According to Craig Peters of Vikings.com, the Vikings have signed Polish offensive lineman Babatunde Aiyegbusi. Less than 10 days ago, the 6’9″, 351-lb Aiyegbusi was still living overseas.
Aiyegbusi’s agent, Jeff Griffin, helped the 27-year-old find his way to an NFL contract despite never even playing college football.
The lineman received his travel visa on March 19, and he arrived in the States shortly after. Aiyegbusi first participated in a pro day hosted by the University of Texas-San Antonio.
[pull_quote_center]“We went over those drills for about an hour and a half,” Griffin told Wright. “He got up Monday morning and performed those drills. So what you saw, that was raw. He had just learned the day before, then went out there and did it.”[/pull_quote_center]
On Wednesday, the Vikings hosted Aiyegbusi at Winter Park. Just one day later, he is signing a contract. Apparently, they liked what they saw.
In 2014, Aiyegbusi played for the Dresden Monarchs as part of the German Football League. The year before, he played for the Wroclaw Giants, who won the Polish American Football League championship.
A polish journalist described Aiyegbusi as “the most dominant player in the history of Polish football” to VT writer Arif Hasan. I’m taking that with a grain of salt, considering the level of Polish football, but the praise is note-worthy nonetheless.
There have been four other Polish players in the NFL prior to Aiyegbusi, including current kicker Sebastian Janikowski.
Aiyegbusi weighs in at a little larger than Phil Loadholt … which is big. It definitely looks like he’ll be a little green around the edges, but Aiyegbusi could be a huge (no pun intended) asset for an offensive line that struggled most of last season.
Here is a look at Aiyegbusi’s Pro Day stats:
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Sweet
Awesomely big dude. Thanks for the post and also the part about how to pronounce his name.
He's a long shot but, great story.
Poland is apparently part of Viking Territory.
His highlights in the Germany league are hilariously impressive. In one run play he pancakes 3 guys. I don't know how all that mass will transfer to the NFL but he sure is intriguing. Watch out Kalil ya lil' squirt LOL
Bring him to camp, might end up on the practice squad for a year as he fine tunes his NFL techniques, but all in all, another solid not spectacular signing.....good stuff. Maybe he will shock us all and be able to handle the NFL right away.....!
pretty funny highlights. He constantly out powers the opponents as he is throwing them ten yards back. I hope he shows some of that against the NFL teams. He may also be a candidate for middle of the DLine. The highlights showed him lined up in FG blocks and he seems to have great push off there as well. Zim should be able to figure something out.
DT? I like how this guy thinks!
Lets just call him 'Baba Looey' (That was the name of the faithful sidekick of Quick Draw McGraw.)
he's a double team in one body
Maybe 'Badatude I-make-a-Beg-ya-wussi' for a nick, huh? huh?