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TOPIC: parlayed his promising season

parlayed his promising season 7 years 11 months ago #74075

  • zhangzk
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Defensive end Efe Obada plays like a man fighting for survival when he steps on the football field.

Given his life story http://www.chicagobearsteamonline.com/brian-urlacher-jersey , it's understandable.

The Nigerian-born Obada says he was a victim of human trafficking at the age of 10. He said he and his older sister were abandoned in the streets of London, England.

Now he's a Carolina Panther.

The 26-year-old Obada is hesitant to divulge many details of his past, saying he still has "deep trust issues" with strangers and that he doesn't want to jeopardize losing his focus on maintaining his roster spot.

What he does share is far from the usual path to the NFL.

Obada said when he was 8 years old his mother arranged for him and his older sister to move from Nigeria to the Netherlands, where she was living at the time. After a couple of years of living there, she decided to send the children to the United Kingdom so they could have a better life.

That turned out to be a mistake.

Obada told the Panthers team website the stranger that was supposed to take care of children didn't carry through on the promise. Instead, he and his sister were left alone and homeless. There, they learned to survive until eventually they were discovered and placed in foster care. They moved from home to home until Obada was old enough to make his own decisions.

"I was young and I didn't have any say into what was happening in my life," Obada said. "I was ignorant to it."

Obada now knows he's not alone.

According to worldschildren.org, 21 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking 鈥?an issue Obada hopes to tackle when he has a more solid platform in the NFL.

Obada said he's simply not ready to talk about the details of what happened during that time of his life.

"Some of the issues, I haven't dealt with," Obada said quietly. "I haven't really taken time to understand. ... Right now I just want to focus on football and make the most of it."

Obada went to college in London, where he discovered the game of football for the first time at age 22.

He caught on with the London Monarchs, the equivalent of an American semi-pro team and helped them win a championship as a tight end and defensive end. He gained some attention there, and got a workout with the Dallas Cowboys while the team was overseas playing a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Obada signed with the Cowboys practice squad but was later released. Still, that opened some doors for him and he had brief stints on the Falcons and Chiefs rosters before joining the Panthers practice squad last season.

Obada was chosen as one of four players to participate in the NFL's International Pathway Program Geoff Swaim Jersey , which began in 2017. But he's the only one to make a final 53-man roster, which were determined on Saturday.

He's due to earn $480,000 this season, significantly more than the $129,200 that a member of an NFL practice squad makes.

"It instilled a hunger in me that I have until this day," Obada said of his early life experience. "And I feel like I can apply it in a game. It's kind of going into a state of survival 鈥?that is what I do every day. I don't take this opportunity for granted."

Panthers coach Ron Rivera said he sees that every day in practice.

The coach said 6-foot-6, 255-pound Obada's passion and drive is one of the things that helped him earn a roster spot over the team's 2017 third-round draft pick Daeshon Hall.

"He practices 100 miles per hour," Rivera said. "I got some guys, they get upset with him because on Friday (during walkthrough practice) he's going hard. But you say to the guys, 'Hey, if you came from where he came from, if you dealt with what he dealt with, that's the way you're going to approach everything in life."

Terrelle Pryor is hoping for a Big-Apple bounce-back with the Jets.

The former Washington wide receiver signed with New York after one disappointing season with the Redskins.

The Jets announced the signing Sunday. Terms of the deal, which were agreed to on Thursday night, were not immediately known.

Pryor had free agent visits with both New York and Seattle Chester Rogers Jersey , and also had interest from Cleveland, before he agreed to sign with the Jets.

”I’m so happy to be a part of this organization and this team, this young team,” Pryor said in a video posted on the team’s Twitter page . ”I’m excited. It’s time to get to work. Jet up!”

Pryor, who turns 29 in June, gives the Jets some depth at wide receiver, where they also have Jermaine Kearse, Quincy Enunwa and Robby Anderson, along with second-year pros Chad Hansen and ArDarius Stewart.

Anderson’s status is uncertain, however, after he was arrested in Florida in January on several charges, including threatening a police officer’s family and saying he would rape the officer’s wife. He was also arrested last May and charged with resisting arrest after sparring with officials who asked him to leave a Miami music festival.

His hearing has been postponed until August.

”I am really hopeful Robby will put this thing behind him and be the kind of all-around person that will make people proud to wear (his) No. 11 jersey,” Jets acting owner Christopher Johnson said Sunday at the NFL meetings.

”I haven’t talked with the coaches about Robby. I honestly think he is remorseful and trying to get himself in a better place. I believe him.”

Pryor signed a one-year, $6 million deal with Washington last year after having a breakout season with Cleveland in 2016, when he had 77 catches for 1 Kenny Clark Jersey ,007 yards and four touchdowns in his first year as a full-time wide receiver. He was being counted on to replace the departed receiving duo of Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson, but injured an ankle in Week 2 and tried to play through it. He finished the year on injured reserve and had ankle surgery, ending the season with just 20 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown.

He had more than three catches in a game just once last year – in the season opener – and Washington allowed Pryor to leave as a free agent. The former Ohio State quarterback-turned-receiver now has a chance to return to form as a potential deep threat for the Jets in new coordinator Jeremy Bates’ offense.

This marks the latest stop in what has been a wild football journey for Pryor, who has also spent time with Oakland, Seattle, Kansas City and Cincinnati in the NFL.

Pryor, a top high school recruit from southwestern Pennsylvania, was the starting quarterback for Ohio State from 2008-10 and became one of college football’s most exciting players. He threw for 6,177 yards and 57 touchdowns and ran for 2,164 yards and 17 scores in three seasons with the Buckeyes.

But Pryor withdrew from Ohio State in June 2011 after a memorabilia-for-cash-and-tattoos scandal that resulted in a five-game suspension and ultimately led to coach Jim Tressel’s resignation. Two months later, Pryor was selected by Oakland in the NFL supplemental draft.

He played in just four games during his first two seasons with the Raiders, including one start at quarterback. Pryor started nine games in 2013 with shaky results, throwing for two TDs and 11 interceptions before being benched in favor of Matt McGloin following a sprained knee ligament earlier in the season.

Pryor was traded to Seattle before the 2014 NFL draft, but was among the Seahawks‘ final cuts. He sat out the entire season despite having workouts with several teams. Kansas City signed him in January 2015, but then released him five months later. Pryor briefly joined Cincinnati Chidobe Awuzie Jersey , but was again cut – and then announced that he would be willing to play wide receiver on a full-time basis.

Cleveland claimed Pryor off waivers and he played in three games for the Browns, who named him a starter at wide receiver the following season. Despite still being raw at the position, Pryor’s athleticism and versatility was on full display in 2016 as he led the Browns in receptions, yards receiving, TD catches, yards per game and yards per catch.

In a game at Miami, he became the first player since Hall of Famer Frank Gifford of the Giants in 1959 to have at least 120 yards receiving (144), 30 yards passing (35) and 20 yards rushing (25) in a game. He also played a snap at safety and became the first player since San Francisco’s Billy Kilmer in 1964 to have three catches, carries and passes in a game.

With the Jets, Pryor is reunited with two teammates from that Cleveland team: quarterback Josh McCown and running back Isaiah Crowell.

Pryor parlayed his promising season with the Browns into a nice payday with the Redskins, and things started off well as he had six catches for 66 yards in the opener. But his production was inconsistent from that point before the ankle injury ended his season – and, it turned out, his tenure in Washington – after Week 11.



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