Have you ever played the game Life? It's a fun game that we used to play when we were kids. The idea behind it is that you're supposed to go through board and simulate what it's like to be a grown up. 

The game is set up in a way that you'll get to forks in the road, and whatever happens in your life winds up depending on which way you go. For new Detroit Lions edge rusher Ahmed Hassanein, his journey to Detroit is all based on the spins and draws of cards. It's also based on the guy who was playing the game right next to him, his brother Cory Besch.

We had a chance to sit down with Besch this week to talk about he amazing story of how a kid from Egypt comes out of nowhere to be the first player from his country to be selected in the NFL Draft. 

The Beginning

The story really all starts when Hassanein was six years old, and he moved to Egypt with his father. While Hassanein was there, his brother Cory was still here in America, trying to make a career out of football himself.

During that time, Besch played receiver for Azusa Pacific College in Southern California. He just so happened to play on the same team as a linebacker named Spencer Danielson. The current head coach at Boise State. Had Besch not moved to Azuza from the Santa Ana  Junior College he was previously at, he may never have met Danielson. 

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Hassanein is living a different life. One that really had Ahmed looking for community and for himself. 

"Being a teenage boy in a third world country, with personal issues, family issues, and having his dad not necessarily around. His dad was raising him up to a certain point, and then our dad had to go away for judicial law issues, and then his mom wasn't the best caretaker for him, so he really felt alone and needed a sense of community. That's why he really got into CrossFit." Besch said. "Sports sometimes provides that outlet to vent all of our frustrations and have control over some aspect of what's going on in your life." 

Hassanein became pretty good at competitive CrossFit and became quite the athlete. Back in America, Besch did not have a chance to play in the NFL, but still wanted to play professional football. So he and his friend left for Austria to play there. That trip wound up becoming an immensely important part of this story. 

"It's from that trip that my sister said, 'Hey, he's in Austria. Ahmed needs help. Let's get my brother over here and see what he can do.' I didn't know that was the plan. I didn't know that she was going to propose this thing to me. I didn't know that he was struggling like this. I just knew it'd been a while since I'd seen my family, and I would love to go see my my brother and my sisters and my dad and and go visit the pyramids and ride camels, and which we did, and that's part of the journey which leads us to here." 

Finding the Game

Besch winds up bringing Hassanein back to America with him around 2019, and almost immediately, Hassanein gravitated towards the esport that his brother had loved his whole life. He wanted to play so badly. 

He wanted it so badly that he was nearly in tears out of frustration on the second day of his football life because he couldn't be in pads and be on the field just yet. He was still in the process of not just learning to play football, but also learning to speak and understand English. 

Hassanein took to the game like a fish takes to water, though. He was pretty good at Loarr High School in the Anaheim area, but wasn't getting much recognition from colleges. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit America right when it was time for Hassanein to be looking for where he could go to college. 

But then an opportunity presents itself to go to a camp where he would compete with some of the best players from the biggest schools. It changed everything. 

"He got to run into them at some random camp because of COVID, and showed that he should (be competing with them.) He immediately gets three stars. He went from an unknown prospect with literally nobody (scouting him), I mean, I walked him into the place. They said, "Who is this?" I said, "Ahmed Hassanein from Loara High School.' They said, 'Who is that? Where is that?' And I said, 'The lowest division. But these are his accomplishments: All-Conference, All-Team, All-League, took us through the playoffs, all these things.' And the scout in the background was like, 'Well, that's going to change after today, that people don't know him.' And that literally did it, was crazy."

One of the people to notice Hassanein from that camp was Besch's former teammate at Azusa, Spencer Danielson, who was now the defensive line coach at Boise State at that time. 

With offers from Duke and Kansas on the table, Hassanein got counsel from his brother to go play at Boise State with his former teammate. Hassanein wound up going that route. 

Early on, he had to play under current Chargers defensive lineman Scott Matlock. After dealing with some injuries, the coaching staff looked to Hassanein to play defensive tackle against Utah State. Hassanein had a great game, and afterwards, Defensive line coach Frank Maile whispered in Besch's ear, "Your brother's gonna get paid to play this game." 

It was the first time that it became a reality for Hassanein. From there, he moved over to the edge and took off to the point where he got invited to the NFL Combine and got on the Lions' radar. A team that Besch felt was always the best spot for him because of Dan Campbell. 

"I say, Spencer Danielson and Ahmed's High School head coach, Mitch Danielson, they have a baby. It's Dan Campbell," Besch said. "There could not be a better fit for Ahmed and his development and the culture around a team and the grit aspect of it, it's like, if I could have put a name and a title on what I was teaching Ahmed from the first day he got here? It was grit, because that's what his life has been about." 

On Saturday, Besch says he called the Lions drafting his brother, and that wound up happening near the end of the day. Hassanein is now the first Egyptian player ever drafted into the NFL. 

Now we've reached the next fork in the road. Hassanien has his hand on the spinner, and no matter what number he comes up with, it's on him which way he plans to go. If it's the way of love, work ethic, and passion, it's the way he's going to go. The sky is the limit for him since that's the way he and his brother have always gone. 

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