Mohamed Sanu zigged.
“It’s a very tough situation,” the Falcons receiver said Monday. “I just pray that us as a country and a world can be united. It’s really hard for me to talk about this right now. It would take a lot of time. I would really like to just focus on the game and just talk about football.”
Sanu zagged.
“I’m not really here to talk about my religious beliefs. I’m here to play football.”
He was every bit as elusive again Thursday.
“I’m just out here to talk about football, trying to enjoy myself and prepare for this game. I’m going to stay focused on the game. It’s not about my thoughts. It’s about the team and football.”
If Sanu is as single-minded and nimble Sunday as he has been throughout the week-long build-up, he’s going to light up the Patriots like a Texas bonfire.
He was met this week by the news of Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban involving seven predominantly Muslim countries. It was inevitable that the media would beat a path to the door of the fellow named Mohamed — who indeed is the one Muslim playing in the Super Bowl — to seek his opinion.
Sanu’s back story is an immigrant’s one. His mother left the west African country of Sierra Leone in the mid-1970s. Born in New Jersey, Sanu was 3 when he returned with his mother to her homeland. He spent the next three years in Africa before coming back to the United States. While in middle school, he moved in with his older sister while his mother, Aminata Koroma, attempted to resettle back in her unsettled nation.
Sierra Leone is not on the banned list, and Koroma, who has shuttled regularly between her life in Africa and the U.S., is expected to witness this Super Bowl up-close.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Sanu said. “I know she wouldn’t want to miss that for the world. She has always wanted to see me play in this game. Ever since I was a kid she’s seen me play. When we got into this game, she said she’d be on the first thing smokin’, coming back.”
As badly as he may have wanted to speak out this week, Sanu was resolutely circumspect. It was neither the time nor place, he said. Maybe later.
OK, so football it is.
We’ll start with this headline that appeared on a myAJC.com blog in March after the Falcons signed the free-agent wide receiver to five-year, $32.5 million contract ($14 million guaranteed):
“$32 million for Sanu? Falcons overpaid to replace Roddy White.”
Welcome to town, Mohamed.
It was time to bite his tongue again, some 11 months later.
“I don’t really pay any attention to anything like that,” Sanu said. “I’ve been doubted my whole life. That wasn’t anything new to me. Just go out there, put my head down and go to work. Just let my game speak for itself.
“Of course it fuels you when someone tells you that you can’t do this or do that. At the same time I have the love of the game fueling me.”
When Sanu arrived — given a sizable raise from the $1.5 million he earned the season before — he had served a full apprenticeship as No. 2 receiver. Just as he would be another option when opponents decided to hang on Julio Jones like first graders on a jungle gym, Sanu was Plan B for A.J. Green in Cincinnati.
“It’s the same thing (as in Cincinnati). Julio draws those crazy coverages and you get a lot of 1-on-1 opportunities,” Sanu said.
What caught quarterback Matt Ryan’s eye initially was another good-sized receiver (6-foot-2, 210 pounds) who like Jones challenges defensive backs with his overt physicality.
“I think he was bigger than I expected,” Ryan said. “He is a big dude, big and physical. And that’s been a good thing for us. He’s physical and brings a lot of energy to our offense.”
What the Falcons got for their investment was very sound No. 2 receiver. Sanu’s production had dropped off significantly in 2015 — only 394 yards and zero touchdowns. Questions of his worth did not seem not unjustified.
He put up 653 yards (11.1 per catch) and four touchdowns this season. And most notable has been his postseason production compared with that with the Bengals. With Cincinnati in three playoff games he mostly invisible, totaling only seven catches, 61 yards and no touchdowns. In this offense, in two games, he’s had nine catches for 96 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
By nature, Sanu is more chirpy than Jones, more apt to engage in a low-brow debate with any given defender. He lends this receiving corps its edge.
The Falcons picked up on that soon enough. “He’s a competitor. That’s what he loves to do. He loves to go 100 percent, he loves to fly around and catch the ball, that’s how he is — 100 percent,” linebacker Deion Jones said. “Every now and then you’ll hear it from him, that’s just the type of player he is. He’s fiery. I enjoy seeing that.”
No doubt his vocal cords will be in play in Sunday, given how this Super Bowl has become a Rutgers alumni game. Sanu is outnumbered — one Scarlet Knight receiver vs. three New England defensive backs from the New Jersey football factory (a particularly amusing oxymoron) — but he is not likely to accept that quietly.
What might he say to old teammates? “Depends. I’ll just be going with the flow of the game. I’ll be talking nice, kind words. It’s going to be fun,” he said.
Altogether, it would seem a great time to own stock in Sanu. People can, you know.
He is the one active NFL player currently involved with Fantex, a company that pays a hefty up-front fee to an athlete to claim a percentage of his future earnings for those who invest in him. Sort of like fantasy football turned real. And highly speculative, given the risk of sudden career-threatening injury.
Originating in 2014, fans bought 164,300 shares in Sanu at $10 per. After he signed his big deal with the Falcons, value in the stock rose to $11, according to the New York Times. In September, Fantex reported paying a $3.60-per-share dividend on Sanu stock.
“It was just something different, something I felt I wanted to be a part of,” he said.
Have a big game Sunday, and in Atlanta’s eyes, Sanu will be every bit as a good a buy as Coke or Delta.
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