4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2008
TALIB (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
"Let me say it nicely," Okolo says. "These rules are screwed up."
Trash-talking between mother and son continues throughout the game.
"We're very competitive around here," Okolo says.
Talib's competitive nature is evident in everything that he does. Whether it's playing pool with his mom or covering Patriots receiver Randy Moss, as he did during the Buccaneers' second preseason game, Talib doesn't like to lose.
It was the same competitive drive that fueled the decision to move Aqib and Yaqub to Texas to live with their mom when they were in the seventh grade — the same one that got him in trouble both growing up and while at Kansas.
And that led him here, to a life of luxury in Tampa, Fla., living the dream as a first-round NFL draft pick.
Back home from an early morning practice, Talib has a request for his mom.
"Can you make me one of those big turkey sandwiches that you used to make," Talib asks. "Make it like mama makes it, with lettuce and cheese and mayo and all that good stuff."
--shooting it at."
His mother is happy to oblige, and Aqib, a Muslim name that means 'the last to come', quickly consumes the sandwich and a large helping of SunChips as he reflects on his childhood with his family.
Okolo moved back to her hometown, Cleveland, and got to see the boys when they came to stay with her for the summers.
Talib was born in Cleveland but moved to Pennsylvania with his family soon after his birth. When he was almost two years old, his parents broke up after being together for 24 years, and Talib, along with his brother, moved with his dad to Trenton, N.J.
It was in New Jersey where Talib and his brother grew close. Talib didn't have a lot of friends his age, so he ended up hanging out with his big brother and his friends.
Yaqub recalls, "When me and my friends would play football or walk home from school or whatever, I always had my little brother with me. He always did the same things we did, playing sports and stuff."
That's where Talib's football career began — not for a school team or in a league but out on the streets.
"We weed to have our street versus their street and just play in the field," Yaqub said.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
"Mom, if I'm shooting at this angle, you can tell where I'm
--shooting it at."
"Hey, you didn't call that shot," Okolo says after her son silently fired an unsuccessful shot.
"No," Okolo says. "I didn't hear you call it. You're cheating."
"How am I cheating?" Talib argues. "Look where I am aimed at."
Before football or billiards, Talib fed his competitive fire by playing baseball. As a youth in New Jersey, he led his league in stolen bases every year and was named to several all-star teams.
"Pitcher, catcher, centerfield, shortstop, you name it," Talib said of his position. "I was the best player in the league."
Theodore would come to Talib's games after work and always stood in the same spot in right field. One day, Talib stepped to the plate and belted the only home run of his entire life, a grand slam that landed in the exact same spot where his father usually stood.
"As soon as I walked back to the dugout, he walked up," Talib said. "He missed it."
Unfortunately for Theodore,
it was one of many childhood
moments he would miss.
When Talib was in the seventh grade, Okolo moved from Cleveland to Richardson, Texas, to be near her oldest daughter. That summer, her sons came to stay with her.
"I immediately thought cowboys and horses and stuff like that," Talib said of Texas. "I didn't think it was going to be too much like Jersey."
But when Talib and his brother got there, they fell in love with what they saw. They convinced their father to let them move and live with their mom in Texas.
"They loved it so much that they didn't want to go back," Okolo said. "Ted decided that if they wanted to stay, let them stay. We decided it would be a better move for them, it would be better for their education, for them to live with me and then go and be with him over the summer."
While the boys were happy to have a new opportunity in Texas, their father had to deal with a tough goodbye. He knew that the schools would be better in Texas and that the boys would have better odds of staying out of trouble, allowing them to leave meant he would no longer remain a prominent figure in their lives.
"I couldn't stay close to him," Theodore said of their relationship. "We talked on the phone and stuff but it was tough."
"I didn't really start loving football until 11th or 12th grade," Talib said. "That's when it starts getting serious down in Texas. When I was in the eighth, ninth, 10th grade, I was just playing to occupy my time."
While in Texas, Talib started honing his football skills. He continued to play with his brother in the streets and eventually tried out for the Berkner High School football team his freshman year.
The less free time, the better for Talib, who often got in trouble as a youngster for small things such as forging notes to cut class. One
time, Talib's mother went out of town and gave him strict instructions not to drive her car, but Talib didn't listen and took the car for a few nights out on the town. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that his mother found out.
"I never caught him until he just told me this year," said Okolo, who laughed repeatedly as she remembered the story. "He said last week, 'Remember when you went out of town? Well, I took your car.' I said, 'No, you didn't, Aqib,' and he said, 'Oh, yes, I did!' He didn't mess it up or wreck it or anything. He put it back exactly how I had it parked so I never knew or suspected anything and here I am finding it out years later."
When Talib wasn't stirring up trouble, he was making a name for himself on the Berkner High football team. As he would later do at Kansas, Talib helped bring Berkner football back to the spotlight in Dallas. He was named first-team all district and first-team all city for the Rams as a senior.
"He brought Berkner High School football back to the top of the list," his mom said proudly. "They didn't have any recognition for 25 years and Aqib started blocking kicks and making interceptions and all of these great plays and he started making the newspapers and stuff. I was like 'Wow, he's a star.'"
While Okolo was watching Talib become a star down in Dallas, his father was alone back in New Jersey — working the night shift at Kmart to make money for the family.
"Everyone knew who I was at the games and said, 'Oh, there's Aquib's mom,'" Okolo said. "Ted missed out on that. He didn't get to see him play any games down there. He missed out on a lot."
---
"Nine, all the way down," Talib announces, asking his mom,
"Why don't you want to call your shots?"
"Because I don't want to call every shot," Okolo says. "It's stupid."
aub misses his shot. "Damn."
"I told you, you need to get some powder," says Okolo.
Talib misses his shot, "Damn."
"Just use the chalk," Talib says again.
Downstairs, Theodore does the dishes and cleans the kitchen. Talib doesn't have to do much cleaning these days — his father gladly takes care of that.
But it wasn't long ago that Talib himself was down on his hands and knees, cleaning the ovens at Jayhawker Towers to earn a few extra bucks when he arrived at the University during the summer of 2004.
At the time, incoming freshman weren't able to get scholarship checks until the fall semester began. So Talib and then-roommate Anthony Collins — who eventually left school a year early
Aqib Talb, No. 25, walks off the field with his Buccaneers teammates after practice on Sept. 12. Talb told his teammates that Kansas wound win its Sept. 12 game against South Florida by three touchdowns — a prediction that wasn't correct.
Agib Talib drives home in his new Mercedes S550 after practice on Sept. 12. The car, valued at more than $85,000, was Talib's first purchase as an NPL player.
Jon Goering /KANSAN
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Former Jayhawk Agib Tailb, left, shares a laugh with his brother Yaqub, mother Okolo, and father Theodore Henry at Talb's five-bedroom, four-bath home in Tampa, Fla. Talb, a first-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hosted his family for the weekend.
JONATHAN GILBERT/AKRANKI Alqib Talib cheers on his former Jayhawk teamsmates after a game against South Florida on Sept. 12 in Tampa, Fla. Talib, a former All-America cornerback at Kansas watched the name from the sideline.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
"We woke up at 6, worked out, went to class and went to work," Talib recalls.
with Talib and was drafted in the fifth round by the Cincinnati Bengals — were forced to spend their summer cleaning rooms in the same complex where they lived.
Talib little time to get into more trouble, but that wasn't the case.
In winter 2005, during the Jayhawks' trip to Texas for the Fort Worth Bowl. Talib got into an spoken altercation with a player on the opposing team during a team night function in Fort Worth's downtown bar district.
He was suspended for the first
two games of the 2006 season for undisclosed reasons.
Then, in March 2007, Talib was riding in a truck driven by former KU wide receiver Mark Simmons when Simmons drove the truck over a 23-year-old Lawrence man who, according to police reports, allegedly pointed a gun at the two outside a Lawrence bar.