Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- A regal presence: Adewale Ogunleye was brought to Chicago for one reason: to turn the team's defensive line into something special

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A regal presence: Adewale Ogunleye was brought to Chicago for one reason: to turn the team's defensive line into something special

Football Digest - December 1, 2004

HE IS THE GRANDSON OF AFRICAN royalty and he carries himself as if he were heir to a throne of his own. But not when Adewale Ogunleye is on the football field. Then he is fire and fury, nasty and tenacious.

The defensive end changed his mailing address from Miami to Chicago when the Dolphins traded him to the Bears in mid-August following a contemptuous holdout. Ogunleye's move to Chicago could out to be the perfect marriage. The Bears have lacked a solid pass-rusher since Richard Dent recorded 12.5 sacks for Chicago in 1993. Since then, pressure from the defensive line has become nonexistent along the lakefront.

Ogunleye recorded 15 sacks for the Dolphins in 2003, a figure that led the AFC. The Dolphins did not want to let him go, but when running back Ricky Williams retired to a life of smoke and sightseeing and wide receiver David Boston suffered a season-ending knee injury in the summer, they had to do something to upgrade the offense. Hence, head coach Dave Wannstedt and general manager Rick Spielman swallowed hard and sent Ogunleye to the Bears for wide receiver Marty Booker.

Ogunleye immediately fell in love with the Bears, partially because they gave him a six-year, $33.4 million contract. For that money, Chicago expects a double-digit sack artist. If that seems like a lot of money for someone who came into the league as an undrafted free agent, it is. But if it seems like a lot for someone who worked himself into a Pro Bowl defensive end, it's not. Many of his contemporaries also received overwhelming contracts. Jevon Kearse signed an eight-year deal worth $62.6 million, including $16 million in guaranteed money, with the Philadelphia Eagles. Grant Wistrom received a six-year, $33 million deal, with $14 million guaranteed, with the Seattle Seahawks. The Green Bay Packers gave restricted free agent Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila a six-year, $37.5 million deal, with $11 million guaranteed.

Signing Ogunleye to such a huge deal was good for the Bears in a number of ways. In addition to the obvious--giving the Bears a better pass rush--it goes a long way in changing the team's image. Ever since Mike Ditka played fight end for the Bears in the 1960s, they have been categorized as a cheap organization. The facts may not have necessarily backed up the assessment, but the reputation stuck when Ditka quipped that Bears owner and founder George Halas "threw nickels around like they were manhole covers."

It is clear that the Bears are no longer cheapskates. Ogunleye has pledged to meet the team's expectations, and even go beyond them. "I am at an age where I can see something and get better at it," he says. "I am young enough that I am physically able to improve something if I can see it with my mind. I haven't even touched my potential yet. I am just going to continue to get better and continue to make plays.

"I'm very excited to get to this point--to get on with the rest of my career," Ogunleye said after the trade. "[Miami wasn't] going to compensate me what I'm worth and I just have to move on. Now I have to go out and prove I am worth it. I'm just real excited."

Ogunleye isn't sure why things went wrong in Miami. He says he played on a couple of one-year deals with the understanding he would eventually get his market value. But after he led the team in sacks, produced the most tackles among defensive linemen, and earned team defensive MVP honors, he says the Dolphins were reluctant to pay him what he's worth. All they offered him was a tender offer of $1.824 million, which was never in Ogunleye's ballpark.

He decided to wait out the Dolphins, spending much of his time working out and keeping in shape. That, however, wasn't all he did. The former English major also spent his time reading The De Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Instead of stewing in his own juices, he went to the library.

Ogunleye was starting to get a bit antsy, but then the Bears acquired him. His moved to Chicago hit the city like a bolt from the blue. Since the Bears have needed a big-time pass rusher on the defensive line

for more than a decade, some viewed Ogunleye as a savior in Blue and Orange. However, questions still have been raised about his talent. In Miami, he played on the same line as defensive Jason Taylor and defensive Tim Bowens, along with a sensational secondary that included cornerbacks Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison.

The Bears had been down a similar path once before. They acquired defensive end Philip Daniels from the Seahawks in 2000, a year after he had recorded nine sacks. In Seattle, he played next to huge defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, who was one league's best players at his position. Daniels never fulfilled expectations in Chicago, and some critics believe Ogunleye will meet the same fate since he did not bring Taylor and Bowens with him.

Ogunleye doesn't listen to the critics. He believes he has developed into a player of his magnitude because of the hard work and effort, not because of who was playing around him. "I don't think not playing opposite Jason is going to hamper my ability," he said after signing with the Bears. "This defense is one where the ends are going to make plays. It might be even more of a blessing because you need these young guys [rookie defensive tackles Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson] to be able to push, and they're going to continue to be better."

He made it clear that rushing the passer isn't his only skill. Ogunleye, who led Miami's line in tackles last season, didn't get onto the field in 2002 until he proved he could also stop the run. The Dolphins, after all, already had a sack specialist in Taylor. Ogunleye thinks he fits into Chicago's hybrid cover-two scheme perfectly. "I think this is a great situation," Ogunleye says. "I don't feel any need to justify a contract or to justify me being here. Now all I want to do is go out there and play football.

"To anyone who thinks it's going to be hard, I'll tell you right now, it's not going to be. I have been doing this too long for it to be. It's not like I'm being switched to something new. I'm a pass-rusher who provides some containment against the run. That's my job and that's what I've gotten very good at."

Ogunleye the man may be even more interesting than Ogunleye the football player. "I don't think that my. Nigerian heritage gets overplayed too much when I come to a new place," Ogunleye says. "I think the culture is very rich and very interesting, although my home is Staten Island. But I'm very proud of what my grandfather was and what my parents have done. Let's face it, if nothing else, it keeps everybody writing about it, brings some attention to a different sort of thing for a player in this league. I guess it's my spice."

Ogunleye's family is from the state of Ekiti, four hours from the Nigerian capital of Lagos. There, his grandfather was the king who ruled over 250,000 people. But the grandfather's death in the 1960s caused Gabriel Ogunleye to set out for New York the early 1970s. He later married, and Adewale was born in 1977.

Both of his parents received college degrees and maintain jobs as social workers in Manhattan and Queens. Along the way, they moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island. It was in Staten Island that Ogunleye picked up the game of football for the first time. He immediately took to it and made an impression on his coaches. He played his college football at Indiana and was on his way to a sensational senior season in 1999 with 7.5 sacks when he tore up his knee at midseason.

If Ogunleye had stayed healthy, he probably would have been a third-round draft pick. However, teams were scared off by the injury and he went undrafted. The Dolphins signed him as a free agent and were immediately impressed with his abilities and his demeanor.

"I may not have been drafted, but I had great confidence in myself," Ogunleye says. "I figured all I needed was a couple of chances and they would be able to see what I could do. That's why I never pressed. All I needed was a chance to show what I could do. It worked out in Miami, and I am sure it will work out here."

If it does, the Bears will have the pass-rusher they've lacked for so many years.

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