Osi Umenyiora Reveals Inspiration Behind Super Bowl TV Ad "Born to Play"

The ad tells the story of a young Ghanaian boy named "Kwesi," who dreams of playing in the NFL. When his dreams of greatness are interrupted by a dog that "intercepts" his football. 

"Kwesi" chases the dog to a nearby field where aspiring athletes participate in football drills. There, he is met by Umenyiora, who returns his ball and offers some heartfelt words encouraging "Kwesi" to follow his dream to play football.

Umenyiora, who spoke to the Locked On Giants podcast about the IPP and the commercial, said that the scripted 2:30-minute spot was based on a speech he had given to aspiring athletes about being "born to play football.

"I had given a speech about what they actually shot," he recalled. "I was talking about the American dream and how alive it is, and it's living through the sport of American football because people are growing up and dreaming about it all around the world."

Umenyiora, who comes across as a natural, said he wasn't acting in the spot.

"I heard from (former Giants head) Coach (Tom) Coughlin after he saw it," Umenyiora said with a laugh. "He was like, 'Man, you got some acting ability, Osi.' And I told him, 'Listen, I wasn't acting!" 

Umenyiora, born in London before moving to Nigeria, where he spent most of his childhood before emigrating to the United States at 14, didn't have the advantage of being exposed to youth football programs while growing up. 

"When I was in Nigeria, I hadn't heard about American football--I didn't even know what it was," he recalled. "I didn't know it was a thing. So my first, you know, the sight of American football was when I came to high school, and I went to a game, and I couldn't, I couldn't even process what I was watching."

Before then, Umenyiora had developed the basic skills to successfully pursue football through his participation in other sports. Despite limited experience with the game at the high school level, he would get a scholarship from Troy State to play football, thanks to those skills he picked up from basketball and soccer.  

"I think being a multi-sport athlete when you're younger is the best thing you can do because, in terms of football, it mirrors basketball in terms of like your movement, especially if you're on the defensive line, the offensive line cornerback or receiver," Umenyiora said. 

"So you find, like many of the good players who play those positions, actually play basketball because the movements are very similar." 

While Umenyiora, a two-time Pro Bowler and a 2005 first-team All-Pro, went on to become the Giants' second-round draft pick in 2003 and eventually a member of the franchise's 2007 and 2011 championship seasons, he says there's no question that had the International Pathway Program, founded in 2017, been around when he was an aspiring football player, his path to the NFL would have been a lot easier. 

"So much easier," he said with a smile. "I mean, it's incredible. We did a program last year--NFL Africa--we ran that program and we had six guys make it from Nigeria that had never played the game before. 

"And then this year they get signed, they get picked up on all these teams on six teams, and one of them ends up on a Super Bowl winning team (Chukwuebuka "Jason" Godrick) with the Kansas City Chiefs. 

"And all of them got re-signed, except for one. So the team has the ability to move on from these guys after one year, but they saw enough in these guys after that one year to re-sign them. 

"So just knowing that this type of pathway is there and there are a lot of athletes with some real ability out there who just need this opportunity--for me, it would've been incredible. But I'm just glad I could pass it on to other people."