Three Browns players will don helmet stickers representing the flag of their home country for Weeks 4 and 5 as part of a league-wide initiative to celebrate international diversity in the NFL.
TE David Njoku, LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and OG Hjalte Froholdt, who all have ancestral roots beyond the U.S., had the sticker added to their helmets this week. Njoku, who was born in the U.S. but had immediate family members born in Africa, has a Nigerian flag on his helmet. Owusu-Koramoah, whose father was born in Africa, will have the Ghanian, and Froholdt, who moved to the U.S. from Europe when he was 16, will don Denmark.
"It's awesome and much appreciated," Njoku said. "We get to pay our dues to our home countries, and it doesn't get better than that. Personally for me and the NFL, we've never gotten to this point before, so it's only up from here."
In the player-led initiative that looks to showcase the global influence on the league and recognize the impact that those contributing nations have had on NFL rosters, fans will see over 50 nations and territories represented.
Over 200 players, coaches and executives will partake in the celebration by donning a helmet sticker or other emblem on their gameday gear to represent their heritage.
"It's awesome to be able to pay respect to where you come from," Froholdt said. "A lot of guys, we all identify ourselves from where we're from and the culture we had there. It's awesome to have a chance to represent your home country."
"It means everything," said Owusu-Koramoah. "It means I have a responsibility to uphold Ghana and what it represents to me. The great quote from Kwame Nkrumah is 'I'm not necessarily an African because I was born in Africa, it's because Africa was born in me.' That's very essential when we talk about the ideology and the mindset of those coming from the land to uphold that national title."
