Federal immigration agents in Chicago have deported a former NFL player from Kenya who had an extensive criminal rap sheet and also overstayed his visa.
Daniel Ogama Adongo, 37, was a linebacker and special teams player for the Indianapolis Colts but was released from the team after an apparent domestic violence incident in 2015.
He has since been arrested multiple times in the past decade and served a year in jail, according to Fox News which broke the deportation story Saturday.
Adongo’s rap sheet included a conviction for “criminal mischief with damage” in 2020, the outlet reported.
Law enforcement over the years had also arrested Adongo for felony intimidation, battery, and disorderly conduct, though many of the charges were later dismissed in court.
In what was called an “experiment,” the Colts signed the Kenyan rugby player at the age of 23 in 2013, believing he might transition into an NFL asset. News outlets reported the pick made history because he had no American football experience and was the first Kenyan to play in the NFL.
However, the 6-foor-5-inch, 247 pounder spent much of his time injured, on the bench, or on special teams, and by late in the season, had appeared in only three games in 2015 before his release.
ESPN covered the domestic incident in December of 2015, reporting:
The decision to make Adongo inactive came after police were called to check on a female resident at the home she shares with Adongo in the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers, Indiana, on Dec. 10. According to a police report, the woman notified a friend via text message that she needed help. The friend got in touch with the police, who then arrived at the residence. There, the woman said she did not want medical assistance and she could not explain why she sent the text, according to the report… Adongo was not at the residence at the time the police arrived, the report said.
Adongo overstayed his visa in 2016; however, under the Laken Riley act, signed by President Donald Trump in 2025, “those in the country illegally are required to be detained without bond if convicted of certain crimes,” Fox reported.
Since his release from the team, Adongo’s life has been “marked by repeated contact with law enforcement and ongoing struggles with mental illness, arrests, psychiatric hospitalizations, and behavioral episodes,” Newsweek reported earlier this year.
His mental health struggles “have been linked by those close to him to possible brain injuries from his playing career,” the magazine also wrote.
A Department of Justice immigration judge in March ordered the former athlete removed from the country when Adongo was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The former player was held for several months at the Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana, one of the Midwest’s largest immigration detention centers.
“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 a statement. “Those who violate immigration law are held equally accountable, including former professional athletes.”
Adongo relocated from New Zealand, where he had played with a rugby club, after the Colts signed him in 2013. It has not been reported what country was his destination during the deportation.
In June, ICE’s arrest and deportation effort reportedly reached a new high with more than 43,000 arrested and booked into detention that month and a total of more than 65,000 in custody nationwide.
ICE has maintained that 70 percent of those arrested are illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in addition to violating federal immigration law.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
