CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It sounds almost too good to be true. And in a way, it turned out to be exactly that.
Former Charlotte 49er Larry Ogunjobi had a dream season for an NFL team that captured lightning in an orange-and-black bottle. He started for the Cincinnati Bengals at defensive tackle and put up his best stats ever. By all rights, he should also be starting for the Bengals on Sunday night when they take on the Los Angeles Rams in the 56th Super Bowl, trying to pull off one final, improbable upset in the Rams’ home stadium.
But ...
He’s not actually playing.
“I’ve got mixed emotions about all this,” Ogunjobi said when we talked by phone.
Although Ogunjobi will earn a Super Bowl ring if the Cinderella Bengals can win one more game, and although the Bengals sorely want him on the field, that’s not possible.
In Cincinnati’s first playoff game, on Jan. 15 against the Las Vegas Raiders, Ogunjobi was playing well and had already recovered a key fumble. But later in the game, he broke his foot while, as he said, “taking a step I’ve taken a million times before.” Ogunjobi’s cleat got stuck in the artificial turf in what he said was a non-contact injury, and he had to be carted off the field. A few days later, he had surgery.
It was a Lisfranc injury — you may remember that Cam Newton had one of those once — and it ended Ogunjobi’s season prematurely. It forced him temporarily into a walking boot and onto crutches.
And so although Ogunjobi started 17 games for the Bengals this season and posted a career-high seven sacks, he hasn’t played in Cincinnati’s past two playoff games as the Bengals upset Tennessee and then Kansas City, both on walk-off field goals. And now he won’t get to play in the biggest game of all at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in SoFi Stadium in search of Cincinnati’s first Super Bowl championship.
Ogunjobi plans to be inside the stadium, but all he will be able to do is cheer.
“When I got injured, that first night was tough,” Ogunjobi said. “But I prayed about it, and I know God doesn’t make mistakes. I’m happy for my team. It does suck as a competitor. But now, on Sunday, I have to be the best teammate I can be.”
A Charlotte 49ers star
The Bengals went 4-11-1 in 2020, the year before making this Super Bowl run, but Ogunjobi wasn’t terribly surprised. He has seen a football program get built from the ground up before.
Ogunjobi is one of the founding fathers of the Charlotte 49ers’ football program, with his name attached to one “first” after another. He signed with the 49ers before they ever played a single game, then starred for Charlotte’s first four football teams from 2013-16. Among his firsts:
— First Charlotte player to be named all-conference.
— First Charlotte player to be drafted (third round, 2017, by the Cleveland Browns).
— First Charlotte player to play in an NFL game.
— First Charlotte player to represent the 49ers in the Super Bowl.
The 49ers football program loves to trumpet his rise, as well it should. Ogunjobi, the son of Nigerian immigrants, grew up near Greensboro, going to Ragsdale High in Jamestown. He was a large teenager, but the weight wasn’t properly distributed.
“I started out as an obese, 350-pound kid who couldn’t even get into a football stance,” Ogunjobi said. “Now I play at 310-315 with 12% body fat.”
Ogunjobi had a decent high school career, but not one that made major colleges come calling.
“I had five scholarship offers,” he said. “It was Charlotte, Furman, Howard, Presbyterian and Catawba College.”
At Charlotte, though, he continued to transform his body and became a fearsome defensive lineman. The Cleveland Browns picked him with the first pick of the third round in 2017, and he played four years there, starting the final three. Then he signed a one-year, $6.2-million contract to switch to a division rival, Cincinnati, before the 2021 season so he could help out a defense that had finished last in the NFL in sacks in 2020.
Sitting out the Super Bowl
Ogunjobi immediately became Cincinnati’s best interior rusher and has been lauded as one of the best things to arrive in Cincinnati from Cleveland since legendary coach Paul Brown.
As the Cincinnati defense got better and defensive end Trey Hendrickson (14 sacks) emerged as an edge-rushing Pro Bowler, a Bengals offense led by quarterback Joe Burrow, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and running back Joe Mixon became dangerously good. Cincinnati’s playoff run this season has resembled the one made by the 2003 Carolina Panthers, who also burst from the shadows in a hurry.
Deeply religious, Ogunjobi has read the Bible cover to cover at least seven times, he said. His family has long believed football made him healthy, because it was only after he discovered the sport in high school did he get off the couch, put down the video game controller and begin getting himself in shape.
“We believe that him playing football was a divine intervention, the hand of God,” Ogunjobi’s father, Larry Sr., told an Observer reporter in 2017. “When you look at the sequence of events, you know it has to be.”
“I’ve been blessed,” Ogunjobi said in our interview. “I can’t say that enough. ... And outlook determines outcome. I’m a firm believer in that.”
Ogunjobi promises not to feel sorry for himself Sunday. He’ll be too caught up in urging on his teammates.
And about that contract Ogunjobi signed for the Bengals for 2021: It was a one-year deal, remember. Cincinnati surely will want him back and probably has the inside track, but Ogunjobi is also scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in mid-March.
“I’ve put myself in a great position,” Ogunjobi said.
Like all NFL teams, the Panthers are looking for defensive line help, and Ogunjobi is only 27. What if he returned to his old college city as a pro?
Ogunjobi laughed.
“I’m not even thinking about that right now,” he said. “I’ve loved my year with the Bengals, and we need to win this Super Bowl first. But I will say this: No matter where I’m playing next season, I’m going to attack my rehab. And I’ll be back and better than ever.”
