Omar Alejandro Cojolum Delgado (born 15 June 1990) is a Mexican professional gridiron football

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

for the

Dinos de Saltillo Dinos de Saltillo (English: ''Saltillo Dinos'') are an American football team based in Saltillo, Mexico. The Dinos compete in the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, the top American football league in Mexico. The team plays its home games at ...

of the

Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional The Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (Professional American Football League), commonly known simply as LFA, is a professional american football spring league in Mexico, founded in 2016. Starting with four teams, the LFA has since expanded t ...

(LFA). Cojolum played college football at the

Universidad del Valle de México The Universidad del Valle de México (UVM) is a private university founded in 1960 and one of the largest university systems in Mexico. The school enrolls more than 120,000 students, and has approximately 11,900 faculty members and 6,900 staff e ...

(UVM). He started his professional career in 2016 with the

Mayas CDMX The Mayas, also called Mayas LFA or Mayas Puebla, were an American football team based in Mexico City (CDMX), Mexico. The Mayas competed in the Central Division of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, the top American football league in Mex ...

, winning the 2016 and 2017 Tazón México. In 2020, after spending the offseason with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of 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 ...

(CFL), Cojolum returned to Mexico and was signed by Dinos de Saltillo.

Early life

Cojolum was born on 15 June 1990 and was raised in

Naucalpan Naucalpan, officially Naucalpan de Juárez, is one of 125 municipalities located just northwest of Mexico City in the adjoining State of Mexico. The municipal seat is the city of Naucalpan de Juárez, which extends into the neighboring municipa ...

, State of Mexico, close to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, by his mother. He has two brothers, one of them, his elder brother, "forced" him to play American football. Despite initially not wanting to practice American football, Cojolum played in local teams since he was four years old and joined the youth club Mavericks, where he won six championships. Cojolum has stated that the neighborhood where he grew up was dangerous and that many people there ended up on drugs or crime, but thanks to his love for sport he managed to stay out of trouble.

College career

Cojolum was offered a scholarship to play at the

(UVM) joining the Linces UVM, where he played from 2010 to 2015. In 2013, Cojolum had surgery after suffering an injury in a match against Burros Blancos, missing the entire 2013 season.

Professional career

Mayas CDMX

After finishing his college eligibility with the Linces UVM, Cojolum was signed by the

as the team's first pick of the inaugural LFA draft. He scored the first points in LFA history, doing so in the league's inaugural match, where the Mayas defeated the Raptors de Naucalpan 34–6. Cojolum rapidly became one of the league's top players, helping the Mayas to win the Tazón México back to back in 2016 and 2017. He was awarded as the best running back of the

2017 LFA season The 2017 LFA season was the second season of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional. This season saw two new franchises join the league: Dinos(short for "dinosaurios", the Spanish word for dinosaurs) and Fundidores(Spanish for smelters or foun ...

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Cojolum was selected by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as the 14th pick of the second round of the

2019 CFL–LFA Draft The 2019 CFL–LFA Draft took place on January 14, 2019. 27 players were chosen from an invited pool of 51 Mexican players: 34 from the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA) (a professional American football league) and 17 seniors from Mexi ...

. He joined the team in the offseason but did not make it to the final roster for the 2019 season.

Dinos de Saltillo

Cojolum was signed by the

ahead of the 2020 LFA season, though it was ultimately cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico The COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to ha ...

. In November 2022, Cojolum was re-signed by the Dinos ahead of the 2023 LFA season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cojolum, Omar Living people 1990 births Mexican players of American football Mexican players of Canadian football American football running backs Canadian football running backs Mayas CDMX players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Dinos de Saltillo players Linces UVM players Sportspeople from the State of Mexico People from Naucalpan