Four Immigrant Viking Hopefuls Fight For Their Chance
LBVikings
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With a sport so predominantly American as football is, it’s often surprising to see cultural diversity in an NFL locker room. Sure, there may be players who grew up in suburban Idaho and went to Stanford mixed in with someone who grew up in the back alleys of Miami-Dade, but most everyone is still American.
Occasionally, you’ll see a high-profile story of someone like Moritz Böhringer coming from a German league or Jarryd Hayne coming from Australian rugby stardom. But the stories of those who immersed themselves in American culture before immersing themselves in football can get lost in the shuffle.
The Vikings have mixed in four members of other cultures into the locker room. DE Ade Aruna moved from Nigeria, while DL Ifeadi Odenigbo, S Jack Tocho, and T Dieugot Joseph grew up in immigrant homes, but were born in America. Which presents its own formative dynamics.
Ade Aruna grew up in Akure, Nigeria but moved to LaPorte County, Indiana to try and break his way into basketball. He quickly turned to football, got into Tulane, and found himself drafted by the Vikings in the 7th round.
“All they want is the opportunity to make the family proud, be great,” he said of his parents. “They know nothing about football, even though they came last year when I graduated. I was trying to explain to them, but they didn’t really get it. They just want the best for me.” In 2018, parents not understanding their kids’ jobs is far from uncommon. But what’s important to Ade is making them proud, even if they’re a little lost on the details.
Ifeadi Odenigbo spent most of his formative years in a Nigerian household in Centerville, Ohio. He lacks the thick Nigerian accent that Ade Aruna sports, but has no trouble breaking one out to poke fun at his defensive line teammate.
”I look at Ade, he reasons exactly like my dad. I look at Ade, like, ‘coach I don’t understand this’, dude, this is my dad at 22. So I’m a little more understanding of my dad now.”
Ifeadi’s parents weren’t nearly as receptive to the idea of him playing football as Ade’s were. “They didn’t know what football was,” he said, before using the same Nigerian accent to joke about his father. “Ifeadi, you are my son, you must focus on academics, my son. … I would go to the library and study and that’s why I was top of my class.”
His parents struck a deal with him in tenth grade: “Make honor roll your freshman year, and we’ll think about it.” You can probably guess whether or not he pulled that off. After getting a football scholarship to Northwestern, his parents eased up. “My son, you knew what you were doing the whole time,” Odenigbo continued to quote his father with a wide grin on his face.
Odenigbo spent last season on the Vikings’ practice squad, much like Jack Tocho. Tocho came of age in a Kenyan household in Charlotte, North Carolina. Unlike the two Nigerians, Tocho grew up watching the Panthers.
”I just remember Sundays watching games. It wasn’t a second thought, I was just like, ‘I want to play football.’ That’s the way it was from eight years old on to now.” Tocho’s father was a Raiders fan when he first moved to the United States, but rest assured, he’s a massive Vikings fan now.
Tocho’s rookie year was tumultuous. He failed to make the 53-man roster, and was put on the practice squad. But Tocho was waived and re-signed three times over the course of the season.
”It was very hard. Not only was I on and off the practice squad but I was transitioning from corner to safety. So just trying to learn the nuances of the new position as well as get my foot into the NFL was very difficult.” But Tocho has a strong network of support. “I had my family, I had my faith. I had people in my support system that kept me encouraged … I was able to push through and persevere and take it as a learning lesson.”
Dieugot (JEG-go) Joseph is the only member of this group that wasn’t drafted. He grew up in a Haitian home in Orlando, Florida, and got into football with his family’s tentative support. “As soon as I told my mom what I wanted to do, I mean, she was a little scared about it, but she was all with it. She was all for the education, she was all for that football.”
A theme for all of these players is the support of their families, whether they want their sons to be in football or not. From Tocho’s aggressive fandom to Odenigbo’s persistent battle with his parents, each of these players were able to pursue their dreams with a support network behind them.
It’s unclear who of these four will make the team, if any. Odenigbo, Tocho and Joseph have already been cut. Aruna is fighting for a roster spot in a stacked defensive end room. But for the time being, all they can do is try to get better. These players will never shed the cultural influences that incubated their childhoods, but for now, they all play under one flag: a purple and gold one.
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