NFL safeties Husain and Hamza Abdullah did not play football in 2012, choosing instead to make a pilgrimage to Mecca as part of their observance of their Islamic faith.
The brothers made their choice knowing that it might impact their ability to return to the NFL, but one of them has lined up a shot at a job for the coming season. Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun reports that Husain Abdullah will work out for the Chiefs later this week as the first step toward a comeback to the football field.
Husain Abdullah played 54 games for the Vikings over four years after making the team as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He started the final 24 of those games, including all nine that he played in 2011 before a concussion ended his season. The Vikings offered Abdullah a contract extension last offseason that he turned down in order to make his pilgrimage.
His brother Hamza played 16 games with the Cardinals in 2011, the seventh year of a career that has also featured stops in Denver and Cleveland after he was a seventh-round pick of the Bucs in 2005.