Texans Oday Aboushi helps bring football to Egypt
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Day after day. Snap after snap. A linemen's life in training camp is long on grunt work and short on glory.
"You get yourself up in the morning. Get yourself ready for practice. Come out here. We set the tempo. It really starts with us up front," said Texans offensive tackle, Oday Aboushi.
So what does Oday Aboushi do for fun in the offseason? He coaches, of course. Aboushi was part of a select group of NFL players who participated in the program American Football Without Barriers. The group traveled to Cairo, Egypt to lead a training camp for kids.
"It was great. For them it meant the world," said Aboushi. "For us, we were excited to see Egypt and teach football. We didn't really know what to expect."
The campers also didn't know what to expect and had never seen a man like Aboushi, who is 6 foot 5 inches and weighs 300 pounds.
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"At first they were very intimidated. They're shocked that we're as big as we are, but eventually they get past that and they're so attentive to what we say and the point we're trying to get across," said Aboushi.
AFWB is a non-profit group devoted to promoting football and the value of teamwork to disadvantaged children around the world.
"You'd be surprised how big of a football sense they have out there and they're big fans of a bunch of players out here in the NFL. To get out there and really coach them and see how excited they were to get coaching from NFL players was huge," said Aboushi. "Going out there every player was so attentive to us. Everything we said they did. Everything we coached them to do they tried to apply to situations whether we were installing plays with them or running scrimmages and things like that."
In the shadow of high rises on a green patch of grass a half a world away, Oday Aboushi learned just as much as he taught.
"It was huge. For me we do this every day. For us it's a job and a sport that we get to do and we do it at the highest level. So for us to go out there with these kids and some semi pro players, it kind of makes us cherish the league a little more. Take what we do not such much for granted. It's more of a blessing now," said Aboushi.
It's a blessing that runs both ways.
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