January 29, 2023: The wind was whipping at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs were tied 20-20 with time winding down in the fourth quarter. The Bengals defense needed to stop NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense to have a chance to return to the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs were approaching field goal range. Mahomes snapped the ball, evading the Bengals pass rush and finding his way out of bounds to set up what would have been about a 60-yard field goal attempt for kicker Harrison Butker. That’s when the yellow flags flew.
Second-year defensive end Joseph Ossai, who chased Mahomes out of bounds, made contact with the quarterback. Mahomes went to the ground. The officials called unnecessary roughness, a 15-yard penalty.
On the very next play, Butker kicked the game winning field goal, and the Chiefs went on to win the Super Bowl.
Mahomes gives it his all for the first down!
— NFL (@NFL) January 30, 2023
📺: #CINvsKC on CBS
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/fM5ertlhHi pic.twitter.com/z78Phcfkyp
Seven months later, Ossai sat down for an exclusive interview with WCPO.
“I was mad at myself for, for a while … but I learned to forgive myself and move on because it's a new year and, right now, all that's on my mind is redemption,” Ossai said.
After the game in January, Bengals veteran defensive lineman BJ Hill stood next to Ossai in the locker room as the second-year pro fielded questions from the media, showing his support and solidarity.
“People say, 'It wasn't your fault, whatever, whatever.' At the end of the day, it's a team sport and we play the game together and as a team, we were tied 20-20. I made a mistake. So that's forever on me … I hope the fans can forgive me. Actions are better than words and every day, every game I'm working to get back there and, and get that redemption for sure,” Ossai said.
Ossai was the center of the sports world for a news cycle, with Bengals fans wondering “what if?” Many didn't take the time to learn who Joseph Ossai is, and why he’s capable of coming back from this moment.
Ossai's journey to football
Before Ossai even knew what football was, he was a kid in Lagos, Nigeria. Ossai would come home from school, throw his backpack on the ground and run outside to play soccer with his siblings and neighbors.
“(Growing up in Nigeria it was) very free spirited … the whole neighborhood was outside playing soccer where it was a community almost, but it was still, you know, there were still the worries of a third-world country, and luckily my mom worked hard enough. We did decent,” Ossai said.
Ossai’s mother worked as a contractor while his father worked in the United Kingdom and would send home money.
One day, an unlikely scenario changed the Ossais forever.
“Crazy story: My mom hates gambling. She's always been like that,” Ossai said with a smile. “Her friends were going out and they told her, 'Hey, come on, let's go play the Visa lottery.' So she ended up playing and then she won, like two or three months later she got a call saying she had won.”
Ossai’s mother, Emmanuela Ossai, won the Diversity Visa lottery, a program sponsored by the U.S. State Department that randomly selects up to 50,000 people across the world per year to increase diversity in the immigration process.
“She thought it was a prank at first. But they were like, 'No, you won like eight green cards,'” Ossai said.
The thought of moving to the United States never crossed Ossai’s mind until the moment he found out he was moving. The decision to move to to America was an easy one.
“Because it's America, the land of opportunity … we had heard of America, we had heard of people going to study abroad and getting scholarships and becoming doctors and lawyers and eventually having to move back after,” Ossai said.
Still, the idea of the United States was abstract. Ossai’s schema of what the United States looked like strictly derived from the movie "Home Alone." Ossai would learn winter in Houston, Texas is a bit different than winter in Chicago and New York.
“I'm moving to Houston of all places and I'm ready to see snow, huge buildings, yellow taxi cabs,” Ossai said.
The Ossai’s moved to Houston because they had a family member living there.
After making a home for themselves in the United States, it was not exactly smooth sailing. Despite speaking fluent English, the Ossai siblings had a thick Nigerian accent.
“The accent of mine was very thick growing up, you know, kids, whatever they don't understand and make fun of. Being an immigrant coming from across the world, I was trying to get rid of it as quick as possible, trying to get those kids off my back,” Ossai said.
Ossai eventually got rid of his accent, however while he was working on assimilating to his new culture and tongue, he dealt with bullies.
“I don't know if I should say this because I'm not promoting any violence … One of those bullies, I remember his name, redhead kid Alex, huge guy. … Back then when we were all small and tiny and skinny … We finally stood up to him on the bus (after Alex was continuously taunting Ossai and his siblings) and we told him to shut up. He was chasing us, me and two of my younger brothers, to chase us to (our front door). The door was locked, we couldn't get in. So I was like, 'Alright man, let's do it.' So we turned around and we beat him up. So that was kind of the last day we got bullied,” Ossai said.
Besides not wanting to resort to violence, the Ossais waited a long time to stand up for themselves.
“As an immigrant, you tread lightly because you're always in there thinking, 'Oh man, I slip up and I could be sent back,' or 'I'm not really here, so I shouldn't step on toes.' We couldn't even fathom the idea of standing up for ourselves,” Ossai said.
Ossai went on to be a three-sport athlete in high school: A star in football, basketball and track. Youth American football is not played in Nigeria; it was Ossai’s uncle in Houston who introduced him to the game.
“I remember watching a game at his house and I thought it was rugby at first. I saw different movements and I was confused and I remember watching Big Ben (Roethlisberger) drop a bomb to Antonio Brown and he caught it and the whole stadium erupted … that's when I fell in love with the game because I was like, 'Man, how can that one guy make this many people this excited?'” Ossai said.
Immortalized
Ossai was a four-star recruit coming out of high school and his first offer was to the University of Cincinnati.
“College ball had never been in my mind,” Ossai said.
Instead, Ossai had his heart set on competing in track, hoping to one day compete in the Olympics. His high school recruiter sat him down, and told him the truth about the professional sports world.
“He says football in America in professional pays this much, track in America pays this much. I said, ‘I hear you brother.’ I was just thinking about my family, so I ended up choosing football,” Ossai said.
When the college scholarship offers started coming in, that’s when Ossai had felt like he earned the “American Dream,” telling himself, “You're going to go to school in America, you're going to get an education; if all else fails, you're going to get an education from America.’”
Ossai’s dream education came from the University of Texas. Ossai dominated college football as a Longhorn, earning consensus All-American honors in 2020.
“In Texas, when you're an All-American ... they put up a plaque of you. I see that in my freshman year and (said) 'I want one of those…I want to be immortalized,'” Ossai said.
Beyond football, mortality is a fear that weighs heavy on Ossai.
“I've always had this thing of wanting to live forever. I don't know where it came from. It made me fear my parents birthday. This is going to get dark, but I was thinking one day, they're going to die and I'm not going to see them anymore, and then I was like, oh man, one day I'm going to die. Will anybody remember me?” Ossai said.
Striving for immortality is why Ossai strives to be the best.
“Seeing that (All-American) plaque, it’s like, OK, I’m immortal. Like everybody from now until that kingdom comes, when they come into the Texas building, they’re going to see that plaque. To win those All-Americans, those district champs, those state champs, those conference championships, because it's going to go up on a banner. It's gonna be immortalized. Anybody who walks through and says, 'OK, that guy was on that team and he made that happen,'” Ossai said.
If you're there, we're going to get you
After Texas, Ossai entered the NFL draft. His intangibles were off the charts and his family expected him to be drafted early.
“Plenty of emotions because I was expecting myself to go higher, but again, God works in mysterious ways and I will not want to be on any other team. I’m glad I slipped. I'm glad I was able to get picked up here because the call from the Bengals went like ‘we don't know if you're going to be here, but if you are, we're going to be surprised and we're going to get you,’” Ossai said.
Ossai was available, and was drafted in the third round, 69th overall by the Cincinnati Bengals. Once Ossai got off the phone with the Bengals, reality sunk in.
"It's easy to get in, it's harder to stay in,” Ossai said.
Ossai was off to an impressive start in his rookie camp, but in a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, Ossai went down, dealing with something he never dealt with before — injuries.
“I’ve never been hurt,” Ossai said.
Ossai tore his meniscus.
“It's funny because during the draft process, one of the questions the all the scouts were asking was what's one of the hardest things you ever had to go through? And I was playing football and I was like, 'Nothing.' I've never been hurt. I would always have to say, 'Oh, moving to America.' ... (After the injury) I couldn't walk for the first time in my life, is one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through,” Ossai said.
Ossai had to sit on the sidelines as his team went to the Super Bowl. After seeing how close the Bengals got to lifting the Lombardi Trophy in 2022, Ossai came back ready to help however he could. Many experts had Ossai circled as a player who could be one of the biggest difference makers in the 2022 season.
“Down the stretch I was about to say I started to find my footing a bit, but there was a lot of growing pains, because I had missed a year of football and that definitely takes a toll,” Ossai said.
Coming back was tough, but reminiscing on the days he couldn’t play ball with his teammates pushed Ossai through.
“I remember there would be days I'd be tired, my body be hurting. But I think, man, just this time last year, you weren't even around the team, you can't even feel the energy of a win. So it was amazing (to be back),” Ossai said.
Ossai was an impact player on defense for the Bengals in the playoffs.
Then the penalty happened.
“Every game I'm working to get back there and, and get that redemption for sure,” Ossai said.
The next aspect of an American Dream, Ossai has the ability to write your own story.
“I want to be remembered winning that Super Bowl or that conference championship,” Ossai said.
Ossai suffered an ankle sprain in the final preseason game this season, but is determined that when he gets back on the field to be an impact player for the Bengals as the franchise attempts to win its first Super Bowl.
