Cleveland Browns Pass Rusher Ogbo Okoronkwo Grew Up a Skater

Ogbo Okoronkwo is an NFL defensive end. He signed a deal with the Cleveland Browns in 2023, the latest stop in his football career. After playing his college ball at Oklahoma, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams and spent a few seasons there before heading to his hometown team, the Houston Texans, on a one-year deal designed to boost his value. It worked, as the Browns gave him three years and $19 million on a deal. Not too shabby for a guy who didn’t start playing football until high school. Before that, Okoronkwo’s passion was skateboarding.

The new Brown was profiled the other day by the Cleveland website (its URL is literally “Cleveland.com”) and the conversation started with Okoronkwo’s first love of skating. Make no mistake, he was no dilettante on the board. Okoronkwo would skate 30 to 40 minutes out to the suburb of Sugar Land, Texas, which had a skate park. He stays there skating all day, and then heads home on his board at night. The NFLer called it a “cool trip.” Then, the football coach at his high school saw him in the halls and thought he might fit on the football team. When Okoronkwo was drafted he was 6’2’’ and 250 pounds, so we get what the coach saw. A lot of the piece is about Ogbo’s football career, but it’s interesting to see this hulking pass rusher and know he once had a deep passion for skating. His best trick, by the way? Okoronkwo says it was the Fakie Tre Flip he used to be able to pull off.