Oday Aboushi

Oday Aboushi

Aboushi
No. 78 Houston Texans
Position:	Guard
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1991-06-05) June 5, 1991
Place of birth:	Brooklyn, New York
Height:
Weight:
Career information
High school:	Brooklyn (NY) Xaverian
College:	Virginia
NFL draft:	2013 / Round: 5 / Pick: 141
Career history
New York Jets (2013–2014) Houston Texans (2015–present)
Roster status:	Active
Career highlights and awards
Second-team All-ACC (2011) First-team All-ACC (2012)
Career NFL statistics as of Week 17, 2014
Games played: 22 Games started: 15 Player stats at NFL.com

Oday Aboushi (born June 5, 1991) is an American football guard for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). Aboushi played college football for the University of Virginia. Aboushi was selected by the New York Jets in the fifth round, 141 overall pick of the 2013 NFL Draft.

Early years

Aboushi was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 5, 1991. He attended Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, where he was a member of the Xaverian Clippers high school football team.

Name	Home town	High school / college	Height	Weight	40‡	Commit date
Oday Aboushi Offensive tackle	Brooklyn, New York	Xaverian High School	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	300 lb (140 kg)	5.2	Jan 8, 2009
	Scout:   Rivals:   247Sports: N/A
Overall recruiting rankings: Scout: 15 (OT)   Rivals: -- (National), 23 (OT), 1 (NY)
‡ Refers to 40 yard dash Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height, weight and 40 time. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources:

College career

Aboushi attended the University of Virginia, where he played for the Virginia Cavaliers football team from 2009 to 2012. During his college career he started 37 of 43 games in which he appeared. As a senior in 2012, he was a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) selection.

Professional career

New York Jets

The New York Jets selected Aboushi in the fifth round, with the 141st overall pick, of the 2013 NFL Draft. The Jets signed him to a four-year rookie contract on May 10, 2013; financial terms were not disclosed. Aboushi played in all 4 preseason games in 2013 but no regular season games. In 2014, Aboushi started 10 games from Week 7 through Week 17, drawing his first start at left guard on Thursday Night Football against the New England Patriots. Aboushi was released by the Jets on September 15, 2015.

Houston Texans

The Houston Texans claimed Aboushi off of waivers on September 16, 2015. The Texans' offensive line coach, Mike Devlin, was Aboushi's former position coach with the Jets.

Personal life

Aboushi is the ninth of ten children born to Palestinian parents who immigrated to New York from the Beit Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Aboushi speaks English and some Arabic.

He is also a practicing Muslim, one of few in the NFL. During Ramadan, which fell every year during training camp season at Virginia, he fasted from sunrise to sunset every day. He was one of almost a dozen Muslim athletes honored by the U.S. Department of State for his contributions in 2011. He is one of the first Palestinian players in the NFL.

On July 12, 2013, the Anti-Defamation League issued a press release defending Aboushi after an article circulating online claimed he was a 'Muslim extremist'. ADL defended Aboushi's right to take 'pride in his Palestinian heritage' and emphatically stated that being pro-Palestinian is in no way equivalent to being anti-Semitic or a Muslim extremist.

In 2014 and 2015, Aboushi traveled to Sudan with the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) to help repair cleft lips and cleft palates in the impoverished East African nation. Working with the IMANA SaveSmile team, Aboushi helped to perform surgery that adjusted muscles and connected tissues allowing full lips to form in place of cleft palates.

External links

• Virginia Cavaliers bio