According to the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, and as mentioned in a tweet by Great Britain’s Efe Obada, the 23-year-old has signed a contract with the Chiefs.
Originally signed by the Dallas Cowboys in 2015 as a raw recruit from the London Warriors in Great Britain, Obada spent 2015 literally learning the game of football. He was so raw when he joined Dallas that he had to learn the rudiments of the game. The only football he had played in his life was a total of five games for the Warriors in 2014.
Excited to join the Kansas City @Chiefs, Thanks for all the support ! #NFL #ChiefsKingdom
— Efe Obada (@efe_obada) March 10, 2016
The Cowboys had initially brought Obada to camp in 2015 on the urging of Warriors defensive coordinator Aden Durde, who served as a coaching intern for the Cowboys in the summer of 2014.
In rookie mini-camp, Dallas coaches tried him at tight end and then moved him to defensive end. He was moved to the Cowboys‘ practice squad in September and released in early October. On December 2, he was re-signed to the practice squad and finally waived on March 2, 2016.
Obada’s story is straight out of a movie.
At the age of 10, Obada and his sister were trafficked from the Netherlands into England and left homeless as soon as they arrived in London. They lived with a family friend for five years, but because she already had five children of her own, they were sent to social services, who would move them from one family to another. He was working as a security guard at a food warehouse just outside of London when the Cowboys picked him up.
The 6’6″ and 255 lbs Obada seems to have the physical tools to make it in the NFL but the question still remains if he has the football acumen to make it past training camp this year as well. However, with a year of practice and preseason games with Dallas under his belt, his chances are far greater in 2016.