It all started with Christian Okoye.
The story is quite familiar to longtime Kansas City Chiefs fans. In 1982, Okoye emigrated to the United States to run track and field for California’s Azuza Pacific University. After winning college titles in the shot put, discus and hammer throw, he hoped to be named to the Nigerian team for the 1984 Olympics.
He was passed over.
Bitterly disappointed, in 1984 he switched to Azusa Pacific’s football program — a sport he had never played. As legend has it, after he watched his first football game, he pronounced it “boring.