I went to grade school in Nigeria, so It gave me some old country pride to see USC’s Kenechi Udeze chase down Adimchinobe Echimandu of Cal last week. Echimandu until recently had just gone by Joe Echima. Not so much I suppose as the average American trying to pronounce it, but because the jersey having no room.

Growing up near Chicago, I was in for some culture shock going home, especially on the playground. There was no football or baseball. Basketball only became big after Hakeem Olajuwon’s Final Four runs with Houston. Boys played only soccer. Except for years before Olympics, when track was in vogue. Now that I cover college football, it is as if the rosters read like the University of Lagos Staff School roll call.

Both Cal and USC have a long history of Nigerians playing football. Back in the mid 1990s, Iheanyi Uwaezuoke was wide receiver. His cousin, Nnamdi Asoumugha graduated last year. Joe Igber was Echimandu’s predecessor at tailback. The Trojans, in addition to currently having Udeze, had Ifeanyi Ohalete and Israel Ifeanyi on defense in the past decade. Ohalete is now with the Redskins and Ifeanyi played briefly for the 49ers. Stanford currently has seven players of Nigerian decent.

The majority of Nigerian college players are second-generation, often the first to be American. When Christian Okoye made the leap from Azusa Pacific to the chiefs, some thought it to be the start of a trend of Nigerian talent coming from overseas. Looking back, if I had taught football to my old classmates instead of learning soccer, who knows what talent I could have discovered.

No Rush to judgment

I figured it would only be a matter of time until Rush Limbaugh’s ignorance showed. After seeing the conversation, I believe he was guilty of just being ignorant about  television audiences’ and society’s reactions to racial issues. His comments about Donovan McNabb had nothing to do with football. If Rush wanted to give a speech on media hype on a player, that’s one thing. Using race to get a rise of people is another.  What he thought would slide on talk radio with his friendly audience doomed him on the larger, more public stage of national sports television.

Well if ESPN hired him to cause a stir, mission accomplished.

I wonder how much of this controversy was pre-destined. Rush got his 15 minutes (literally) of sportscasting fame and returns to his radio world with some publicity none the worse for wear. ESPN got some extra material for Eagles’ interviews and Outside The Lines. And all of a sudden, McNabb gets a reprieve from criticism for the 0-2 start and becomes a sympathetic figure. In brutal Philadelphia, that is almost a miracle. In a sick sense, everybody won.

I only wonder if the experiment putting non-sports people in sports talk will continue. The ability to reach across different audiences is an art that few have mastered.

Embele Awipi is a host on KNRY 1240AM. His column appears every Monday. He can be reached at embo1240@yahoo.com