Silver and Black Report

There is more than meets the eye when you see Isaiah Ekejiuba. The Oakland Raiders’ special team standout is a football player that is well rounded, diverse, has an understanding of life on and off the field and that has accomplished much in his lifetime.

In my conversation with the 6’4” 240 pound Nigerian born linebacker, I gained an understanding of how important his early life was as he made his travels through varying continents because of his late mother’s job with the United Nations and eventual landing at Colgate University where she taught.

How was it growing up; having a distinct up bringing, being born in Nigeria, living in different continents and eventually settling in the United States?

“That was a big influence, living in different places, because you learn a lot of different things in terms of dealing and appreciating other people for their beliefs and their culture. And I think that translates, when you work and go out here and play football you play with people that you do not necessarily interact with prior to football. Now you are working together and lone and behold you are best friends.”

Ekejiuba continued, “That helped me a lot, that transition to learn and appreciate people for their beliefs and their thinking; looking things outside the box and it helps in football meeting a lot of new people.”

His mother Felicia was very influential in his life. Ekejiuba proclaimed this and explained how she succeeded in presenting him a dynamic environment for him to develop in.

At a young age she tried to get me interested in a lot of things. Not just video games or books, it was a balance of things. You read a little, you travel a little and you learn to do all those things – you are just not one-dimensional. And I think that was instrumental in my growing. Through her teachings it helped with one; my work ethic, which she believed before sports, that you do all your schoolwork. That work ethic helped me believe that there was nothing I couldn’t do. And she made me believe that.

That ethic had him hitting the books in college at Virginia before he started playing football. In college is where he got his first taste of the football field as a mean to take his mind off some of the studies he was focused on – a path that would take him to unexpected heights in his life.

I was doing electrical engineering and it always seemed like I was always doing schoolwork. I needed a little bit of a distraction. And at the time, I knew a guy on the football team and he was talking about the team and how much fun they had.

It was something different to do; something outside of school. I didn’t think I would come this far. It was something that I wanted to do at the time and I have just been blessed to be at this point in my career.

After college, Ekejiuba went un-drafted. He may have not seen himself being one of the better special teams players in the NFL at that point of his life, but he also didn’t put his eggs in one basket and depended on his NFL career as a lone way of making it in this world.

I honestly didn’t see myself where I am right now. When the draft was coming up, I was a little nervous and I had just worked out for a couple of scouts on our college pro-day. I knew I was not going to be a guy that was going to get drafted because I didn’t have that much film. But there were a couple of scouts that had talked to me and said, ‘well listen, you did pretty good, we may take a look at you’, but it was just people talking and I didn’t believe anything.

Log on to SBReport.net in the coming days for part two of the exclusive interview with Isaiah Ekejiuba, where he talks about his arrival in Oakland, his views about being a solid player on special teams, his dream scenario on a kickoff, his thoughts on Johnnie Lee Higgins’ breakout campaign, first-year coordinator John Fassel, Tom Cable’s hiring, Raider fans, his three-year contract and negotiations with the Silver & Black and his teammate Marquis Cooper.

Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist