He may have only played three games at East Carolina University, but the Cleveland Browns saw something in Danso that intrigued them.
Few people, including his teammates at East Carolina University, could believe what's happened with Kwaku Danso. His journey has been about as unexpected as it is unbelievable, but it's further proof that hard work and belief in self can go a long way in pursuing your dreams.
As Yahoo Sports reported, Danso came to the US in 2002 from Ghana, hoping to play college basketball. He tried to catch on at a small school in Pennsylvania, but that didn't work and he then ran out of money, so he had to move in with his brother near Washington, D.C. In order to get back into school, Danso worked three different jobs, along with going to his brother's part-time job as a bouncer at a nightclub in D.C. That's where some players from the Washington Redskins noticed him and suggested that he should play football.
After playing flag football on the weekends, working out to get into playing shape and saving enough money to go back to school, he chose to go to East Carolina. Danso had to drop out of school again to make enough money to pay for it, so after a year, he came back and told coach Skip Holtz that he wanted to play football for the team as a walk-on. Holtz thought Danso meant soccer, but as Danso was quoted, "No, no, football. I want to play the game where you put things on and hit."
While he's a big guy (currently 6-foot-5 and 336 pounds), he was at a major disadvantage against guys who'd been playing most of their lives. And because ECU was trying to take on bigger schools to gain credibility, there weren't many opportunities to play him. He worked as hard as he could to learn about the game, but only appeared in the tail-end of three games during his college career.
So when he showed up at East Carolina's pro day (the day when pro scouts and coaches work out promising players), some of his teammates thought he was nuts. But Rob Ryan, defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns, immediately took notice. As Ryan was quoted, "What jumps out at you is his size and he's all muscle." And because of the defensive scheme that the Browns run, Ryan thought Danso would be a perfect fit at nose tackle. It certainly didn't hurt when Ryan saw Danso bench press 225 pounds 39 times.
Danso, though, had no idea that Ryan was interested, so when he got a call a few days after the NFL Draft, he thought someone was messing with him. It was no joke, though, as the Browns invited the 28-year-old to a tryout camp, and a day after the camp, the team signed him to a contract. As he told Yahoo Sports, "Too many people said, 'You're that kid from Africa, nobody gives a crap about you.' But I'm glad I tried," adding, "Now I'm here at Cleveland Browns Stadium. I can't believe it."
