Former NFL Player Gets Deported by ICE

A former Indianapolis Colts linebacker who made history as the first Kenyan-born player to reach the NFL has been deported by U.S. immigration authorities, ICE announced over the weekend, turning a once-celebrated sports milestone into another flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement, mental health, and how America treats former athletes after the spotlight fades.

Daniel Ogama Adongo, 37, was removed from the United States on June 20, according to ICE, after the agency said he overstayed a visa in 2016, one year after his brief NFL career came to an end. An immigration judge ordered his removal in late March.

Adongo’s case drew fresh attention after ICE released a statement Saturday describing him as a former professional athlete with an overstayed visa and a history of arrests. But the story is more complicated than the agency’s sharply worded announcement suggested.

Attorneys who previously represented Adongo did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and NBC News was unable to reach Adongo or determine whether he currently has legal representation.

Adongo first arrived in the public eye as a rugby player before the Indianapolis Colts signed him in 2013. The move made him the first Kenyan to play in the NFL, a groundbreaking achievement that was celebrated at the time as an inspiring international sports story.

But during and after his time with the Colts, Adongo’s life appeared to unravel.

According to reporting from the Indianapolis Star, court records show Adongo had multiple run-ins with law enforcement and was at times found incompetent to stand trial. His attorney and others previously raised concerns that he may have suffered a traumatic brain injury during his years in rugby and football.

ICE said Adongo was convicted in 2020 of misdemeanor criminal mischief with damage and was sentenced to 364 days in jail. Court records show that, after receiving credit for time served, he was ultimately ordered to serve six months in county jail.

The agency also cited other charges, including felony intimidation, battery and disorderly conduct. However, court records show those charges were dismissed and did not result in convictions.

ICE said Adongo’s most recent charges fell under the Laken Riley Act, a Republican-backed immigration law requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants who are arrested on suspicion of, charged with, or convicted of certain crimes including burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting. The law has been praised by conservatives as a public safety measure, but civil rights advocates and immigrant-rights groups have warned that it weakens due process by mandating detention even when a person has only been accused of a crime.

ICE did not specify which of Adongo’s charges triggered the law.

“This dangerous individual was clearly a threat to the community, which is now safer since he’s been removed,” ICE Chicago Assistant Field Office Director Douglas Thompson said in the agency’s statement. “Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes.”

But Adongo’s former legal team and medical providers have previously painted a very different picture, pointing to possible mental illness and brain trauma rather than simply criminal behavior.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Adongo’s lawyers had attributed his arrests to mental health struggles. His defense attorney cited a 2020 medical report in which a doctor who examined him at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center described him as “acutely psychotic with traumatic brain injury.”

A mental health social worker who treated Adongo for years also wrote that he suffered from an “undisclosed mental illness which is highly speculated to be Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE,” the Star reported.

CTE is a degenerative brain condition associated with repeated head trauma, including the kind of hits common in contact sports such as football and rugby. The condition cannot currently be diagnosed in living patients and can only be confirmed after death through an autopsy. A 2024 survey found that roughly one-third of former NFL players suspected they may have CTE, underscoring the long shadow the sport can cast over the lives of players long after their careers end.

The NFL first acknowledged a link between football and CTE in 2016.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about the concerns raised by Adongo’s family and attorneys regarding his mental state and possible brain injury.

Adongo’s deportation now leaves behind a troubling set of questions. ICE framed the case as a straightforward immigration enforcement action against a man it deemed dangerous. But critics of aggressive detention and deportation policies are likely to see something more disturbing: a former athlete, possibly struggling with serious mental illness and brain trauma, pushed through a system that often leaves little room for nuance once immigration status and criminal accusations collide.

For Adongo, the journey from NFL history-maker to deportee is a stark and painful fall. For the broader public, his case is a reminder that the country’s immigration and criminal justice systems can move with devastating force, even when the human story behind the headline is far messier than an agency press release.