Post by Sly Fox on Nov 22, 2005 0:40:11 GMT -5
Here is a cool story on Sam from The Sporting News:
www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=37134
THIS GUY IS SOMETHING
Posted: November 21, 2005
Ever hear of Samkon Kaltho Gado?
How about Sam Gado?
He had been Anonymous. On his 23rd birthday, he became Somebody. That day, Brett Favre handed him the football 25 times and threw it to him four times. That day, the woebegone Packers won their second game of the season. Against a Falcons defense thought good enough to get to the Super Bowl, Sam Gado ran for 103 yards and scored three touchdowns.
Samkon Gado. SAM-kon GAH-doh, 5-10, 226 pounds. He's now my favorite running back because I'm a sucker for stories that begin, "You'll never believe this, but ... ."
You'll never believe this, but he was 9 years old and living in a rural Nigerian village without electricity when a church in South Carolina raised the money to reunite Sam Gado, his three sisters and their mother with his father, a Christian missionary who had come to America for the express purpose of learning enough to go back to Nigeria and do good.
So, after the game in Atlanta, what does Sam Gado do?
Calls his father in Nigeria.
"Oh, he was so excited," Gado said.
Is this a great world or what?
Five weeks before he became the NFL's unlikeliest star, Sam Gado sat in the bleachers at a high school football game.
For all he knew, his football life was over. He'd made the practice squad in Kansas City, a big deal for an undrafted rookie out of an evangelical Christian college in the mountains of south central Virginia. Then on October 4, a Tuesday, the Chiefs let him go. That Friday, he sat in the bleachers to watch his old high school team play.
"That tells you what kind of humble guy Sam is," says Bill Currier, nine years an NFL defensive back, later Gado's coach at Ben Lippen High School in Columbia, S.C., and now the school's athletic director. "Best thing was, he wasn't discouraged. Sam's had the numbers, 4.4, 4.5 speed, 230 pounds, benches 400 pounds. And he's always looking at the positive."
You'll never believe this, but Sam Gado wasn't a big college star. Playing at a private Christian high school, he'd drawn no football factory recruiters. Then, in four seasons at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., Gado started two games. He did well, once running for 219 yards. But his career stats came to seven carries a game, 6 yards a carry.
Wait.
He started two games?
First he was behind two veterans in a one-back offense. Then he ripped a hamstring. Finally, he sat out three games his senior season thinking he'd redshirt, only to be asked to play when the starters were hurt.
So when did the unnoticed Sam Gado first think of himself as an NFL running back?
The surprising answer: "My first year in college."
His coach, Ken Karcher, told him so. Once an NFL quarterback and pro coach, Karcher said, "Sam's like his idol, another Nigerian, Christian Okoye." Okoye was a 253-pound running back who played six seasons with the Chiefs, the last in 1992, Sam Gado's first year in America. "Sam's built like him, a little smaller but faster."
Now wait another minute. How many wanna-be pros spend four years in college content to start two games? While racking up a 3.66 GPA getting ready for medical school?
I suspect the answer is one. His name is Samkon Kaltho Gado, described by Karcher as the personification of Liberty's mission to shape "the whole person, academically, athletically, socially and spiritually. He has it all -- character, the work ethic, courtesy, politeness."
No one expected Gado to be drafted by the NFL. But when no team invited him to a free-agent tryout, Karcher called an old NFL colleague, Al Saunders, the Chiefs' offensive coordinator.
"I said, 'Al, I don't want you to miss Sam Gado. He can play in the National Football League. More important, he's a guy who will influence your locker room, your team and you. He will never disappoint you.' "
Gado was out of work less than two weeks when the Packers added him to their practice squad. About two weeks later, he was on the 53-man roster, their fifth running back and in for one play against the Bengals. But injuries moved him up, and the next week, against the Steelers, he carried 26 times for 62 yards and a touchdown. Then came Atlanta.
You'll never believe this, either, but when his football days are done, Sam Gado has a plan that has nothing to do with fame and money. He calls it "my obligation to my family." He wants to return to Nigeria as a doctor, perhaps as a surgeon, perhaps as an internist specializing in tropical medicine.
Don't you just love it?
Posted: November 21, 2005
Ever hear of Samkon Kaltho Gado?
How about Sam Gado?
He had been Anonymous. On his 23rd birthday, he became Somebody. That day, Brett Favre handed him the football 25 times and threw it to him four times. That day, the woebegone Packers won their second game of the season. Against a Falcons defense thought good enough to get to the Super Bowl, Sam Gado ran for 103 yards and scored three touchdowns.
Samkon Gado. SAM-kon GAH-doh, 5-10, 226 pounds. He's now my favorite running back because I'm a sucker for stories that begin, "You'll never believe this, but ... ."
You'll never believe this, but he was 9 years old and living in a rural Nigerian village without electricity when a church in South Carolina raised the money to reunite Sam Gado, his three sisters and their mother with his father, a Christian missionary who had come to America for the express purpose of learning enough to go back to Nigeria and do good.
So, after the game in Atlanta, what does Sam Gado do?
Calls his father in Nigeria.
"Oh, he was so excited," Gado said.
Is this a great world or what?
Five weeks before he became the NFL's unlikeliest star, Sam Gado sat in the bleachers at a high school football game.
For all he knew, his football life was over. He'd made the practice squad in Kansas City, a big deal for an undrafted rookie out of an evangelical Christian college in the mountains of south central Virginia. Then on October 4, a Tuesday, the Chiefs let him go. That Friday, he sat in the bleachers to watch his old high school team play.
"That tells you what kind of humble guy Sam is," says Bill Currier, nine years an NFL defensive back, later Gado's coach at Ben Lippen High School in Columbia, S.C., and now the school's athletic director. "Best thing was, he wasn't discouraged. Sam's had the numbers, 4.4, 4.5 speed, 230 pounds, benches 400 pounds. And he's always looking at the positive."
You'll never believe this, but Sam Gado wasn't a big college star. Playing at a private Christian high school, he'd drawn no football factory recruiters. Then, in four seasons at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., Gado started two games. He did well, once running for 219 yards. But his career stats came to seven carries a game, 6 yards a carry.
Wait.
He started two games?
First he was behind two veterans in a one-back offense. Then he ripped a hamstring. Finally, he sat out three games his senior season thinking he'd redshirt, only to be asked to play when the starters were hurt.
So when did the unnoticed Sam Gado first think of himself as an NFL running back?
The surprising answer: "My first year in college."
His coach, Ken Karcher, told him so. Once an NFL quarterback and pro coach, Karcher said, "Sam's like his idol, another Nigerian, Christian Okoye." Okoye was a 253-pound running back who played six seasons with the Chiefs, the last in 1992, Sam Gado's first year in America. "Sam's built like him, a little smaller but faster."
Now wait another minute. How many wanna-be pros spend four years in college content to start two games? While racking up a 3.66 GPA getting ready for medical school?
I suspect the answer is one. His name is Samkon Kaltho Gado, described by Karcher as the personification of Liberty's mission to shape "the whole person, academically, athletically, socially and spiritually. He has it all -- character, the work ethic, courtesy, politeness."
No one expected Gado to be drafted by the NFL. But when no team invited him to a free-agent tryout, Karcher called an old NFL colleague, Al Saunders, the Chiefs' offensive coordinator.
"I said, 'Al, I don't want you to miss Sam Gado. He can play in the National Football League. More important, he's a guy who will influence your locker room, your team and you. He will never disappoint you.' "
Gado was out of work less than two weeks when the Packers added him to their practice squad. About two weeks later, he was on the 53-man roster, their fifth running back and in for one play against the Bengals. But injuries moved him up, and the next week, against the Steelers, he carried 26 times for 62 yards and a touchdown. Then came Atlanta.
You'll never believe this, either, but when his football days are done, Sam Gado has a plan that has nothing to do with fame and money. He calls it "my obligation to my family." He wants to return to Nigeria as a doctor, perhaps as a surgeon, perhaps as an internist specializing in tropical medicine.
Don't you just love it?
www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=37134
