Amobi Okoye's used to being ahead of the rest of the people his age. And that
dates all the way back to when he started school at 2 1/2 years old.
"I never really felt younger than everybody else. I always felt that I
was in the right grade, the right place. That's always how I carry
myself...," he said at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis earlier this
year.
After starting high school at age 12, he's not phased at all by the fact that
at age 19 he's going to be competing against NFL veterans who may be 10 to 15
years older then him.
"Not at all. I'm looking forward to it," he said.
But by the time he hits his first training camp with the Texans, he'll no longer
be a teenager. Okoye turns 20 on June 10th.
An individual with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, he always put
academics first--to the point where his parents encouraged him to look at
extra-curricular activities.
"That's how I started playing football, my dad thought I was fat,"
he said with a laugh.
Scout.com subscribers can find out why Amobi started school so early, why he
ended up turning down Harvard, dealing with potentially awkward social
situations during high school because of his age, what he's most proud of
from his collegiate career and more. Just click the link below to listen to a
6-minute highlights clip from his press conference, as recorded by our Scout.com
team that was on site at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis:
Listen to Audio