From Underdog to Super Bowl Champion,
Brendon Ayanbadejo Gives Back.
Story by Rick Bouch
B
rendon Ayanbadejo
has always been an
underdog. After a
lengthy career in
professional football,
the former Baltimore
Raven and Super Bowl champion now
ensures that the underdog is afforded
an opportunity.
Since retiring from the National
Football League in 2012, Ayanbadejo
has spent much of his time giving back.
He is heavily involved with Angel City
Sports, an organization that serves
adaptive athletes. Recently, Ayanbadejo
served as coach of a wheelchair
basketball team in the Angel City
Games, a Paralympics Qualifier.
“We were winning
most of the game,”
said Ayanbadejo, who
grew up in Santa Cruz,
California “We ended
up losing in the end,
but here, everyone is
a winner.”
Ayanbadejo sets a perfect example
for adaptive athletes as he overcame
numerous obstacles to become a winner
himself. Santa Cruz High School had
never been a hotbed for football talent
until Ayanbadejo, his older brother
Devin, and Reggie Stephens passed
through the school in the early 1990s.
Devin played at San Diego State and
enjoyed an NFL career as a fullback that
lasted 11 seasons. Stephens starred at
Rutgers and played for the New York
Giants from 1999 to 2003.
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Photo courtesy of @orangetheoryLA
It was younger brother Brendon who
enjoyed the most success of the three,
but it didn’t come easy. After a year
in junior college, Ayanbadejo landed
at UCLA where he would earn first-
team All-Pac 10 honors as a senior
linebacker for the Bruins. He was an
overlooked professional prospect in
1999. Ayanbadejo did participate in the
NFL Combine that year and turned in
some pretty impressive numbers.
At 6-foot-1-inch and 225 pounds,
Ayanbadejo ran an impressive 4.57