BREAKING NEWS:
Nigerian American, AKBAR OLUWAKEMI-IDOWU GBAJA-BIAMILA Making Waves in Hollywood…His American Ninja Warrior show Receives 2nd EMMY Nomination Award as Best Reality Competition Series
*Former professional American football player works as Sports Analyst for the NFL Network
*Basketball Star, teammates won back-to-back City and State Championships in 1996 and 1997
*Named team’s Defensive Lineman of the Year, compiling 11 sacks and 74 tackles in his senior campaign
*HIS Yoruba Heritage, Nigerian ancestry, Biological Parental links to Bolatito (Mother), Mustapha(Father) Revealed
*PLUS How He played College Football at San Diego State University
BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF, UNITED STATES
HE IS A GREAT AFRICAN, with Nigerian ancestry and parental lineage. This Los Angeles born basketball star in California, United States reached the highest height of his professional American football career as a player, till he began to anchor ‘American Ninja Warrior’ with Matt Iseman successfully. This Nigerian-American works as a sports analyst for the NFL Network. Due to his hardwork, consistency, ‘American Ninja Warrior’ for the second time has been named in the Emmy Award category for Best Reality Competition Series. His words on the Emmy Award category: “It is the acknowledgement that this show has reached a certain level that people in the industry recognize. Now in its ninth season, the NBC series features contestants from around the globe navigating a wide variety of obstacle courses.”
While at Crenshaw High School in South Los Angeles, Gbaja-Biamila was a star basketball player on teams which were part of the Willie West Jr. coaching era. He and his teammates won back-to-back City and State Championships in 1996 and 1997. Gbaja-Biamila moved to play football during his senior year. He was an all-league and all-conference choice. He was also named team’s defensive lineman of the year, compiling 11 sacks and 74 tackles in his senior campaign.
This 38 year old basketball star was signed by the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2003 where he played college football at San Diego State University. He played for the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins. He is the younger brother of former Green Bay Packers defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila.
For the records, Gbaja-Biamila accepted a football scholarship at San Diego State University, where he was all-Mountain West Conference in his senior year of 2002. He joined the group Athletes For Education, one of a handful of collegiate players that were part of the outreach group, and worked with founder Steve Haynes and a group of San Diego-area professional players to go into communities and work with young people on life skills.
Akbar’s passion was speaking about financial literacy and spent hours working with youth in San Diego about the value of investing and understanding how the financial system worked. He also worked on reading and math programs with impoverished youth, giving him insight as a young athlete into the value of community assistance.
His enviable career below:
Oakland Raiders-
Gbaja-Biamila went undrafted in the 2003 NFL Draft and later signed with the Oakland Raiders as a free agent. He made the team out of training camp and played in 13 of the team’s 16 regular season games, while being inactive for three. He recorded seven tackles (four solo) on the season, with his first and only sack of the season coming against Daunte Culpepper, then with the Minnesota Vikings.
In 2004, Gbaja-Biamila split time between defensive end and linebacker, occasionally filling in for players such as Travian Smith and Tyler Brayton. He appeared in 14 games for the Raiders during the regular season and was inactive for two games. He accumulated a career-high 14 tackles (11 solo) and added a sack on the year. That sack came against Brad Johnson and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while he recorded a season-high three tackles in games against the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars. Gbaja-Biamila also recovered a blocked punt against the Carolina Panthers which led to a Raiders touchdown.
Gbaja-Biamila battled injuries during the 2005 training camp, was released by the Raiders on September 3. He had a workout with the Green Bay Packers two days later, but he was not signed and spent the season out of football. In 2008 re-signed with the Raiders and was released to retire as a Raider.
San Diego Chargers:
Gbaja-Biamila returned to the NFL in 2006 after being signed by the San Diego Chargers on January 12. The fit was a good one for him, who as slightly undersized yet quick defensive end was a perfect fit for the 3-4 defense employed by then-defensive coordinator Wade Phillips and the Chargers.
Miami Dolphins:
On February 6, 2007 it was announced that Gbaja-Biamila had been signed to a future contract with the Miami Dolphins. The move reunited him with new Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron, who was offensive coordinator in San Diego the season before when Gbaja-Biamila was a member of the Chargers. On September 11, 2007, he was released by the Dolphins. He spent the season out of football.
In 2005, Gbaja-Biamila was selected as one of the NFL’s first athletes into their Broadcast Boot Camp, held in Mount Laurel, N.J., and designed to give 20 players a short and rigorous look into the skills needed to embark on a broadcast or journalism career after their playing careers. He also took advantage of some time between playing stints to volunteer at KSWB, the NBC affiliate in San Diego, and ended up as the co-host for “Football Night in San Diego,” while he awaited his next chance back in the pros. He hosted the show for two and a half seasons (2006–2008) before getting one last shot in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins.
Revealing his full Nigerian heritage, this reporter’s investigation confirms that
Akbar’s full name is Akbar Oluwakemi-Idowu Gbaja-Biamila. Akbar is Arabic and means “great.” His middle and last names are Yoruba. The middle names, Oluwakemi means “God blessed me” and Idowu means “born after twins.” (One of his twin older brothers is Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila who was also a pro football player.) Their last name, Gbaja-Biamila means “big man come save me.” This name comes from his paternal great-great-grandfather who was 7 ft (2.1 m) tall and was the village moderator in his Nigerian village.
Gbaja-Biamila his of Nigerian ancestry, since his both parents were Muslim, until his mother converted to Christianity. He was raised under a Sunni Muslim household, he converted to Christianity while in college. In 2000, his father, Mustapha, after years of treatment, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In 2002, his mother, Bolatito, died in a car crash. While a member of the Chargers in 2006, Akbar routinely drove back-and-forth from San Diego to Los Angeles to spend time with his father.
With his playing career over, Akbar turned his focus to the broadcast booth in addition to his philanthropic work, serving as an analyst for the MTN Network and CBS Sports Network for two years, while also taking voice and acting classes. He also founded ‘Rush The Passer’, a year-round athletic and academic and life skills program for youth in Southern California. In 2010 was approached by reality producer Mark Burnett to be part of a three-man athlete team for his latest project on ABC, ‘Expedition Impossible’. That role, and the exposure that came with it, helped further Akbar’s exposure.
In 2009, Gbaja-Biamila was an analyst for Division I games on CBS College Sports. He was a contestant on the reality adventure game show Expedition Impossible. His team “The Football Players” finished in 4th place on the show.
As of 2012, he has joined the NFL Network as a member of the NFL Fantasy Live cast of hosts. As of 2014, he is a host alongside Matt Iseman for American Ninja Warrior being hosted on G4, Esquire Network and NBC. Akbar is also the co-host of Team Ninja Warrior alongside Iseman, a spin-off of American Ninja Warrior that debuted on Esquire Network in 2016. In his commentary, Akbar is known for the “Akbarism”, an inspirational and often humorous statement to describe the action.
