10 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT
PRO football player Akbar Gbajabiamila kicked off a TV career shortly after retiring from the NFL in 2008. And just last year, the American Ninja Warrior commentator joined
The Talk nearly three months after Jerry O’Connell, which made him the second fulltime male panelist in the history of the CBS gabfest. Here are ten things you don’t know about the 42-year-old L.A. native.
1 He’s one of seven children born to Nigerian immigrant parents.
2 At California’s Crenshaw High School, he was a star basketball player but switched to football during his senior year.
3 He received scholarship offers from five colleges, but chose to attend San Diego State University with his older brother Kabeer — who’d later play nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers.
4 He was raised in a Sunni
Muslim household but converted to Christianity in college.
5 He spent five seasons in the NFL as linebacker and defensive end, playing with the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins.
6 He joined the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which raises funds for Parkinson’s research, after his father was diagnosed with the disease.
7 He made his screen acting debut in the 2015 short film The Sac Fly.
8 He once followed a vegan diet — but quit after just four months. “I stick with a lot of fish, chicken, and I don’t do yolks,” he explains.
9 He has four kids with wife Chrystal — sons Elijah and Nasir, and daughters Saheedat and Naomi.
10 He wants to “cancel ‘cancel culture’” and “promote people having conversations.”