Championing Football
On and Off the Field
Former NFL player Roman Oben spreads the
gospel of healthy competition to young people
WRITTEN BY KEVIN MEACHAM
R
OPPOSITE PAGE: VIOREL FLORESCU; THIS PAGE: AP PHOTO/PHELAN M. EBENHACK
oman Oben is a football evangelist, preaching passionately about the game that has
given him so much – not only financial
stability, but invaluable life skills and values.
A native of Cameroon who grew up in
Washington, D.C., Oben was drafted by the
New York Giants in 1996, and played 12 seasons as an
offensive lineman in the National Football League,
including a Super Bowl win in 2003 with the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers.
Since his retirement in 2008, Oben has used his
platform as a former player, as well as a TV broadcaster
covering the Giants, to advocate for youth sports – football
in particular – as a positive force. And since January 2015,
that advocacy has taken Oben, a Glen Ridge resident, to a
position as the NFL’s senior director of Youth and High
School Football development.
What drew you back to the Montclair area? I lived in
Clifton while playing with the Giants, and I remember driving
two miles down Grove Street to Bloomfield Avenue and figuring
out places to eat. The level of diversity that Montclair had, not
only racially, but culturally and economically, it stuck out. I grew
up in a very diverse community in Washington, D.C., and you
had all kinds of people living on the same block. Where else can
you get that in America in 2016? Well, you can’t. Except for here.
What is your role with the NFL? My role is to help grow the
game of football at the younger levels, especially ages 6 to 18.
Every time you see the NFL highlighting youth and high school
participants, like highlighting youth teams on Monday Night Football,
I had something to do with it. I’m also an advocate for addressing
the safety issues in our game and promoting the values of football.
How did you get into this advocacy role? When I retired
from the NFL, my kids were 7 and 4 years old, and I started envisioning what I wanted sports to be like for them. I had my own
theories on sport specialization, and I would talk to other parents
who had older kids, and would say they wished they had done
things differently. Their kids played one sport most of the year, and
they end up burnt out. And kids don’t burn themselves out. We
parents do that! It just seemed like there was a movement there,
FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME (Opposite page) Oben at MetLife Stadium;
as a NY Giant; (above) at a news conference in Florida.
where sports are about whether kids are having good experiences
and gaining confidence, instead of pushing an end result, such as
getting a scholarship or playing pro, which isn’t guaranteed..
Is that what football meant to you? To me, what’s
important is the journey of football, learning the things the
game can teach you: resiliency, grit, mental toughness, responsibility,
discipline. I coach in the Montclair Cobras youth program, and
coaching kids, it’s fun. You try to take everything you’ve learned
as a football player in the NFL, synthesize it, and give it to a
12-year-old [he laughs], but give it to them based on what they
need. Those things are more important than the end result.
I want to make sure you’ve gotten something out of this game
that you couldn’t have gotten anywhere else.
How do you approach parents who are concerned
about safety? I think football is safer now than it’s ever been.
The best practices and safety guidelines have changed. We have
concussion protocols and responses that didn’t exist 20 to 30 years
ago. We’ve done lots of things at the youth level in partnership
with USA Football to improve how we teach tackling, run practices
and acclimatize to hot weather. We’re doing a lot to mitigate the
safety risks of the game, trying to be ahead of the curve. ■
BACK TO SCHOOL 2016
MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
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