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It wasn’t tough for Ottawa’s Christo Bilukidi to walk away from a $760,000 NFL contract. Not at all.
When the 6-5, 300-plus-pound defensive lineman left in the middle of the New York Jets training camp last August — after earning about $2 million in four seasons in the National Football League — Bilukidi just wanted to come back home, where he knew he could find happiness both in his heart and in his head.
“I fell out of love with the game,” the 27-year-old said. “Going to practice wasn’t fun. Going to meetings wasn’t fun. I was going through the motions instead of having the drive to play.
“I remember talking to Richard Seymour my first year in Oakland — I was his backup. We were having breakfast and he told me, ‘Whether you play two years or 10 years in this league, there will be a point where it isn’t fun and that’s when you have to walk away. You can’t be 99.99 per cent in, you have to be 100 per cent in.’
“When I was with the Jets in training camp, I was in a meeting thinking, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ I told my agent. He said to take a couple of days before making a decision. So then I pulled the trigger, I told my agent to let the Jets know I was leaving. I got a call from the defensive-line coach. He told me I had an opportunity. I told him I appreciated that, but football just wasn’t for me anymore.”
Just like that, his football days were over with no regrets. Bilukidi is excited about where his path has taken him. He’s busy with real-estate investments, a custom-suit business and charity work.
“Nobody knows the back end of it. They don’t know what it takes to make it and what kind of sacrifices you have to make,” Bilukidi said. “They see the glory in it. You can have 20 days of playing football. Everything else, every other day, is a grind: working out, travelling, long meetings and practices. Sometimes it’s just not fun to be out there.
“I was talking to somebody and he said, ‘People complain about how professional athletes get paid so much money. But when you know what they have to do through the whole year, you start to understand.’ It’s a grind, it’s 365. Yes, you have an off-season, but you don’t really have an off-season. Coaches and management always wants the youngest and the cheapest. So, the older you get, the closer you’re getting to being out the door. You have to work, you have to fight even harder and that adds stress.”
A few months ago, Bilukidi became an ambassador for Ottawa Community Housing, and he’s excited about that role. He’s a partner in a custom-suit company, Idlewood Bespoke (idlewoodbespoke.com), with hopes of opening a retail shop as early as September.
“We don’t go through sweat shops,” Bilukidi said. “Yes, our clothes are made in Shanghai. But we have tailors who are working for us. The material is fabulous. The price point is big. For a custom tailored two-piece suit, it’s $275 U.S. A three-piece is $350 U.S. Add a premium lining, it’s an extra $25. We give you the option to measure yourself, but I can come to you and do the measurements. We also sell shirts and we’ve got accessories on the way, too.”
Where he’s at in his life — what he’s already done and where he’s heading — could fill a book. Bilukidi didn’t even play football when he was a student at St. Patrick High School. A good friend, former Toronto Argonauts player Djems Kouame, pushed him to give the sport a try, to at least use it as conditioning for basketball. So Bilukidi played with the Ottawa Colts and Cumberland Panthers.
After a camp in Toronto, where Bilukidi, then a tight end, was named MVP, he received U.S. college scholarship offers from Louisville, Akron and Eastern Michigan. It was Mark Nelson, now defensive co-ordinator for the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks, who offered him the full ride at Louisville.
Instead, Bilukidi wound up at a junior college — Eastern Arizona — before he moved on to Georgia State. The Oakland Raiders picked him in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft. He played two seasons in Oakland before being released, then wound up in Cincinnati, Baltimore and, briefly, Washington before being signed by the Jets.
“People come up to me, not in a disrespectful way, and ask why I left,” Bilukidi said. “I just say, ‘When you know it’s not in you anymore to play the game at 100 per cent, you have to call it quits. You can’t half-ass it.’ ”
Getting involved in the community is important to him, too. In his work with Ottawa Community Housing, he’s having an impact on youth, something that makes his mom, Juliana, proud, but it’s also important to Bilukidi.
“I want to show these kids they have hope,” he said. “It’s easy for me to relate. I always say to them, ‘I was in your shoes.’ When I was young, I was in a low-income area, single mother. … I went through factors that could have disabled me from doing what I’m doing now. I want to help kids who have potential, kids who want to succeed in life.
“This is important to me. I feel way more fulfilled now than I did playing four years in the NFL. I’m directly influencing kids. When I was playing, I felt that indirectly I was influencing people … maybe kids would draw inspiration from it. But now I’m there physically.”
Bilukidi’s conversations with kids go much deeper than just football.
“I went to Canterbury Community Centre to speak to some kids,” he said. “Some of them wanted me to talk about bullying, which is a huge issue. I told them bullies are punks. They want to show off in front of everybody. A bully feeds off your fear. Stand in front of them. Have each other’s backs. If you see somebody getting pushed around, don’t be afraid, be a mediator. Bullying is never the right thing to do and should never be tolerated.”
Real estate and his custom-suit business also keep him busy.
“I have no regrets in calling it quits,” said Bilukidi, whose 15-year-old brother, Prince, a defensive back, is turning heads with the Gloucester Raiders.
“Something Richard Seymour told me, ‘If you play in the NFL, you can set yourself up. You have a name and your name is your company.’ I use my name to do things. I had been investing, I’d bought real estate. It wasn’t like I left the game and came back to nothing. It wasn’t, ‘What the hell am I going to do now?’
Bilukidi’s CFL rights belong to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who selected him in the third round of the 2012 CFL draft. The Jets will retain his NFL rights until September. It sure doesn’t sounds as if he’s coming back — NFL, CFL or anywhere — else to play football, though.
“I have no interest in playing, none at all,” Bilukidi said. “People ask me about the Redblacks, I say, ‘No, they have their guys, they have their players.’ I’ve moved on. I’m done with football.”
Christo Bilukidi warms up before the Oakland Raiders’ NFL game against the San Diego Chargers at at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Sept. 10, 2012.
A SUMMER CAMP WITH NFL FLAIR
Christo Bilukidi is having a football camp for kids with help from some of his NFL friends.
He’ll be hosting the camp June 3 at the University of Ottawa.
It’s expected NFL players Lamarr Houston, Jack Crawford, David Bass, David King, Ulrick John and Kapron Lewis-Moore will be in Ottawa to help at the camp. It’s also expected local players Neville Gallimore, Eli Ankou and Jesse Luketa, who have all gone on to play NCAA football, will be on hand.
“I saw Jesse at an Ottawa U basketball game when I was playing for Cincinnati, I think,” Bilukidi said. “I’m sitting down with my friends, Jesse comes up to me and said, ‘I don’t want to bother you, I see you’re with your friends. But can I get a picture with you? You inspire me, I hope to be like you. I want to play football.’ (Earlier this year), he sends me a text telling me he’s committed to Penn State.
“I hope I inspired him to do more than he thought he was able to. Anything is possible, just put your mind to it.”
tbaines@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/TimCBaines
查看原文...
When the 6-5, 300-plus-pound defensive lineman left in the middle of the New York Jets training camp last August — after earning about $2 million in four seasons in the National Football League — Bilukidi just wanted to come back home, where he knew he could find happiness both in his heart and in his head.
“I fell out of love with the game,” the 27-year-old said. “Going to practice wasn’t fun. Going to meetings wasn’t fun. I was going through the motions instead of having the drive to play.
“I remember talking to Richard Seymour my first year in Oakland — I was his backup. We were having breakfast and he told me, ‘Whether you play two years or 10 years in this league, there will be a point where it isn’t fun and that’s when you have to walk away. You can’t be 99.99 per cent in, you have to be 100 per cent in.’
“When I was with the Jets in training camp, I was in a meeting thinking, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ I told my agent. He said to take a couple of days before making a decision. So then I pulled the trigger, I told my agent to let the Jets know I was leaving. I got a call from the defensive-line coach. He told me I had an opportunity. I told him I appreciated that, but football just wasn’t for me anymore.”
Just like that, his football days were over with no regrets. Bilukidi is excited about where his path has taken him. He’s busy with real-estate investments, a custom-suit business and charity work.
“Nobody knows the back end of it. They don’t know what it takes to make it and what kind of sacrifices you have to make,” Bilukidi said. “They see the glory in it. You can have 20 days of playing football. Everything else, every other day, is a grind: working out, travelling, long meetings and practices. Sometimes it’s just not fun to be out there.
“I was talking to somebody and he said, ‘People complain about how professional athletes get paid so much money. But when you know what they have to do through the whole year, you start to understand.’ It’s a grind, it’s 365. Yes, you have an off-season, but you don’t really have an off-season. Coaches and management always wants the youngest and the cheapest. So, the older you get, the closer you’re getting to being out the door. You have to work, you have to fight even harder and that adds stress.”
A few months ago, Bilukidi became an ambassador for Ottawa Community Housing, and he’s excited about that role. He’s a partner in a custom-suit company, Idlewood Bespoke (idlewoodbespoke.com), with hopes of opening a retail shop as early as September.
“We don’t go through sweat shops,” Bilukidi said. “Yes, our clothes are made in Shanghai. But we have tailors who are working for us. The material is fabulous. The price point is big. For a custom tailored two-piece suit, it’s $275 U.S. A three-piece is $350 U.S. Add a premium lining, it’s an extra $25. We give you the option to measure yourself, but I can come to you and do the measurements. We also sell shirts and we’ve got accessories on the way, too.”
Where he’s at in his life — what he’s already done and where he’s heading — could fill a book. Bilukidi didn’t even play football when he was a student at St. Patrick High School. A good friend, former Toronto Argonauts player Djems Kouame, pushed him to give the sport a try, to at least use it as conditioning for basketball. So Bilukidi played with the Ottawa Colts and Cumberland Panthers.
After a camp in Toronto, where Bilukidi, then a tight end, was named MVP, he received U.S. college scholarship offers from Louisville, Akron and Eastern Michigan. It was Mark Nelson, now defensive co-ordinator for the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks, who offered him the full ride at Louisville.
Instead, Bilukidi wound up at a junior college — Eastern Arizona — before he moved on to Georgia State. The Oakland Raiders picked him in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft. He played two seasons in Oakland before being released, then wound up in Cincinnati, Baltimore and, briefly, Washington before being signed by the Jets.
“People come up to me, not in a disrespectful way, and ask why I left,” Bilukidi said. “I just say, ‘When you know it’s not in you anymore to play the game at 100 per cent, you have to call it quits. You can’t half-ass it.’ ”
Getting involved in the community is important to him, too. In his work with Ottawa Community Housing, he’s having an impact on youth, something that makes his mom, Juliana, proud, but it’s also important to Bilukidi.
“I want to show these kids they have hope,” he said. “It’s easy for me to relate. I always say to them, ‘I was in your shoes.’ When I was young, I was in a low-income area, single mother. … I went through factors that could have disabled me from doing what I’m doing now. I want to help kids who have potential, kids who want to succeed in life.
“This is important to me. I feel way more fulfilled now than I did playing four years in the NFL. I’m directly influencing kids. When I was playing, I felt that indirectly I was influencing people … maybe kids would draw inspiration from it. But now I’m there physically.”
Bilukidi’s conversations with kids go much deeper than just football.
“I went to Canterbury Community Centre to speak to some kids,” he said. “Some of them wanted me to talk about bullying, which is a huge issue. I told them bullies are punks. They want to show off in front of everybody. A bully feeds off your fear. Stand in front of them. Have each other’s backs. If you see somebody getting pushed around, don’t be afraid, be a mediator. Bullying is never the right thing to do and should never be tolerated.”
Real estate and his custom-suit business also keep him busy.
“I have no regrets in calling it quits,” said Bilukidi, whose 15-year-old brother, Prince, a defensive back, is turning heads with the Gloucester Raiders.
“Something Richard Seymour told me, ‘If you play in the NFL, you can set yourself up. You have a name and your name is your company.’ I use my name to do things. I had been investing, I’d bought real estate. It wasn’t like I left the game and came back to nothing. It wasn’t, ‘What the hell am I going to do now?’
Bilukidi’s CFL rights belong to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who selected him in the third round of the 2012 CFL draft. The Jets will retain his NFL rights until September. It sure doesn’t sounds as if he’s coming back — NFL, CFL or anywhere — else to play football, though.
“I have no interest in playing, none at all,” Bilukidi said. “People ask me about the Redblacks, I say, ‘No, they have their guys, they have their players.’ I’ve moved on. I’m done with football.”
Christo Bilukidi warms up before the Oakland Raiders’ NFL game against the San Diego Chargers at at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Sept. 10, 2012.
A SUMMER CAMP WITH NFL FLAIR
Christo Bilukidi is having a football camp for kids with help from some of his NFL friends.
He’ll be hosting the camp June 3 at the University of Ottawa.
It’s expected NFL players Lamarr Houston, Jack Crawford, David Bass, David King, Ulrick John and Kapron Lewis-Moore will be in Ottawa to help at the camp. It’s also expected local players Neville Gallimore, Eli Ankou and Jesse Luketa, who have all gone on to play NCAA football, will be on hand.
“I saw Jesse at an Ottawa U basketball game when I was playing for Cincinnati, I think,” Bilukidi said. “I’m sitting down with my friends, Jesse comes up to me and said, ‘I don’t want to bother you, I see you’re with your friends. But can I get a picture with you? You inspire me, I hope to be like you. I want to play football.’ (Earlier this year), he sends me a text telling me he’s committed to Penn State.
“I hope I inspired him to do more than he thought he was able to. Anything is possible, just put your mind to it.”
tbaines@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/TimCBaines
查看原文...
