Wearing a tilted Ravens hat and a fixed look of disbelief, David Ojabo plopped onto a bench at his draft party, stealing a break from the celebration. He scrolled through his texts and shook his head at the sight: 105 unread messages and counting. Nearly all of them could wait until morning, the former Michigan edge rusher said, but he made a lone exception for the person who motivated him to start playing football in the first place.
“I’m moving in with you, so create space!” Ojabo hollered to Odafe Oweh over video chat, pumping a fist and flexing a bicep into the camera. “I’m a Raven, brooo!”
Less than six years ago, as an international transfer student still adjusting to life abroad, Ojabo left behind his first love of basketball for a sport in which he possessed zero prior experience and admittedly knew little terminology beyond field goal and touchdown. Why? Because of the example set by Oweh, his friend and fellow native Nigerian at Blair (N.J.) Academy—and now his teammate along Baltimore’s defensive front seven after Ojabo was selected in the second round, at No. 45, last Friday night.
