ALLEN PARK — Imagine living in Cairo, Egypt, for most of your life, and with little knowledge of American life or culture, you move to California with your brother in your teenage years, picking up the game of football by watching YouTube clips and learning techniques in a kitchen.
Sounds like a loaded scenario — and pretty far-fetched — doesn’t it? Well, in the case of Ahmed Hassanein, it’s his actual story.
After days of speculation about when the Detroit Lions would draft an edge rusher, they selected Hassanein out of Boise State with the 196th overall pick in the sixth round. The 6-foot-3, 272-pound pass rusher was a two-time first-team All-Mountain West honoree, logging 22 sacks over the past two seasons.
“Man, it means the world to me, man. I can’t describe how I’m feeling right now, but I mean, it’s a dream come true and I couldn’t make pick a better team,” Hassanein told reporters via teleconference after he was picked. “I’m so grateful and so honored and so blessed to be a Detroit Lion.”
Hassanein’s story is unique, especially given the fact he only picked up the game of football roughly six years ago. Back home in Cairo is where he fell in love with sports and being an athlete in general, excelling at swimming, judo, jiu-jitsu, running, weightlifting and CrossFit.
Being efficient in all of those helped Hassanein with his hand movement, gaining leverage, knowing an opponent’s weakness, his strength and balance — all of which he said aided him and prepared him for football. Still a novice in football after training with his brother in America, Hassanein’s love for the game grew after watching future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald.
“I asked my brother — I go, what high school did he go to?” referring to Donald. “And my brother goes, bro, ‘that’s the NFL.’ I was like, ‘NFL?’ He was like, ‘bro, that’s the National Football League.’ And I was like, ‘I want to go there.’”
“And the dream started from there. And by the Lord’s grace, I received multiple D1 offers. He started taking me to camps. I started getting known. People started knowing who I am, and people were just asking, ‘who’s this kid? He’s been only playing football for two years.’”
Once the offers started rolling in, Spencer Danielson — who at the time was the Boise State defensive line coach and eventually became Hassanein’s head coach — reached out to share he loved his tape. In a small-world twist, Danielson had played college football with Hassanein’s brother.
“They taught me so much — other than being a football player and a pass rusher,” he shared. “They taught me how to be a man, a man of God, a man of honor, a man of respect.”
With the game of football still relatively new to him, Hassanein drew inspiration from some of the game’s greats, like Aaron Donald, J.J. Watt, T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett, and his new teammate, Aidan Hutchinson.
When asked to share a message for Lions fans who may not be familiar with his game, Hassanein said he is ready for whatever and willing to put his life on the line for his new team.
“I’m just ready to run through a wall for Dan Campbell because he believed in me,” he professed. “And man, when I came to America, I’ll tell you this — nobody believed in me. My brother was the only one who believed in me. And everybody told me that I’ll come back in two weeks — ‘You can’t even speak English.’
“And just look where I’m at now.”
