BEREA, Ohio -- Emmanuel Ogbah’s journey to the National Football League started far away from Oklahoma State University and his new team, the Cleveland Browns, who selected him with the No. 32 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft in April.
A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Ogbah immigrated to the United States with his family as a nine-year old child, and now, has a chance to live up to his father’s goal.
“My dad just wanted a better life for my family,” Ogbah said. “There was a lot of corruption back in Nigeria.”
Growing up in Nigeria, Ogbah played a different kind of football as a youngster, but quickly found a knack for the American game when he was in junior high school.
“In Nigeria, I played a lot of soccer growing up,” Ogbah said. “When I got here, I played basketball, too, before I transitioned to football.
“I started playing football in seventh grade. The reason why I really tried football is because my friends were playing it. I’ve been in sports ever since I was young, so I just decided to give it a shot, and I ended up being really good at it.”
Once he got acclimated to American football, the 6-foot-4, 275-pound Ogbah became an impactful defensive end for Oklahoma State in all three of his collegiate seasons, and registered 133 total tackles, including 95 solo stops and 38 assists for the Cowboys.
Of Ogbah’s tackles, 35.5 went for lost yardage and 26.5 were sacks of opposing quarterbacks. Also, he forced five fumbles and recovered two others during his collegiate career.
As a junior, Ogbah set career highs for solo tackles (42), assists (21), total stops (63), tackles for lost yardage (16.5), forced fumbles (four) and sacks (12.5). He had double-digit sack totals as both a sophomore and junior for the Cowboys.
“I’m a relentless player and I love to get to the quarterback,” Ogbah said. “That’s how I play.”
And the Browns are hoping Ogbah can have a similar impact at the NFL level.
“He's an edge rusher,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said. “The guy is 6-4 and he's 275 pounds that has 4.6 speed. He's had 24 sacks in the last two years, so as Sashi (Brown) just alluded to, one of our goals when we set this draft the way we have is to one, obtain a dynamic player, which we did in Corey Coleman, and to get an edge rusher, and obviously, he was the best guy sitting there and he was too good to pass up.
“So this guy brings a dynamic on defense. We say we want to be suffocating and we understand that we have to affect the quarterback in our division and throughout pro football, and this guy has that element. He can do that. We're looking forward to him being here, and again, adding another really good player to our football team.”
