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Idonije makes Bears

Brandon product wants to start in NFL

By TED WYMAN, STAFF REPORTER

Brandon product Israel Idonije has cracked the final roster of the Chicago Bears but he's far from satisfied to merely be an NFL player. "My ultimate goal is not just to start but to be a force in the league," the 6-foot-7, 290-pound defensive end/tackle said via cellphone yesterday after it was announced that he will start the season with the Bears.

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This is a step in the right direction. Now, I've got to take it and keep moving forward. I want to compete. I'm not a person who is just going to be happy to make the roster.

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Idonije, a 23-year-old who was born in Nigeria but raised in Brandon, is a graduate of the University of Manitoba Bisons football program. He never played a down of football until Grade 12 at Vincent Massey High School in Brandon but joins the Bears after playing for the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe last spring.

All NFL teams had to cut down to 53 players yesterday and the Bears website said Idonije made the team "after impressing coaches throughout training camp and the preseason."

He played in four exhibition games, three at defensive end and one at tackle.

Idonije said he had a nervous day by the telephone yesterday but when no call came from the Bears coaching staff, he learned from the Internet that he had made the team.

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"I want to be someone they gameplan," Idonije said. "I've grown up around people who have worked hard all their lives and that's how I am. There is more from me to come. This is just the beginning."

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Idonije was an all-Canadian with the Bisons and won the J.P. Metras Trophy as the outstanding lineman in CIS football in 2002.

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