 What's up everybody and welcome to another episode of Falcons in Focus. I'm Scott Bear. That's Tori McElaney. And here we have Dr. Arnold Ebecady. Yeah, who has an honorary degree from Penn State. I'm making most of this up in rushing the passer, at least according to his Twitter profile. And we're going to start right there with this hard hitting question. Okay. Arthur Smith likes to give people some, some grief, some grief about things, including your nickname, the doctor of pass rushing. Does he still give you grief for that? Even all these months in? It doesn't matter because he said, so I get 10 sacks. I'll be called a nurse. OK, origin story time. How did that nickname come to pass? So. Well, the name doctor, it was it was funny the way it came about. And I remember I was talking to a friend who was like, what's the call? She is a lawyer. And you know how lawyers, they be having S TQ in front of the name and stuff. So I was like, I'm going to ask you in front of my name. She was like, no, you can't do that. You're not a lawyer. I'm like, I still I was thinking, what can I put in front of my name? I'm like, I'm a doctor of pass rush. I'm just going to put a doctor and I switched my my Instagram into the handle. I put a doctor in front of it and then the news took it and ran with it and they interviewed me. I was like, I'm a doctor of pass rush. And then it just takes off. And anybody who watched you play for Penn State last year, you very well have an expertise in that particular field. So it was a nickname that fit well. Just what would it? I'm glad I'm glad that Arthur put put in a jab there. That's that's so typical Arthur Smith. Yeah, every time they see me saying, hey, nurse. That's fantastic. Now, when we were prepping for this interview, we were of course, you know, googling you as one does. We're hard hitting journalists around here with Google. But one of the first things that popped up was actually your huddle film playing basketball. And you were going above the freaking rim. We were actually very like, oh, my gosh, like a cake and ball. Like, please tell me one why you didn't get into basketball like into college. You got because you can play, man. Basketball was my first. I mean soccer was my first sport and basketball was my second sport. And I was playing basketball in high school, but football. I mean, when I got to high school, I was playing basketball and football. But football was more into like my main sport. The sport was going to play in college and basketball was just for fun. So I was just out here just having a good time. And I was the MVP of my team. Oh, yeah. So wait, the question that we have is have you played Drake in one on one yet? He I'm for the record on the record, everyone. Drake keeps ducking me. You guys have a basketball hoop in the locker. Yeah, he said we he said we'll wait until the off season and we'll see. But for now, till he till he faced me. I kind of just want to see like a dunk contest. Yeah, me too. They don't even have to play. I'd like to be a like honorary judge because Drake can supposedly do five forties. I saw you get your entire chest. I'm calling Drake out. I'm calling Drake out. Let's see what happened. Let's see what now another person on this team that you have a great relationship with is Derek Tangelo. Yeah, we Scott and I have a great appreciation for Derek Tangelo. Please tell everybody who we know, you know, y'all are teammates at Penn State, but please tell me the origin story of how you guys met and became friends. Well, Tangelo, him and I from Maryland, and we was the same class in high school and all that. We actually played to get in the crowd ball and at the time we didn't know each other that well. We just playing on the same team. The crowd was like the all-star game for high school from Maryland and Baltimore and all that. And I played against him when he was at Duke and I was at Temple. We played. So when we got to Penn State, they beat us. That game was the ball game. They beat us when we got to Penn State. He was trolling me about that game and all that. So since I was in you of him and when we both, he actually went out, he committed to Penn State before I did. And when I was looking at the Penn State, two to four five, seeing Tangelo committed, part of it was like, oh, I gotta go see this guy. Yeah, Penn State was out of there on my top school. And he come out there the day before I did. And I was just like, I'm just going to go. So he said, I've talked to him, I think, a couple of times and he made the comment. He was like, yeah, AK kind of forced me to live with him. And I'm like, I don't know if that's entirely true. Is it? Did you force him to live with you? He was going to live on campus. And I had to drop by the off-campus spot at Penn State. It was like the best spot. So I hit him up. I said, where you going to stay? He said, I don't know if I'm going to live on campus. I'm like, now I come. We have a house and a couple of other teammates. Some of them was from Allen as well. And I was like, you might as well come join us. And he came the rest of history. We had the best spot on campus. We call it we call the trade file for life. I love that there is a video from a press conference that you held during training camp or something like that. There's video and the videos made it to Tiktok in case you didn't know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's on Tiktok. Maria Martin from 11 a lot. Yeah. Of you singing a ballad called Tombstone. And it sounds like Derek tells a story, I guess, that like you like would come into his room and sing it to him. That's my go-to song. That's my go-to song at Penn State. You know, I used to sing all the time. And one time I was doing a podcast and that was the first time I signed a song in front of everybody, Tombstone and Barry. And I was proud of myself. I said, I got the vocals. A lot of people say I don't, but I believe I actually do have vocal. I mean, you did it in front of a bank of cameras. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, and too, was it true that y'all had a like semi recording studio like in that house? Yeah, that's why it's called trade file because everybody used to come to the house and make music. I love that. That's why our house was so special because the whole team used to be in there making music. What was, you know how every team has like this one spot where everybody just hang out at? Yeah. That was our house. The only bad part, we had to clean the house all the time to come in and live them mess and all that. You're saying like a bunch of 20 year old football players are like messy, get out of town. Yeah, I love that. Now, I love talking about all of this, but something about your story that I think people have heard, but maybe don't know like the full story is you were actually born in Cameroon and lived there until you were 13 years old. For a lot of people who have never been to Cameroon, what was your childhood like? What are some stories from your childhood? My childhood was different. You know, Cameroon, back when I lived there, technology was not really one of the biggest factors. So to have fun, we didn't have take talk. I mean, Facebook was hot at the time, but not that many people was on the phone. So the way you have fun is hang around the neighborhood with other kids, which was the best part of my childhood. And I had so much fun doing it. And fast forward, came to the U.S., everything was kind of new to me. I mean, I would speak English in Cameroon, but like still had to get adjusted and all that. I feel like sport for me was the best part to make friends and bond with other people. And that's why I think my transition wasn't as hard because I play soccer going up and sport was always a big part of my life. So I transitioned to basketball because I'm a competitor and going to middle school and high school, you want to compete with other kids and you start playing basketball and football and that's how you make friends. Yeah, and maybe that made it easier because we were going to ask how hard it was. As a 13 year old, I think about how I was at 13. It's such kind of a pivotal time. It sounds like sports made it easier for you. You adapt and over the time next thing you know, you're just part of the culture. Right. And I know that you're a professional football player now, so obviously that's a sport and a career path that you've chosen. But does soccer still hold a special place for you as the first sport that you... It does. It does. I don't watch soccer as much as I used to. So I grew up in the Vinaldo and Messi era and now they're kind of old and some new generation kind of have taken over, which I don't follow soccer that much anymore. So that's kind of... I'm still old school and all the Messi type of guy. Love it. So it's really interesting because I had... Before I'm 25 years old and before this year, I'd never been out of the country of like the United States. And I traveled to Mexico and Jamaica, those were like this past year, first time out of the country. And there really were like moments, you know, everybody talks about like culture shock being a thing and there really were moments where I was like, oh my gosh, like culture is so different, everything's so different. When you first moved to the United States, like what were some of those like culture shock moments for you? I mean, I felt like it was Christmas. Really? Yeah. It was amazing. It was so fun. You can go to the grocery store and get... So in Cameroon, all the things are not so cheap. Like going to the grocery store and getting a croissant and juice and all that. It's not as cheap. So my dad was already living here when we moved here and he had all the grocery and stuff and we just thought it was Christmas cause the first couple of days we just stay at home and we ate all the food. Like the refrigerator is empty. So the funny story was, so my dad had no idea. So when we first got here, he was like, so he went grocery shopping for the month and he was like, y'all can have whatever y'all want. So we thought that's how we was going to be living. It wasn't just like a fun thing the first time you went to there. Yeah, so I think we ate everything like three days and once I came out from work, he was surprised. He was like, hold on that, we need to talk about it. It's like we need to have a sit down. This is not how it's going to happen. This is not how it works. It's amazing. Now speaking of your parents, now how much did they know about football when you kind of were going through even in high school going through the recruiting process of being like, hey mom and dad, like I'm gonna go play football in college, get my school paid for. What were they thinking? I think my dad used to watch the games. He was a Seahawks fan. He used to watch the games just for fun. That's when he also transitioned to watching football. My mom was cool as always. The only thing she knew, I used to come back from my football game. My father used to be a herding and she used to give him a massage. Aw, that's so nice. That's all she knew. But my dad, I remember when my high school coach came up to me and asked me if I wanted to play football and at the time I was just into basketball and at first I said no, but I went home. I told my dad as a joe, I was like, can you believe it? He came and asked me if I wanted to play football. I mean, it was just as a joke. He looked at me and was like, you might as well try. Might as well do it. What are you doing? I was like, where we can come? And the next day I went and I joined the team and I first, I didn't know the rules, didn't know what the first thing was. Yeah, right, all the basics. I was the only thing I knew, C-ball, hit-ball, that's just... It's like wherever the ball is, go after it. Yeah, wherever the ball is, just run through it. And over time I actually started learning the game and what I first, my parents just thought I was doing fun to, I think my dream year, when I started getting my first offer, I believe was, my first offer was actually Navy. Really? Yeah, Navy offered me and I was like, if that's the only offer I get, I guess I'm gonna go to the military. He's like, all right. And first offer was Navy and more offers started coming and that's when my mom, she was like, she didn't believe me when I said I had offered to play in college. And I was like, I actually do it. I mean, I'm gonna get my school paid for it. She didn't believe it was real to the college. Coaches actually start coming to our house. Right, yeah. And that's when she was like, oh, it is for real. It's the real deal. And I went to college and I mean, after when I left Temple, I wasn't projected that high but after the Penn State season, everything just blew up and everybody knew like, oh, he really about to go to the league. And now you have like a full career as a football player. I'm sure that for your mom is like, oh my gosh, yeah. That's like his job. Yeah, it is. Never had a job before. I remember in high school, I used to apply to Chipotle and all those fast food spots and they used to deny me and the reason why because during the summer I had practices and they don't want you to work only two days a week. I couldn't get no job and I was just like. Well, it worked out for you. It did. It's my first job and I'm blessed. How many people can see the first job as being an NFL player? Yeah, not many people. There are worse, I remember when you were in high school, your original positions, you play wide receiver, right? And linebacker? I was a wide receiver and linebacker. Right, so it really is, C-ball, hit ball, and C-ball catch ball, hit first. But you're probably bigger and faster than everybody else. Nobody wants to tackle me like this. I would just run, catch the ball, and I had some touchdown in high school. Yeah, and I don't know if this number is correct. You had more than 20 sacks? Yeah, I had 20, 20, 23. 23 sacks. That was my senior. Yeah, as a senior, right? I was unblockable. It's a badge of honor. I was wall in there. I mean, but you have you and then you probably have like a 180 pound left tackle. Right, right? It was like, what is going to happen here? My senior was the one year where actually everything clicked in terms of knowing the rules of the game. And I was a college thinking, oh, I know it all. And it was a whole different perspective. And I had to learn everything over. By the time I got to my dream year, that's when everything came together. Right, and I'm always curious about this with guys who go play at major traditional powerhouse programs, right? You go from playing in high school in front of like your parents and everybody else's parents. And then you go and you play for Penn State and you play in front of like 80,000 screaming people with white towels. 105. 105, right? Tell me what that's like when you have a sack and then 105,000 people stand up and scream their heads off. It don't get better than that. And one of our best, the white hour game is obviously one of the craziest memories for me, but not a memory that I have of things that was playing Michigan in the closing game. And it was towards the end of the game and I had a sack to, I mean at the time I thought I was closing the game, but we didn't score. It was a sack fumble and we gave the ball back to the offense. And the stadium went crazy and it was like, the white day I was having my moment. Yeah. It's like, I have a ride. Yeah. That was like, that's one of my favorite moments being at Penn State. Yeah. I mean, you think of all these big moments, right? Like you think about hearing your name scroll across the bottom of the screen that you've been drafted. Do you think Penn State, you've already had, your NFL crew's not even that old and you already have your first sack, right? I mean, are those moments all kind of like? Draft night, I remember draft, I was so nervous. Draft night, I just can't even explain. It's like, you know, at any moment now your phone's gonna be ringing. And especially when they show teams on TV picking up the phone and something will pick up the phone you're looking at your phone, it's not ringing. So you're like, especially those teams that I told you if you're still available by the time we're on the clock. So one of those teams, they're picking up the phone and I'm like, my phone about to ring right now, man. And my phone doesn't ring. I'm like, damn, they lied to me. So it worked out for the best. And I end up, and when I picked up my phone, it said Atlanta, but the John was on the clock and I'm confused. I don't know how the draft works. I'm like, hold on, the TV might be behind. Right? Like, are we watching the live feed? Like, what's happening? The TV behind the time, I can't, I was. Yeah. I'm going to Georgia and I find out the trend and all but after the draft, I was so happy to believe and life just got so much better. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's what we were gonna ask. It's like, how has your life changed from draft night to now a month and a half into your first NFL season? Well, a lot has changed because now you're an NFL player. People look at you in the different light and also, yeah, you have to move. You got to become a good person. And I feel like spending way more money than I used to. You probably have a good amount. You're probably, yeah. It's just, there's a lot more responsibility that a couple months ago I didn't have, which is like, can't complain. I mean, that's the spot. So, yeah, it's cool for the most part. I mean, I would say it's the best life. Yeah. You get paid to do something that you love to do. You wake up and play football all day. So it's like. Was there, and now some guys do this, some guys don't, but was there any big, like, any like big, like purchase for me type of thing? Like after you signed the contract, like did you get yourself like a car? Are you going to crazy vacation? Did you do anything like that? So, my parents still don't, they still don't know how much my car was. Mom and dad, don't watch. They still have. So I actually, yesterday was the first time I sent a picture of my car to my dad. Okay. Because he called me and was like, did you get a car or something like that? You don't keep us in the loop. And I sent him the picture. He haven't asked me how much it was. So. If he does, I'm not telling the world. No, he's going to, he's going to give you the whole speech, the whole speech. Football career don't last for me. He's white. But I'm like, I went to the Mercedes dealership and I was like, I want that one. Oh, beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. They don't know how much. And we're just, we're just going to go ahead and keep that between, you know, yourself and the Mercedes dealership, absolutely. All right. We've hit, we've hit the part of the podcast. Everybody has to do this. So rapid fire, five questions in a row. Everybody gets asked the same questions. Yes. Super hard hitting stuff, AK. Yeah. Are you ready? Yeah. Before we get there, I gotta know. Your nickname is also AK47 sometimes. Are you number 47 because of that? Well, so. I'm sorry. I had to get this. No, I think that's a great question. I love it. My nickname is AK. And people, I always pull 47 behind me. OK, OK. That's how it works. AK, because my first new owner was a middle name, Kevin. So when I was at Penn State in Temple, I used to change your number to 47. That's cool. So 47 is something that I would come with it. OK. So the nickname is AK. Right. Like people kept saying, get number 47, dude. It goes together. Now that makes sense. That does make sense. Yeah, it's also cool that everybody's like, hey, do this. It'll be really cool if you do it. Yeah, then all of a sudden. And then he walks out with 47. He's like, I did it. Because my number was 17 in college. And the meat, if you were there used to come to me, changed before, so I'm like, nah, I'm walking with 17. Yeah, exactly. OK, so sorry that I interrupted the rapid fire question. I just had a note there. It's all good. I think that was very important information of which we needed now to the rapid fire. Question number one. What is your favorite play of your career? NFL or? Any time. You could pick NFL. You could pick college, whatever. Well, I was called against Michigan. Yeah. Against Michigan. Definitely. That must be it. Now I have to go back and watch that. I know. I almost want to pull it up on YouTube and be like, that please win, but let's try. Do you ever just sometimes go back and watch it? Like just do it. Just to feel something. Just so I can read it. I did prior to the drive, but now I don't do it as much. But later on when I'm old, oh, yeah. It's going to be a repeat. Just cue it up. Just on a loop on your TV. Yeah. If you were to go to a karaoke bar, I don't know. Maybe you do sing karaoke. What is your go-to song? Or if you don't know, or what would be your go-to song to go sing in front of a big crowd of people? When it comes to singing, Wild Wave is kind of my go-to person. I have a few of his songs that I kind of know the lyrics. So I will definitely pick a Wild Wave song. It might be Tombstone. I did it a lot. So maybe I'll come up. I come up with a different one. He has a lot of those emotional songs that I can pick one of those and just do it. I feel like Tombstone is probably just playing in a loop in Derek Tangelo's head, because of how much he's probably sang it. You know, no fun fact. So I'll be playing with Tangelo. And I call him Maruki. I mess with him all day. And I'll just be like, hey, well, give me some of the drug. He's probably like, dude. It'll be funny, because if he tells you the story, you're going to be like, OK, I was messing with me. I can have a bad day. He's going to come to me and be like, hey, well. That's fantastic. Oh, man. OK. Your favorite authentic Cameroonian food? I'd say it's not really a traditional one. I would say the way my mom make chicken and plantain. So that was my go-to going out there. I love plantains. OK, if you could just get her to like send a big batch down for all of us, I think that would be. I'm trying to get some of myself. He's like, I'm finding something for me. I need to take care of me before I take care of 100 other people. Yeah, I'm still waiting for my mom. You've got to get that care package. OK, normally. I feel like we probably know the next answer. The Falcons player that you hang out with the most is probably Tangelo, but if it's who would be the next guy? So Tangelo and D'Angelo. Tangelo and D'Angelo. I love it. Tangelo and D'Angelo. It's like a buddy cop situation. Basically. And the last question we got for you, what is your biggest pet peeve? Like what drives you nuts that people do? Ooh. So I'm not a type of person that stay around people for like a long period of time. OK. Especially if someone come to my house and people a couple of days and start looking at the clock. Be like, hey, when's your flight, dude? Any time then. Like you can go on. So people who overstay their welcome, that's a good one. Yeah, that is it. Actually, it's just like get out of my house. Yeah. As someone, I'm pretty introverted. Like I feel like I'm an introvert with extroverted tendencies. So when people are around me all the time, I'm like, all right, I'm going to need a recharge. I like to have my spit when I want to hang out with people. I'll meet you at your space. It's like, don't come into mine. Yeah, don't come into mine. Because when I'm tired, I can always go back to my spit. Exactly. One last one. Whether it's a movie that you saw recently or a show that you're binging at home. Anything, what's on your screen right now? Like, what are you watching? Right now, power. Power. Yeah, power is the game. There are lots of power, like spin-off shows, too. You got a lot to watch. And I'm watching every one of them. Oh, you're really? And the movie. The movie, I'm excited about. Black Panther II coming. Yes, Wakanda Forever. Yeah, I can't wait. That trailer looks so awesome. A friend of mine, her job, so they have a watch screen on Thursday before come out. Told her, don't call me. Don't speak to me. Don't talk to me? I'm watching it that Friday before anybody can spoil it. All right. So I may go to the midnight premiere on Thursday night before Friday. So I'll make sure on that Friday, like, I won't see you. Like, I'll just like make sure in the locker room, I'll be like, all right, bye, A.K. Like, I'm not talking to you. Some people will try. I hate when a new movie come out and you go on social media. And people talk about that movie ain't that good. No, you don't want to watch it no more. I swear, I got the most recent Star Wars movie got spoiled for me as I was walking into the theater, too. That's another pet peeve. And I was like, how dare you? How dare you? I was like upset about it, too. So I feel like the moral of this podcast is that on the first day that Wakanda Forever comes out, we just do a big group outing. We run out an entire movie theater. Honestly, I'm sure a lot of people would want to see it. I'm all for it. I'm watching it. If not the first day come out, it's the second. OK, Terry Fano and David Bassley, please make that happen for us. Let's call it out. And that's going to wrap it for another freaking awesome episode of Falcons of Focus. Please rate, review, subscribe. Give us all five stars. That's Tori. I'm Scott. This is A.K. And this is the doctor. Yeah. Thank you very much, man. And we will talk to you again next week.