January 2000

Mohammad Haadi Abdullah * "ageless" * 5'11 1/2" * 190 *

* #25 * DB/KR * Multnomah County Buccaneers *

Mohammad Abdullah lives the life that many of us dream of; for a living he travels and plays football. Since graduating from Pickens County High School in Jasper Georgia in 1985, Mohammad has played football in Germany, Denmark, France and Holland.

In between stints in Europe Abdullah plays in the NWFL. He has spent time with the TBolts, Cavaliers, Jets and Vikings. He plans to play for the upstart Multnomah County Buccaneers this year. "I play in the NWFL because the it has the best talent in the country and it is a great way for me to continue to develop my skills and challenge myself," Abdullah stated.

Mohammad stumbled on to the NWFL in 1993 when he used to live near Civic Stadium, the Thunderbolts Field at the time. He saw the Federal Way Jets @ Thunderbolts game advertised on the stadiums reader board and decided to check it out. While watching the game with his wife he turned to her and said, "You know what? I think I can do this." He met with the coaches after the game to get some information and showed up at practice.

"The Thunderbolts were a talented team that expected that you knew what you were doing and there wasn't a whole lot of coaching," said Abdullah who hadn't played football since high school in 1984. "The minute you made a mistake you were pulled and it's hard to learn that way. There were a lot of growing pains during that first season. Calvin Griggs, Van Velarde and Waymon Teague were all very helpful."

Abdullah jumped to the Cavaliers the following season and found the atmosphere more to his liking. "1994 with the Cavs was a lot of fun. That's when I played with Lance Westendorf and his brother Lyle. I remember two interceptions vs Jets and returning one for a 55 yard TD. I was running the fastest that I have ever run in my life because I was so scared of the 'big bad Jets'."

With a bit more experience and confidence under his belt, he rejoined the TBolts for the '95 season and played in the triple overtime thriller against the Jets in the NWFL championship and then the West Coast championship against the California Dolphins.

Abdullah rejoined the Thunderbolts for the first two games of 1996 before jumping to the Jets to finish the season. Playing with the Jets during 1996 and '97 is how Abdullah earned his 'Greyhound' nickname. "It has nothing to do with speed," said Abdullah laughing. " I was living in Portland and traveled by greyhound to Seattle. I would meet Coach Mac at the bus terminal and go straight to practice. I'd stay with Coach Mac and go to practice again Thursday. My wife would come up Friday and we'd head back to Portland together Saturday after the game."

That season the Jets rebounded from a 0-6 start to edge the Chiefs for the final playoff spot and then upset the Tbolts in the playoffs on their way to the PFL North Championship, one of Abdullah's fondest NWFL memories.

1997 is when Abdullah's football career really took off. "I was playing with the Jet's and Kenny

Austin took me aside and asked me what I wanted to do with football and if I had ever thought about playing overseas. Leonard Simpson Jr. of the new Sportsunlimited Agency contacted me but the only spot available was a QB for a 3rd division German team. 'Can you throw,' he asked and I said only about 40 yards. 'Well, can you run?' Yeah! 'Come on up and I'll work you out!' Two weeks later I was on a plane with Chris Penny."

Abdullah's first experience in Europe playing for the Langenfield Longhorns wasn't at all what he expected. "We were only there for the last four games and we didn't win any of them. As a QB I didn't know what I was doing. There was lots of running back and forth across the field. The fans thought it was exciting though. I just learned the plays and went out there as an athlete. We ran a lot of QB sweeps and passing was mainly the slants and outs. We both were expecting something different and Chris ended up leaving before the last game. We were playing against athletes that we were far superior than. Even the best 3rd division team would get crushed in the NWFL."

Warren Reynolds and Mohammad Abdullah were teammates on the Copenhagen Towers of the Danish National League.

Abdullah returned to Europe the following spring to play for Abdullah returned to Europe the following spring to play for the Copenhagen Towers with fellow NWFLer Warren Reynolds in the Danish National League, Denmark's top division. "The team had a great history of being an arrogant bunch., much to the disliking of the rest of the league. At the time Warren and I sent to play for them most of their veterans had retired and they had become the worst team in the league. Nobody wanted to play for them and they never had developed a good youth feeder program. So only about 7 guys would show up to practice. (read Mohammad's commentary about his experience with the towers). It was a joke and players even quit coming to games because they knew they were going to get beat. Both Warren and I obtained our releases midway through the season. Warren went to the Herlev Rebels and I went to the Aarhus Tigers." This is when Abdullah really began to shine. In addition to playing CB and WR, he and former UCLA running back Kasanti Abdul Salaam were named the most dangerous kick return duo in Danish football history.

Adullah owes his 'Aktionman' nickname to this honor. "Aktionman is Danish comic book hero and action figure very similar to GI Joe here in the States," explained Abdullah. "A lot of kids liked me over there and every time I touched the ball there was going to be action."

In 1998 Mohammad played for the Aarhus Tigers of the Danish National League.

The two NWFLers almost met again in the Danish Championship game. "If the Rebels had won their playoff game then we would have faced off. That would have good for the NWFL and Sportsunlimited. I wanted that so bad but they fell short." The Tigers went on to win the 10th Annual Mermaid Bowl (Danish National Championship) that year. "Aarhus was a good team. They would hang in the NWFL," said Abdullah about the Tigers who finished as the 18th or 19th ranked team in Europe.

Abdullah returned from Denmark just in time to attend the 1998 Snohomish County Viking @ Vancouver Posse game. "I talked to Coach Mac and saw a lot of former Jet teammates so I decided to play for them. The Jets did not have a team that year so the decision was fairly easy."

"He was a fine player and very coachable. He gives much credit to Eddie Mac for his success," Vikings' Head Coach Wes Fischer fondly remembered. "When he played for us he traveled from Portland to Edmonds to play. He was dependable and well spoken. When I lost my wife he was so supportive and kind to me. He will be a success in life as well as football. I am proud to know him."

After helping the Vikings earn their first every playoff appearance in 1998, Abdullah once again returned to Europe in 1999. "The Voyageurs de Evry recruited me off of my website and unfortunately I learned about about the politics of football in France," explained Abdullah. "The main reason to play on competitive level in Europe is to play in the Euro Bowl. I did so well in game against the Flash that they wanted me to play in the Euro Bowl with them. They were the thugs of the league but In a good way. they had lots of players from the ghetto, really good athletes, and were the class of the league because of their attitude. They invited me to play for them in the Euro Bowl but the Voyagers wanted compensation to let me go. It was a good opportunity that they were preventing me from."

The Euro Bowl Tournament is similar to soccer's World Cup, albeit on a smaller scale. Euro Bowl games are scheduled during the bye weeks of all participating European leagues. A player plays in league games with his league team, and then with his Euro Bowl team during the bye weeks.

"Finally I told them to let me play or I was leaving," Abdullah continues. "They held on to me until they could find a QB and ended up releasing me after a game in which I had 3 catches for 86 yards and 2 scores against the team that ended up playing in the championship game. I was able to play with the Paris Flash in the Euro Bowl competition but they could not sign me for league games because of the way the Voyagers released me."

Mohammad scored on this 79 yard reception in the Tigers 37-0 playoff victory over the Roskilde Kings in summer of '98. The Tigers went on to defeat the Kronborg Knights by the score of 48-20 in Mermaid Bowl 10 (Danish National Championship game).

Since Abdullah could not play with the Flash during league games he looked for employment elsewhere. "I contacted Uwe Talke of the German Federation and asked about teams in need of a CB/WR and he directed me towards the Rotterham Trjoans in Holland. I caught a train right after the first Euro Bowl game and played a 'friendly' (non-league game) with the Trojans against the Dusseldorf Panthers. I had an interception and showed enough to make the team. They had a history of players moving on to bigger things. They were so good that they opted to play in the European Benelux tourney instead of the Holland League."

Abdullah returned to Portland to finalize his divorce. He ended up playing in a preseason game with the Jaguars against the Cavaliers. After the game he met his eventual fiance, Rebeca Garcia, who happens to be teammate Waymon Teague's sister-in-law. Abdullah soon headed back to Paris which he considers his second home. He ended up playing for the Hanau Hornets in the Bundes Liga Sud of the German Football League. Playing in Germany caused him to miss the 1999 NWFL season which was just as well. "It would have been very difficult to choose between Kenny Austing (Jets) and Eddie McMillan (Vikings). I'm not surprised that both those teams ended up in the championship game."

Even though Abdullah as experienced much success in football he is quick to give credit to those who have helped him. "I actually almost quit playing football in 1996 because I was so dissillusioned. Coach Austin gave me the opportunity in this league, Coach Mac taught me how to play the game, and my ex wife Julia Bahati gave me the love and support that I know a lot of guys in this league don't get from their significant others. Len Simpson Jr. had enough faith in me to send me to Europe as a QB. I haven't looked back since. I'd also like to thank Shay Dean and Victor Winselle for the opportunity to come back and play for the Multnomah County Bucs. Its going to be a lot of fun but we have a lot of things to prove."