Efe Obada

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Efe Obada
Efe Obada.jpg
Obada in a game against Washington
Carolina Panthers - No. 94
Defensive end
Date of birth: April 13, 1992
Place of birth: Nigeria
Height: 1.98 m Weight: 120 kg
NFL debut
2018 for the Carolina Panthers
Career
 Teams:
* Off-Season and / or Practice Squad member only
Current status: Active
Career highlights and awards
Selected NFL stats
as of week 17 of the 2019 season
Tackles     32
Sacks     2.0
Forced fumbles     0
Interceptions     1
Statistics at NFL.com
Statistics at pro-football-reference.com

Efe Obada (born April 13, 1992 in Nigeria ) is a British American football player of Nigerian origin on the position of the defensive end . He is currently under contract with the Carolina Panthers in the National Football League (NFL).

Obada never played college football and was never drafted , but came straight to the NFL from the London Warriors of the UK's top football league . After only being part of the training team at the Dallas Cowboys , Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons , he made it into an official NFL squad for the first time in 2018 with the Panthers.

Early years

When he was eight, Obada and his younger sister came from Nigeria to the Netherlands , where their mother lived. Two years later, he and his sister fell into the hands of a people smuggler , were taken to London and dropped off there. They spent two nights on the street in the suburb of Hackney before a security guard let them sleep in an abandoned apartment block, provided them with food and re-established contact with their mother. Later, a family of friends with five children took them in temporarily, after which they lived with ten different foster families .

At 21, Obada was working as a security guard at a food factory in north London to enable himself to study at Kingston University . But he could not pay for the planned architecture course . Instead, he threatened to drift into the gang scene in his home town of Croydon in south London . His girlfriend at the time, now his wife, convinced him to move away from Croydon.

Thanks to a friend, Obada came into contact with American football at the age of 22 with the London Warriors. After a few training sessions, he was used in offense and defense . Obada only played five games for the British champions of that year, because after a recommendation from his coach and mentor at the Warriors, Aden Durde , the Dallas Cowboys offered him a trial training session . They signed him on April 1, 2015 as an undrafted free agent .

Professional career

2015 and 2016

Obada took part in the Cowboys rookie camp in Arlington, Texas and was tested on the offense in addition to his original position as defensive end on that of the tight end . Before the 2015 NFL season , the Cowboys deleted him from the main squad, but gave him a contract for the training team. After the season, Obada was released on March 2, 2016. In the same year, the Kansas City Chiefs (for 3 months) and Atlanta Falcons (1 month) signed him briefly. But when the 2016 season began, he was and remained without a team.

Since 2017

As part of an international NFL support program , the Carolina Panthers signed him on May 25, 2017. This time he spent an entire season in the training team, because as a promotional player he was protected from dismissal. The rest of the teams in the Southern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) were each allowed to sign a promotional player.

After strong performances in the preseason games of the season in 2018 Obada was on September 2 in the official 53-man squad called the Panthers - to his own surprise. On the first two match days of the season he was still surplus, on September 23, 2018 he finally made his debut in the NFL in the home game against the Cincinnati Bengals . Obada is the first player ever to have made it straight from a European amateur league to an NFL appearance. He also got an interception and a sack against the Bengals , which earned him the honor of NFC Defender of the Week .

Later that season, he posted the second sack of his career in the away game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers . Overall, Obada played 10 of the 16 games in his rookie year. On January 23, 2019, he signed a new one-year contract with the Panthers.

On May 7, 2019, the NFL announced that it had signed Obada, along with prominent players such as Odell Beckham or Patrick Mahomes as well as other British NFL professionals such as Jay Ajayi and Osi Umenyiora, as ambassadors for the newly opened NFL Academy in London.

In the 2019 season , Obada was used in all 16 of the Panthers' games. In contrast to the year before, however, this time he did not succeed in a sack, an interception or a forced fumble . On January 6, 2020, he signed in Charlotte for another year.

Private

Obada is married, the wedding with his long-time girlfriend took place before the transfer from London to the Dallas Cowboys in 2015. He does not disclose any details about his wife, his younger sister or the whereabouts of his mother.

Web links

Commons : Efe Obada  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Efe Obada makes Carolina Panthers roster. Retrieved April 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Donald McRae: Efe Obada: 'I still have to face some of my demons internally, as a man' | Donald McRae . In: The Guardian . March 25, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Matt Wilhalme: Dallas Cowboys sign London warehouse worker Efe Obada to play in NFL. Retrieved April 26, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Dallas Cowboys sign Brit hopeful Obada. April 2, 2015, accessed April 25, 2019 .
  5. ^ Cowboys sign London Warriors prospect Efe Obada. Retrieved April 26, 2019 .
  6. Jump up ↑ Cowboys Waive Former Practice Squad Players Efe Obada, Donte Foster. Retrieved April 25, 2019 (American English).
  7. ↑ In My Own Words: Efe Obada. Retrieved April 25, 2019 (American English).
  8. ↑ Brian Beversluis: Panthers Awarded DE Efe Obada as part of the International Player Pathway Program. May 25, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2019 .
  9. ^ Obada on journey to NFL: 'A state of survival'. September 4, 2018, accessed April 25, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Efe Obada is a player the Panthers need and a story everybody loves. Retrieved April 25, 2019 .
  11. ↑ https://pantherswire.usatoday.com/2018/09/26/panthers-de-efe-obada-wins-nfc-defensive-player-of-the-week/
  12. ↑ Efe Obada: Game Logs at NFL.com. Retrieved April 25, 2019 .
  13. ^ Efe Obada signs one-year contract. Retrieved April 25, 2019 (American English).
  14. ^ League to launch NFL Academy in London. Accessed May 10, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Efe Obada signs one-year contract extension. Retrieved January 6, 2020 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Obada, ivy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British American football player
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1992
PLACE OF BIRTH Nigeria