Olayiwola Kehinde "Kenny" Onatolu (born October 8, 1982) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

who played in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

and

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. He was signed by the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2007. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Nebraska-Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

. Onatolu also played for the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

and

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

Personal life

Onatolu earned a bachelor's degree in communications at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and aspires to have a career in broadcasting. He has an

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

brother named

Taiwo Taiwo (variant forms: Taiye, Taye, Taiyewo) is a name of Yoruba origin meaning "the first twin to taste the world" or the one who comes before Kehinde. Although Taiwo is the firstborn twin, in Yoruba belief Taiwo is considered the younger twin, ha ...

, who was his teammate at Nebraska-Omaha and now is a graduate assistant on the Mavericks’ staff. Onatolu was born in Chicago, but spent 3 years as a child in his parents' home country of Nigeria. His father is a business professor.

College

Kenny earned Division II All-America honors as a junior and senior by Collegesportsreport.com, and recorded 324 career total tackles in his collegiate career, 5th in school history. He was named All-North Central Conference after each of his 4 seasons (2nd team his sophomore year), and captured team’s Outstanding LB award in 2005 and Defensive MVP award in 2006. Kenny was also a member of the Super 6 comedy team.

Professional career

Edmonton Eskimos

After going undrafted in 2007, Onatolu attended an

minicamp after his twin brother Taiwo had a similar experience. He was invited to training camp and eventually made the team. During his rookie season in the

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

, Onatolu recorded eight tackles and a sack. The following season in 2008, he recorded 59 tackles, three sacks and two fumble recoveries.

Minnesota Vikings

Onatolu was signed to a future contract by the

on December 31, 2008. He made the team as a backup linebacker and was one of the leaders on special teams for the Vikings.

Carolina Panthers

Onatolu was signed to a three-year contract by the

on March 16, 2012. After playing in just four games in the 2012 season, Onatolu was released by the Panthers on April 16, 2013.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onatolu, Kenny 1982 births Living people Players of American football from Chicago Players of Canadian football from Chicago American players of Canadian football American football linebackers Canadian football linebackers Nebraska–Omaha Mavericks football players Edmonton Elks players Minnesota Vikings players Carolina Panthers players American sportspeople of Nigerian descent American people of Yoruba descent Yoruba sportspeople Identical twins American twins Twin sportspeople People from Papillion, Nebraska Players of American football from Nebraska