By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
April 16, 2007
LOS ANGELES – A tailor who makes custom suits for the likes of LaDainian Tomlinson and Shawne Merriman was taking measurements of Amobi Okoye, but it was too late to salvage Okoye's wardrobe that day. There was no choice but to wear the same sweatpants he'd been in for 24 hours, along with a white T-shirt, sneakers and an expression that shifted between resignation and disgust.
Okoye, a 19-year-old defensive lineman, is expected to be taken in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft and become the youngest player to join the league since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger – provided he can survive days like the one last week.
With the tailor still scribbling down measurements, Okoye was showering and trying to shake loose jet lag. A scheduled appearance on "The Best Damn Sports Show" had turned into The Big Damn Headache.
When a driver who was dispatched to bring him to the Fox Studios arrived, Okoye was still waiting on his lost luggage. He was still recovering from a canceled flight that turned his trip from his home in Huntsville, Ala., to Los Angeles into a 10-hour odyssey. He was still irritated that he couldn't find pants with a 44-inch waist at the mall across the street from the Century Plaza Hotel, and still peeved that his poor man's Blackberry was on the fritz. Then he headed downstairs and began looking for the limo.
There was none.
The driver was in a non-descript SUV, and instead of looking for Okoye – he's hard to miss at 6-foot-2 and 300 pounds – the driver was waiting on the potential NFL star to find him. Shaking his head, Okoye climbed into the back seat, took a call from an acquaintance and groaned, "If you only knew what I've been through the last two days…"
If you only knew what Okoye had been through in the last 19 years, you might have guessed how this would all turn out.
Growing up in Nigeria, he was learning how to read when most children his age were learning how to talk. He started school at 2½. A decade later, in his new home of Huntsville, Ala., Okoye became an instant curiosity – not because of his football prowess, but because he was a 12-year-old in the ninth grade.
He played only one game as a 13-year-old sophomore, but started as a junior and as a 15-year-old senior. By then, he drew double teams and the attention of Division I college football programs.
Signing with Louisville, he agreed to consider sitting out his first year as a redshirt. Bobby Petrino, then head coach at Louisville, joked that Okoye would play only if he could shave. After two weeks of fall drills, Petrino got the kid a razor. Okoye had no use for it, but Petrino realized he could use this prodigy on the field.
At 16, Okoye played his first down of college football.
Out of uniform, he looked like a boy among men. In uniform, he looked like a man among boys.
With Okoye anchoring the defensive line this past season, Louisville went 12-1 and beat Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl. By then, lo and behold, the once whiskerless prodigy actually had grown a tuft of hair on his chin and a thin mustache that made him look, well, no older than his actual age of 19. More importantly, he developed into a top NFL prospect and, in typical fashion, earned a degree in psychology a semester ahead of schedule.
However, less than two weeks from the NFL draft, people are still asking about Okoye's age, but no one's asking if he's good enough to play in the NFL. In fact, they're wondering if he might be among the first 10 picks. Since the NFL scouting combine, he has interviewed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have the fourth pick; with the Miami Dolphins, who have the ninth pick; and the Buffalo Bills, who have the 12th pick. Then there's the Atlanta Falcons, who not only have the eighth overall pick but also have Petrino, who left Louisville for the NFL after last season.
With Okoye set to become the youngest player to join the NFL in more than 37 years, the person who sounds the most concerned is Okoye's older sister, Chioma, who dropped off her "little brother" at the airport last week. Okoye saw a tear streak down Chioma's face and he hugged his 23-year-old sister.
"Sis, I'm going to be fine," he said.
Of course that was before the canceled flight, lost his luggage and other travel-related headaches. But Okoye cheered up by the time he got to Fox Studios and saw the spread of cold cuts in the green room.
He fixed himself a sandwich and took a few bites before a man strode into the room and boomed, "Who's this football player I've been hearing about?"
The man was John Calipari, coach of the University of Memphis basketball team and that day's guest host of "The Best Damn Sports Show." They exchanged grins and a warm handshake. Dressed in the same sweatpants and a borrowed black T-shirt, Okoye bantered with Calipari and looked comfortable during the on-set interview. Then the crew escorted him to the adjacent set and skills challenge set up for Okoye and other top NFL prospects who'd recently joined the show.
So there was Okoye, wearing a blonde wig, bouncing across Astroturf on a hippity hop and throwing a nerf football through a tire. Ten minutes later, he was still grinning.
"That was fun," he said.
By September, Okoye will be tested like never before: a 20-year-old expected to hold his own against some of the toughest and meanest men on the planet. Okoye smiled.
"I can't wait," he said.
Josh Peter is a writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Josh a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Updated on Monday, Apr 16, 2007 8:40 pm EDT
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