food parcels, they volunteered to do heavy lifting for the NHS. RLWC2021 made available 2021 free tickets for the World Cup to key workers as a thank you for their work during the pandemic.

Rugby League is embedded in its communities. And these are communities that are increasingly the focus of economic, political and government activity.

The country has had a glimpse in these last few days of the great characters that Rugby League has and what our Rugby League family can offer to the wider community.

Kevin Sinfield has achieved huge national media coverage of his amazing effort. It was a truly incredible achievement.

It was not unusual for Rugby League. We do this all the time. What is unusual is how much coverage it has got.

Now that people know of what our sport can achieve, we can understand why Rob said that “Not all Superheroes wear capes”.