Cleveland Browns Star Owusu-Koramoah Says He’s ‘Going to Be Traded,’ Talks ‘Hatred’….

His name is Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, and he is a linebacker for the Cleveland Browns. His use of Ghanaian and other African cultures in his pregame wardrobe not only makes his fashion sense stand out, but also takes us all on a journey through the continent rarely seen before in American pro sports.

Owusu-Koramoah grew up in a very spiritual and disciplined household. His father, who was born in Ghana, and mother met in England before moving to Hampton, Virginia, in 1998, one year before Owusu-Koramoah was born.

While he had relatives who were Muslim or followed other religions, Owusu-Koramoah was raised Christian by his parents, which meant waking early every morning to pray along with avoiding certain vices: no cursing, no drinking, no smoking, no going out. Their parenting style took after scripture; Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

“My base foundation first started within the spiritual sector,” Owusu-Koramoah told Andscape.

While Owusu-Koramoah would eventually become an All-State linebacker in high school and an All-American and Butkus Award winner, given to the nation’s top linebacker, at Notre Dame, his first passion was basketball. He was good enough to receive scholarship offers from Virginia Military Institute and historically Black University of Maryland Eastern Shore in hoops, but football was his destiny from the first moment a coach discovered him as a youth.

“I had a coach come up to me while I was playing basketball, and he was like, ‘Look man, you need to get on the football field,’ ” Owusu-Koramoah remembers being told. “ ‘You a little too aggressive about it