Emmanuel Ogbah – December 13, 2021
Download PDF version
Monday, December 13, 2021
DE Emmanuel Ogbah
(I noticed that you were one of the players that the Dolphins have nominated on social media to encourage fans to vote for the Pro Bowl. What would that mean to make the Pro Bowl?) – “It would mean I’m doing my job. I’m doing what’s best for the team. I’m excited. Like I said, I’ve just got to go out there, dominate, make the plays I can and give my team a chance to win games.”
(One of the things I noticed is that you have 15 sacks as a Dolphin in 29 games. At a rate, that’s almost twice as often as the sacks you got with the Chiefs and Browns. To what do you attribute the increase in the sack percentage?) – “That’s one of the reasons why I chose to play with the Dolphins. Coach (Brian) Flores and his staff put me in the right position to make plays and I just go out there, show them my talent and show them what I can do. They put me in a good position to make plays.”
(I’ve been asking you about this question and you always give the same corporate answer which is that you are going to let your agent handle the business. When you’re an impending free agent and you make it to December, usually that’s when teams say ‘ok let’s try to get a deal done before the season is over,’ and players usually say ‘well, I made it this far, I might as well see it through.’ Where is your mindset?) – “My mindset is still winning games and right now the Jets. But like I said before, my agent is handling that. I already told him before the season started, I don’t want to be bothered with the calls. You handle that and I’ll go handle my job on the field.”
(Obviously great team defensive play over the last five games has been because of the players, you guys are doing great. But what is one thing that Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer has done during this winning streak whether it was a lot of zero blitzes against Baltimore or something else do you think has made a difference? What’s the first thing that comes to mind that Josh has done to help things these last five weeks?) – “I’ll say giving the offenses different looks. That attributes to practice, just giving our offense different looks just to see how they react to it. Coach Boyer, he’s done a great job disguising plays, all-out blitzes. We kind of went back to our old thing but I’m glad he’s switching it up and giving offenses different looks, confusing them.”
(Earlier today I asked Head Coach Brian Flores what he thought you were bringing to the team. He said leadership, work ethic and professionalism. I wanted to ask you about those topics as it relates to football first and then on the personal side. Who is a football player that you picked up some of those traits from that helped you?) – “The one player I grew up watching, I would say I wanted to be like on the field was Michael Strahan. I watched him a lot with the Giants. I’ll say he’s a class act on the field and off the field too. I watched him growing up and I would say that was the kind of player that I wanted to emulate my game after.”
(As it relates to work ethic, when you think about being a young person whether it’s family, friend, mentor – is there a person who kind of stands out to you as helping you establish the work ethic?) – “I’ll say my dad. Coming from Nigeria, he started from the bottom, he started all the way over. Just seeing him drive an hour or two hours to work just to provide food for my family drives me. I want to do good for him. I want to be just like him. I want to be responsible for my family, I want to take care of my family like he did. I would say that’s the one person that I look up to every day.”
(Can I ask what is your dad’s name?) – “Richard Ogbah.”
(Can I ask what was his job or jobs?) – “He worked at Accruent, the oil company, but he worked on pipelines so he would drive about an hour and a half, two hours a day, just to work every day and wake up at like five in the morning. Just seeing him do that gives me the drive to be the best I can be and I can’t take anything for granted. Also, he did security too at a prison. A correctional officer, I would say.”
(I wanted to ask you another question about your teammates. If you could take one thing from each of your defensive linemates what would it be?) – “Christian (Wilkins), he’s a jokester. I would take that from Christian. Raekwon (Davis) dominates games. Zach (Sieler), I would say his work ethic. He’s a hard worker, nose in the ground and comes to do work. Jaelan (Phillips) bounces around the outside linebacker, d-line. I’ll say Jaelan is a ball hawk. See ball, get ball. He’s going full speed and I’ll take that. Adam Butler I would say unselfishness.”
(What’s one thing that you hope everybody looks at you and admires?) – “I like to say I’m a leader by example. I’m not the ‘rah-rah’ kind of guy but I come to work, I do my job. Like coach (Brian Flores) ‘Flo’ said, professionalism. I come in here, do my job, do what I’m paid to do and keep my head down to be the be the best I can be for myself and the rest of my teammates.”
(I’ve been asking players what their experience was like on national signing day since signing day is coming up. What was that day like for you?) – “It was a blessing to me because I know my parents wouldn’t have to pay for my college, my school is paid for and it’s a blessing to me because just seeing how hard my parents worked and seeing what I can do to help out when I graduate, get my degree and all that inspires me and brought joy to my face seeing my mom smile, seeing my dad smile. Seeing my whole family excited for me was a big step in my life. I was excited for signing day.”
(Were you still under pressure from other schools that day?) – “Oh yeah, I had some calls come in and I couldn’t answer. I stopped answering calls for sure. It was a big deal for me to sign to Oklahoma State and I’m real appreciative that they offered me too.”
(What’s your best advice to any high school senior who is going through that on Wednesday?) – “Just relax, take it one step at a time and just know that they want you. As soon as you sign that dotted line, you are with that squad and you have to do what’s best for that squad too.”
