First Kenyan-Born NFL Player Deported Amid Mental Health Crisis
Daniel Ogama Adongo, the first Kenyan to ever play in the National Football League, was deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on June 20 after spending nearly a year in detention. The case of the 37-year-old former Indianapolis Colts linebacker has ignited debate at the fraught intersection of professional sports, immigration enforcement, and the mental health crisis facing retired athletes.
ICE confirmed Adongo’s removal on July 25, stating that he overstayed his visa in 2016 after his NFL career ended and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on March 23. The agency described him as a “dangerous individual” whose most recent charges fell under the Laken Riley Act, a 2025 federal statute requiring mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants charged with certain crimes.
“Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes,” ICE Chicago Assistant Field Office Director Douglas Thompson told NBC News.
But court records and medical evaluations suggest a far more complex story—one of a celebrated athlete whose career unraveled amid mounting evidence of severe mental illness, likely tied to the physical toll of a decade in professional contact sports.
From Kenyan Hercules to NFL Trailblazer
Born in Nairobi on October 12, 1989, Adongo was spotted by South African scouts at the 2006 Safari Sevens tournament. He moved to South Africa at 17 to join the Sharks rugby academy and went on to play professional rugby for teams in South Africa and New Zealand, earning the nickname “Kenyan Hercules” for his imposing 6-foot-5, 270-pound frame.
In July 2013, the Indianapolis Colts signed Adongo despite him having never played American football. He appeared in five games over three seasons on special teams, earning approximately $694,000. “My heart says I’m a football player, my mind says I’m a football player, my body says I’m a football player,” he said in 2015, months before his NFL career ended.
A Decade of Decline
The Colts waived Adongo in December 2015 after police investigated domestic violence allegations—no charges were filed. But what followed was a cascade of arrests, psychiatric hospitalizations, and legal proceedings that pointed to a deeper tragedy.
According to an investigation by the Indianapolis Star, Adongo was arrested in 2016 for threatening an Uber driver with a hatchet. A judge found him incompetent to stand trial and sent him to a psychiatric hospital. He was found incompetent again in 2019.
In 2020, Dr. Jason Jaronik examined Adongo and described him as “acutely psychotic with traumatic brain injury.” Henry Mudari, a social worker who treated Adongo for years, wrote that he suffered from an “undisclosed mental illness which is highly speculated to be Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE”—a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head impacts that can only be definitively diagnosed after death.
Adongo’s mother, Betty, petitioned for guardianship twice. Both petitions were granted.
The Laken Riley Act and Speedway Slammer
Adongo’s most recent arrest came in summer 2025, when he allegedly threatened a police officer outside a Kroger store in Mishawaka, Indiana. The charges were later dismissed, but because they initially fell under the Laken Riley Act—signed into law by President Trump in January 2025—Adongo was held without bond and transferred to ICE custody.
He was detained at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana, nicknamed the “Speedway Slammer.” The facility is one of the most violent prisons in the state, plagued by killings, drug use, and gang activity. Indiana earns up to $213 million leasing beds to ICE under a two-year contract.
What Comes Next
Adongo’s case raises urgent questions about how the U.S. handles immigrants with mental illness. Mudari told the Star: “I do believe punitive measures will only cause more harm to him. We need treatment as opposed to jail.”
A 2024 survey found that approximately one-third of former NFL players suspect they have CTE. The league first acknowledged the link between football and the disease in 2016. Adongo’s father, Joe, has spoken publicly about his son’s struggles, and a Change.org petition describes the case as one where “he needed a doctor, not a cell.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about whether Adongo received mental health treatment while in custody. He was deported to Kenya on June 20, returning to a country he left nearly two decades ago as a teenager with dreams of sporting greatness.