Daniel Adongo is still finding it a little hard to believe that he’s at an NFL training camp right now, signed by the Colts as an outside linebacker, even though he has played no American football at all in his entire life.
Adongo, a Kenyan rugby player whose athleticism caught the eye of NFL scouts, said it amazed him when he found out the Colts were willing to offer him a job that could potentially be very lucrative.
“It came as a shock,” Adongo said, in comments distributed by the team’s PR staff. “I really appreciate the chance that I’ve got. Going forward, I want to be the best I can be for the team. That is what it’s about here. That’s the culture being built in the boys.”
The 6-foot-5, 257-pound Adongo admitted that he doesn’t know much about football, but he said he plans to bring “Servitude, loyalty, aggression, physicality and being a team man” to Indianapolis.
“I’m pretty much starting from scratch, but I’m a quick learner. I have to make sure I’m up and ready to go when the time comes,” Adongo said. “Everything is going to be pretty new to me.”
Adongo said he watched the Super Bowl and conference championship games and has seen “a couple of videos,” but he doesn’t know much about football. Colts defensive coordinator Greg Manusky said the Colts are going into this with the understanding that Adongo will need time to get up to speed.
“We know he doesn’t know much,” Manusky said. “I think yesterday or two days ago was the first time he put a helmet on, so it’s a little bit odd and different but we’ll see what he has.”
It’s probably unrealistic to think that a player who never even wore a football helmet until this week could play this season, but if Adongo shows off good athleticism and a desire to learn, he’s just the kind of player that practice squads exist for.