Driven to succeed on and off the grid iron
Kpassagnon’s journey to the NFL was unconventional. It began for him in Uganda.
By Dennis Waszak Jr.
TAMPA, Fla. — Tanoh Kpassagnon grew up in a home where excellent grades and academic achievements were not only encouraged, they were expected.
That’s what happens when your mother’s a chemist and father an economist, both holding doctoral degrees. The bar is set incredibly high.
“I kind of always joke around with my mom,” the Kansas City Chiefs defensive end said with a smile. “I told her I got a Ph.D. in football instead.”
Well, Dr. Kpassagnon is about to head to the office again Sunday, with his sights set on winning a second straight Super Bowl.
“Dreams are dreams until they come true, you know?” Kpassagnon said. “And they definitely have come true.”
You see, the 26-year-old Kpassagnon’s journey has been a bit unconventional. He grew up with his mother Winifred Wafuoyo in Ambler, Pennsylvania, a small city about 15 miles north of Philadelphia. Wafuoyo, who’s from Uganda, wasn’t familiar with American football, so Kpassagnon gravitated to the “other” football as a kid.
“Soccer was actually my first love,” he said. “That was the only sport my mom actually knew of. Once I got introduced to football, I just kind of jumped right in without knowing too much . ... It’s really that rush you get, man. It’s never gone away. And I still have it. So it’s awesome.”
Kpassagnon — whose full name is pronounced TAWN-oh Pass-N-yo — was a naturally gifted athlete, dabbling in three sports at Wissahickon High School: football, basketball and track and field. But there was something special about him on the football field.
Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante, who was the Wildcats’ assistant head coach and offensive line coach then, was on a recruiting trip to scout a running back at Wissahickon when Larry Cannon, one of the school’s assistants, asked him to check out Kpassagnon.
“All of a sudden, this 6-foot-7, 240-pounder comes walking down the hall,” Ferrante recalled with a laugh. “So from that day all the way through into the summer camp months, I was just trying to encourage him to come to one of our one-day camps.”
Kpassagnon, who didn’t appear on any scouting lists, attended the final session — coming off a two-week trip to Orlando, Florida, with the Future Business Leaders of America. Kpassagnon ran his 40-yard dash in 4.74 seconds, an eyebrow-raising speed for someone his size.
So, Ferrante had him run another. And Kpassagnon clocked the same time.
“Through the rest of the camp, he just impressed in everything we did,” Ferrante said. “He just became more and more impressive.”
Villanova offered him a scholarship the next day and Kpassagnon accepted soon after — with one condition from his mother: that he earn admittance into the business school.
Well, he did. And became a star at Villanova — on the gridiron, after redshirting his first year, and in the classroom.
Kpassagnon was a double-major in accounting and finance, carrying a heavy academic workload while carving out a path to a football career. He also spent two summers interning with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Philadelphia, learning all aspects of insurance, accounting and finance the first year, and homing in on tax accounting the second.
Meanwhile, things were also adding up for Kpassagnon in football.
Still a bit raw and inexperienced, the Chiefs were fascinated by his potential and selected him in the second round of the 2017 NFL draft. The rest is history.
“He’s earned it all,” Ferrante said.