Oday Aboushi (born June 5, 1991) is a

Palestinian-American Palestinian Americans ( ar, فلسطينيو أمريكا) are Americans who are of full or partial Palestinian descent. It is unclear when the first Palestinian immigrants arrived in the United States, but it is believed that they arrived d ...

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 wit ...

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict in ...

who is a

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 ...

. He played college football at

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

and was selected by the New York Jets in the fifth round of the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall i ...

. He has also played for the Houston Texans,

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division, an ...

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

and

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

Early years

Aboushi was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

. He attended

Xaverian High School Xaverian High School is a private Catholic high school located in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, serving grades 6 through 12. Grades 9-12 offer a college prep program and grades 6-8 are a middle school. History The school was ...

in Brooklyn, where he was a member of the Xaverian

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, partl ...

team.

College career

Aboushi attended the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...

, where he played for the

Virginia Cavaliers football The Virginia Cavaliers football team represents the University of Virginia in the sport of American football. Established in 1888, Virginia plays its home games at Scott Stadium, capacity 61,500, featured directly on its campus near the Academi ...

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

. The Jets signed him to a four-year rookie contract on May 10, 2013; financial terms were not disclosed. Aboushi was inactive in 2013 for all 16 regular season games with the Jets. In 2014, he started 10 games after the starter was injured. Aboushi was suspended without pay (about $34,400) for the first game of the 2015 season for violating the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse, in August 2015. Aboushi was released by the Jets on September 15, 2015, one day after his suspension for violating the NFL's

substance abuse Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...

policy ended.

Houston Texans

The Houston Texans claimed Aboushi off of waivers on September 16, 2015.

Seattle Seahawks

On March 17, 2017, Aboushi signed with the

. He started eight games at right guard before suffering a

dislocated shoulder A dislocated shoulder is a condition in which the head of the humerus is detached from the shoulder joint. Symptoms include shoulder pain and instability. Complications may include a Bankart lesion, Hill-Sachs lesion, rotator cuff tear, or i ...

injury in Week 15. He was placed on injured reserve on December 13, 2017.

Oakland Raiders

On July 28, 2018, Aboushi signed with the

reuniting him with his previous year offensive line coach

Tom Cable Thomas Lee Cable Jr. (born November 26, 1964) is an American football coach who last was the offensive line coach for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the Seattle Seahawks assistant head ...

. He was released on September 1, 2018.

Arizona Cardinals

On October 23, 2018, Aboushi signed with the

Detroit Lions

On March 14, 2019, Aboushi signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the

. On March 27, 2020, he re-signed with the Lions. He was released during final roster cuts on September 5, 2020, but re-signed with the team the next day. He was fined $5,221 by the NFL for unnecessary roughness in Week 2.

Los Angeles Chargers

On March 20, 2021, Aboushi signed with the

. He was named the Chargers starting right guard for the 2021 season. However, he suffered a torn ACL in Week 5 and was placed on season-ending injured reserve on October 12, 2021.

Los Angeles Rams

On September 14, 2022, Aboushi signed with the practice squad of the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC Wes ...

. He was promoted to the active roster six days later. He was suspended for one game on December 26, 2022. His suspension was overturned a day later.

Personal life

Aboushi is the ninth of ten children born to

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

parents who immigrated to New York from

Beit Hanina Beit Hanina ( ar, بيت حنينا , he, בית חנינא) is an Arab Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It is on the road to Ramallah, eight kilometers north of central Jerusalem, at an elevation of 780 meters above sea level. Bei ...

, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. He is the brother of civil rights lawyer and Democratic candidate for Manhattan District Attorney

Tahanie Aboushi Tahanie A. Aboushi is a Palestinian-American civil rights lawyer and partner at The Aboushi Law Firm in New York City with two of her siblings. She was a Democratic candidate for Manhattan District Attorney in the June 2021 Democratic primar ...

. He speaks English and Arabic. He is a practicing Muslim, one of few in the NFL. During Ramadan, which fell during training camp season at Virginia, he fasted from dawn to sunset most days. He was one of about a dozen Muslim athletes honored by the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other natio ...

for contributions in 2011. He is one of the first

players in the NFL. On July 12, 2013, the Jewish NGO the

Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...

issued a press release defending Aboushi after an article circulating online claimed he was a 'Muslim extremist'. The 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.

References

External links

Detroit Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aboushi, Oday Living people 1991 births American football offensive tackles American football offensive guards American people of Palestinian descent American Muslims Sportspeople from Brooklyn Players of American football from New York City Xaverian High School alumni Virginia Cavaliers football players New York Jets players Houston Texans players Seattle Seahawks players Oakland Raiders players Arizona Cardinals players Detroit Lions players Los Angeles Chargers players Los Angeles Rams players