Most Chicago Bears fans probably remember the name Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila. He was one of the best pass rushers in the NFL from 2001 to 2004 as a member of the Green Bay Packers. He had 11 sacks in his career against the Bears alone. Terrorizing their QBs was a fun activity for him in those days and he was one of many fans from Chicago hated.
Football fans know him only for his exploits on the field. His career was somewhat short. He walked away after the 2008 season at the age of 31. It seemed like despite his struggles that season he still had juice in the tank. Instead, he chose to walk away from the game. Normally teammates would be sad to see such a good player go. That may not have been the case in Green Bay.
While Gbaja-Biamila was great on the field, he quickly developed a reputation as a religious zealot. According to Kalyn Kahler of Sports Illustrated, he’d get into arguments with teammates and coaches over their faiths. It got so bad one night that he drew the rage of quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
A moment that likely facilitated his eventual exit from the team.
One summer night, a heated debate broke out in the courtyard at St. Norbert College, where the Packers held training camp. KGB remembers Rodgers, irritated, telling everyone to go to bed. Moments later, the argument reached a boiling point and KGB proclaimed, If the locker room blew up, 99 percent of you guys would go to hell. Teammates erupted in anger. After that “most of the Christians turned on me,” Kabeer says. “I remember Aaron Rodgers turned on me, [he said,] If this is what a Christian looks like, I don’t want anything to do with it. … I don’t hate him and I don’t think he hates me, but our relationship has never been the same.”
Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila only got worse after he left the NFL
Turns out, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Gbaja-Biamila didn’t take long to go from tormenting teammates with such words to his local community. Those who caught the worst of it though were his family. The man had a controlling personality and things were hard enough because of that for his wife Eileen. All of that changed though when he had his first daughter. It was then a darker side of his personality began to emerge.
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Their seventh child, born in 2014, broke the streak, the couple’s first daughter, Sufiya. He says now he never wanted to have a daughter; he didn’t want to think about a “woman’s role” or deal with “girl issues.” Some close to Kabeer say that this is when he started to change. He explored the biblical differences between men and women.
Just look at the way Gbaja-Biamila describes Charles Dowell, leader of the Straitway Truth Ministry that he follows.
“He talks like a coach. I like that,” KGB says. “I feel like I am talking to a man’s man, who follows and loves Jesus while not coming from an effeminate, soft place. [Growing up practicing faith] at a mosque, the men are in the front and women are in the back; it’s led by men. I saw the contrast immediately when I went from Islam to Christianity, which is very blended and effeminate. You get brainwashed that it is the norm. It was good to see a man’s man.”
The man is an undeniable misogynist and seems quite proud of it.
It’s hardly a surprise his wife eventually left him along with the children. A moment that only seemed to cause even further fraying of his grasp between fantasy and reality. The former defensive end has taken constant shots at her and women in general ever since then. Here’s a spicy sample from his YouTube page.
It doesn’t stop there. Gbaja-Biamila is also a clear racist. He believes his ex-wife was actively encouraged by the largely white community of Green Bay to leave him. Something that never would’ve happened if he’d lived in a primarily African-American community.
He says he found out later that Eileen and the kids were staying at the home of a pastor friend who lived in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. “What was done to me, instead of trying to keep my family together, they tore it apart,” KGB says. “They threw gas on there. If I was around black people who knew my culture, I don’t think they would have reacted this way. But when most of your friends are Caucasian …”
For years he’s tried to get back his children from her.
Except it’s clear his motivations aren’t about love for them. It’s more like an ex-husband trying to reclaim some treasured items from his ex-wife he lost in a divorce. The kids are nothing more than objects to own to him. Things that he wishes to possess. An ugly truth he revealed during a confrontation with police at a Christmas program the kids were attending where two of his “brothers” walked in to film while carrying hidden firearms.
For instance, on the night of the Christmas program, KGB arrived at the church after Desmith and Salmi had been removed. According to the responding officer’s reports, his new wife, 26-year-old Bri Rainey, immediately started filming the police as KGB argued with the officers who had placed DeSmith and Salmi in the rear of the squad car. A responding officer asked KGB whether his children were currently inside the church. “They are not my children, they are my property,” he answered. “And I will be getting my property and leaving.”
Keep in mind all of this was revealed in just the first of three chapters about Gbaja-Biamila. This is how insane things have gotten around the former Packer since he retired. A reminder that it’s important to be careful who you have your kids idolize in professional sports.
