When the Jaguars' Foley Fatukasi was in high school, Hurricane Sandy left his family homeless. The influence of his mother, Ifedola, kept his NFL dream intact.
If anyone thinks Fatukasi struck it rich when he signed that $30 million contract with the Jaguars, then they’re missing all those life lessons Ifedola and her Nigerian husband, Michael , taught their boys all these years.
“Nigerian culture is very authentic,” Foley said. “A sense of pride in ourselves as people, there’s a certain mantra for us to navigate through life. It’s truly embedded in me and my brothers. You take things little by little, work hard and treat people right. They’ll sometimes make a joke about the storm and its fallout, if only to ease the anxiety of memories that were really no laughing matter.
Olakunle, who was 13 at the time, underestimated the storm’s wrath until it came through Far Rockaway on a Monday morning. “Five people in two beds in a hotel room,” said Owakunle, who graduated from Rutgers with a degree in information technology. “It’s not like you got a living room or a kitchen. Everything is in one room.”
Judging by what Ifedola, now 57, saw inside her house when she first assessed the hurricane damage, it was going to take a while. “My mom’s strongest qualities are being able to sit down and reflect,” said Foley. “She can reflect on something and give great wisdom about a situation. For all intents and purposes, it will keep you grounded and out of trouble.
“We just kept praying,” said Ifedola. “No condition is permanent. I told the kids it’s good in a way that you have this experience because other people live in this situation for the rest of their lives. We at least had hope that we could go back home. We lined up for food and all that. Well, some people line up for food every day.”
Michael worked several jobs, then went to school at New York Tech before settling into a career as an accountant. Ifedola wasn’t sure about continuing in nursing, so she completed a degree in human services/community science at Empire State College. She now has a master's degree in human services. But considering what his family had already been through, maybe it wasn’t all that shocking that Fatukasi made the roster with his hometown New York Jets. And not only used that opportunity to become a full-time starter, but parlayed it into an NFL lotto ticket with the Jaguars. When Foley started playing football in eighth grade as a two-way lineman, he initially thought it’d be a means to help make him better at basketball.
“To play at home was amazing, having family and friends see me,” said Fatukasi. “I understood the blessings in that regard and didn’t take it for granted.” "We would have loved to kept him for sure, but money wins," Saleh told the Times-Union."Phenomenal dude, great leader. Jacksonville got a helluva person and a player. He's the epitome of everything you want in terms of leadership and work ethic. He was the voice of our team. I could turn to him when I wanted to know about how the locker room was feeling. He's very respectful, very inquisitive. He loves to know the whys.