From club football to the NFL – Praise Olatoke is Ohio State’s most unlikely NFL product

Going from Ohio State University to the NFL is nothing unusual, but for former Buckeyes track and field star Praise Olatoke – who first got into football playing club football in college – being assigned to the Los Angeles Chargers through the NFL International Player Pathway Program (IPPP) was the stuff of his wildest dreams.

Olatoke was born in Lagos, Nigeria, but spent most of his formative years in Scotland after moving there at the age of five. He immersed himself in rugby and sprinting, earned a scholarship to Canada’s Trinity Western, and transferred to Ohio State in 2021, where he played two seasons on the Buckeyes’ track and field team – one of which was ruined by a torn Achilles tendon.

Olatoke played club football at Ohio State University. He had trouble getting his gear on at first, but he showed promise in his second game, catching a 65-yard touchdown pass against Michigan State. From then on, he never looked back, but it was a long road to the top. This was club football, after all – a long way from the bright lights of the Buckeyes’ NCAA team.

“I never played NCAA football, but the difference is: I think NCAA football is quasi-pro football, just for college athletes,” Olatoke said in a press conference Tuesday. “There’s the training. Basically, the NCAA has money, that’s all. The NCAA has billions of dollars that go into it every year to put on a show, to put on a production.”

“Club soccer is just people getting together to play soccer and enjoy a Saturday morning. That’s really what it is. There could be 15, 20 people in a crowd. There could be 50. Who knows? The difference is basically this: The NCAA has money, and with money comes talent, notoriety, attention, all that stuff. The people who play club do it for the love of the game. That’s the difference.”

Olatoke was a huge basketball fan and his path could have been different had he been taller than 6’2″. However, he was not tall enough so he chose football over basketball. He himself admits that his rapid rise in football through the NFL IPPP at the IMG Academy also involved a lot of luck.

“I won’t deny that I was lucky to be in that situation,” he said. “So many different dominoes had to fall to me. I think the statistics say one in 300,000 or 400,000 high school students in the United States make it to the league. I wasn’t even in high school yet. (in the country)So I can’t deny that I’ve been lucky. But if you want it bad enough, I think you can always make things work out the way you want them to. Basically, you can control your own happiness.”

According to Ohio State’s College of Public Health, the probability of a high school player turning pro is 0.023%, based on 2016 data.

Olatoke was lucky but had to overcome disappointments on his way through the IPPP. He worked out for the Philadelphia Eagles but was unable to convince them to sign him. The Chargers, on the other hand, didn’t need much persuasion after seeing his electrifying pace and willingness to work and learn.

“After the IPP and stuff, a few teams reached out,” he said. “One of them was, of course, the Eagles. I went to their rookie minicamp, but that didn’t work out. A few weeks later, the Chargers reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re interested in taking you to our minicamp.'” Before the Chargers reached out, he began to fear that American football wasn’t for him after all.

“At first I wasn’t sure what was going on because they only sent me a one-way ticket. On the second to last day I asked them, ‘Hey, am I going back home?’ No one could give me a clear answer.

“On the last day – a Thursday – one of the staff said, ‘Hey, you have a meeting with the GM.’ I went in and saw the GM. There were a couple other guys there and they basically said, ‘We like you. We think we’ll give you a chance, so if you’re interested and willing to work, we’ll sign you.’

“Right then and there, within about an hour and a half, they offered me a contract, and I’m a Charger.”

The Chargers finished 5-12 last season, but have two of the IPPP’s best products in CJ Okoye and Olatoke – both born in Nigeria.

Olatoke and his friend Louis Rees-Zammit, a former Welsh rugby star, are likely to bring an electrifying pace to the league. Whether they have the tools to outsmart experienced D-line players at the top of the game remains to be seen.