NEWPORT BEACH — Mr. Irrelevant met the Nigerian Nightmare for the first time. Cheta Ozougwu was just happy to hear his name pronounced correctly by someone other than his Nigerian parents.
Christian Okoye said "oh-ZOO-goo" just once. To the former running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, Ozougwu was still Mr. Irrelevant, the last player picked in the NFL Draft.
As for any advice for Ozougwu, who will try to make the Houston Texans, Okoye chuckled at first. The laughs started well before a roast of Ozougwu at the All-Star Lowsman Banquet at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa on Wednesday.
A couple of days before the event in front of former NFL standouts and coaches, Ozougwu hoped the jokes would be tasteful. He worried for the sake of his parents, Aja and Josephine, who are devout Christians.
They actually laughed the hardest.
Aja and Josephine were not about to stop the barrage of jokes aimed at their 22-year-old son. Even when Mike Haynes, a Hall of Fame player, asked if Ozougwu was smart, his parents busted up laughing.