For Seahawks guard Oday Aboushi, journey to Seattle is worth it
Aug 3, 2017, 10:38 AM
Seahawks guard Oday Aboushi during an American Football Without Barriers trip to Egypt (AP)
(AP)
New Seahawks offensive lineman Oday Aboushi joined “Danny, Dave and Moore” on 710 ESPN Seattle to talk about training camp, volunteering in Sudan, and what it was like growing up with nine siblings.
The 6-feet-5, 315-pound lineman is the second youngest of 10 – six girls and four boys. And if you’re wondering how much food it takes to feed 10 kids, think two dozen eggs at breakfast.
Audio: Every Seahawks interview so far from camp on 710 ESPN Seattle
“We probably go through a couple chickens a day, honestly,” Aboushi said of family mealtimes.
With a big family comes support – and, in Aboushi’s case, a life-changing volunteer experience. When two of his sisters, one a doctor and the other an attorney, returned from volunteering in Sudan six years ago, Aboushi found himself wanting to know more.
“When they came back they couldn’t stop talking about it. And from there, every year, my family – me, my sister, or me and one of my two sisters – will go on these trips and we always make it kind of family event.”
Aboushi travels to Khartoum, Sudan for these trips, along with other volunteers, and a team of doctors, nurses, and plastic surgeons. The group, part of the Islamic Medical Association of North America, performs free surgeries on children to treat cleft lip or cleft palate, both of which make it difficult to eat and speak clearly. In 2015, the group performed 189 surgeries in seven days.
Like Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril, who volunteered in Haiti during the offseason, spending time in a developing country was an eye-opening experience.
“No one cares who you are, no one knows who you are, they don’t watch football like that,” Aboushi said. “To them, you’re just a big person.”
Aboushi, 26, has played 26 games in his four-year NFL career, and started in 18. He comes to Seattle from Houston, where he spent two seasons with the Texans. The Brooklyn-native signed with Seattle in March, and knew the 2,300-mile journey from Texas to the Pacific Northwest had to be worth it.
“I know it was a little far. And that’s one thing I told myself in free agency: if I was going to go far, for my family, it was going to be for a reason,” said Aboushi.
“It was going to be a winning and great organization, and that’s what I found in Seattle.”
Listen above as Aboushi talks with “Danny, Dave and Moore” about his family, Seahawks training camp, and getting into the groove of things on the offensive line.
