By Dan HayesAssistant Sports Editor
It was deja vu all over again for Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila.
The Green Bay defensive line was riddled with injuries, strugglingand facing a crucial game (Oct. 15) against the powerful SanFrancisco 49ers offense. Because of the circumstances, the Packerswere forced to call upon Gbaja-Biamila, who hadn’t played a down allseason, to fill part of the void.
In order to do so, the team had to move its 2000 fifth-round draftchoice up from the practice squad to the 53-man roster.
As the game neared, Gbaja-Biamila’s coaches grew more and morenervous. Meanwhile, he remained calm.
“They were telling me that I needed to be prepared,” Gbaja-Biamilasaid. “They were real nervous because it was the 49ers, but everytime the coaches talked to me I said ‘Coach relax, it’s going to beOK.'”
But, how?
Why wasn’t this untested rookie worried when he was playing hisfirst game of the season against the high-scoring 49ers?
Flash back to Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1996 …
Gbaja-Biamila, then a 19-year-old San Diego State freshman, wasgetting the first start of his collegiate career against thetriple-option offense of the Air Force Falcons.
Hehad been inserted into the starting lineup after the team’s bestlineman and defensive player, Adrian Ioja, had been lost to aninjury. Then-defensive line coach Ken Delgado was stressed. How couldhe replace Ioja, easily his best player, with an untested freshman?
To make matters worse, the game against Air Force had possiblebowl implications as SDSU entered with a 7-3 record. Also the teamwas going up against AFA’s option and quarterback Beau Morgan, onnational television.
“Coach Delgado was nervous,” Gbaja-Biamila recalled. “I had anonchalant attitude. I was very relaxed, and coach said that if Ididn’t take the game seriously that Beau Morgan was going to run upand down the field on us. I don’t know if I was confident or what butI just wanted to go have fun.”
The end result, a 28-23 Aztecs victory, left the team with an 8-3overall record and was just the beginning of an outstandingcollegiate career.
“We lost Ioja,” Delgado said. “He was all-conference, probably onthe way to being player of the year. But Kabeer came in and had agreat game. He was able to slow play the quarterback and acted like aone-man wrecking crew on the option. It was a coming out for him.”
Gbaja-Biamila played three more seasons in an SDSU uniform,racking up a school-record 33 sacks. Two of those three seasons hehad 12 sacks, the fourth-most in a single season. In the end, he wascoronated the “sack-king” and left the program with high hopes for aprofessional career.
As the draft approached, Gbaja-Biamila needed an agent. He triedthe International Management Group, but he said he was politely shownthe door because he wasn’t a projected first or second-rounder.
Instead, Gbaja-Biamila chose head coach Ted Tollner’s son, Bruce.
“I liked his integrity,” Gbaja-Biamila said. “He wanted to workwith me and didn’t come off as a guy who tried to know it all. Plus,if anything did go wrong I could go to his dad and he could probablyground him.”
In April, Green Bay made Gbaja-Biamila its fifth-round draftchoice. He participated in the Packers mini-camp and entered thesummer camp third on the depth chart.
As the preseason started, Gbaja-Biamila was admittedly nervous.Three times he played, and three times he went without a sack.
“I was trying to put on a show,” he said. “Finally, I said tomyself ‘this is the last opportunity.’ I was just going to go out andhave fun and be relaxed. If I’m going to fail, I’m going to failbeing relaxed and calm.”
Four quarters later, Gbaja-Biamila had four tackles and his firstNFL sack.
But, his final performance didn’t remove him from the choppingblock as he was given his release on Aug. 27.
The team wanted him to remain in Green Bay, but as a practicesquad player.
“I was heartbroken,” Gbaja-Biamila said. “I had a place andeverything. My heart dropped for a second there but then I realizedthat maybe it wasn’t so bad.”
Flash back to the present …
Gbaja-Biamila entered the game against the 49ers looking to makemore of an impact than he had in the preseason. He only saw action on16 of the team’s defensive plays, but one was a monster.
“I went around the corner,” he said. “I saw the quarterbackgetting away from my teammate John Thierry and I remember everythingwent silent. I just grabbed him right there and brought him to theground. I got up and the noise came back and everybody was excited.
Thus began the NFL career of Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila.
