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Mustafa Khaleefah goes from war in Iraq to Michigan State signee
Michigan State added 27 players Wednesday on national signing day, but it’s a safe bet that none of the other 26 overcame the kind of obstacles Mustafa Khaleefah did to land a free ride to a Big Ten school.
Khaleefah, a three-star prospect out of Dearborn (Mich.) High, grew up in Iraq and had several friends and family members killed while living in a war-torn country.
From MLive.com:
On one particular occasion, a man was walking by Khaleefah’s house when he was suddenly shot and killed.
“Motorcycles just pulled up and just shot him,” Khaleefah said. “I guess that you could say it was the last straw but there were so many other things that went on there too that you’ve got to be like, you’ve got to get out of here. You can’t raise a family in these conditions.”
So, when he was about nine years old, Khaleefah’s family immigrated to America in search of a new life.
“We couldn’t just afford to lose any more family members than we did,” Khaleefah said.
As he adapted to life in America, Khaleefah came about his new passion in an unconventional way, according to MLive: He learned the rules of football by playing the popular Madden NFL video game.
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By his sophomore year, Khaleefah went out for the Dearborn team. And at 6-foot-5, 280 pounds, the offensive tackle thrived, eventually landing in East Lansing.
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For all of the hype and theatrics of signing day, Khaleefah became living proof Wednesday of the American Dream.
