Ezekiel Ansah

Back home in Ghana, basketball was my sport. I idolized LeBron James and dreamed of playing in the NBA.

With the help of a Mormon missionary and my school's headmaster, I arrived at BYU in 2008. The hardest adjustment was the food. In Africa, meat is always freshly cooked, but here they put chicken in a freezer. That was hard for me to figure out.

I tried and failed to make the Cougars' basketball team twice, so I joined the track team to stay in shape, and then my friends suggested football. I'd never seen an American football game until I arrived on campus, and I truly had no idea what was going on.

After making the team, I was so nervous for my first game because I didn't want to mess up. I was just hoping that I would remember everything I'd learned. Now I'm a defensive end for the Lions. Three years after being drafted in the first round with the fifth pick, I still have moments where I think about my unbelievable journey to the NFL. It was only six years ago that I was beginning to learn the sport for the first time. That is something I don't think is ever going to leave me.