2025 NFL Draft interview: Boise State EDGE Ahmed Hassanein

WCG’s speaks with the leader of Boise State’s defense.

You’ll be hard pressed a bigger inspiration in the 2025 NFL Draft class than Boise State edge rusher Ahmed Hassanein.

Growing up in Egypt, Hassanein didn’t know what American football was and didn’t speak any English until 2018. He found himself getting into trouble often as a child, and it took the intervention of his brother, a football coach in California, to get him to move to the United States and try the game out.

He took to the sport like a fish to water, and his move to America saw him find himself through his newfound passion and through religion. After being a two-time first-team All-Mountain West in his last two years at Boise State, he looks to carry his energy and passion on to the NFL level.

Windy City Gridiron spoke with Hassanein about his journey to America, how he got attached to football, his experience as an accomplished CrossFit participant, his pre-draft process, and more.

JI: You have a pretty unique background that we’ll get into. I wanna start with your CrossFit experience, though. You started that while you were still in Egypt. How did you get into that?

AH: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first and foremost, I just want to give all glory to Jesus. He brought me here, and I’m so grateful that I’m in this position. For CrossFit, it goes back, because in my time back home, it wasn’t really the easiest for me. It was kind of hard growing up there, and I didn’t really have a family-oriented [life]. My mom left when I was three; she came back into my life. My dad wasn’t around much, so it made me kind of not the best person. I was getting in fights in school. I wasn’t the best person.

I did a lot of sports. Sports took over my life. I did boxing, I did jujitsu, I did ping pong, I did wrestling. Sports was my outlet, like the family that I never had, people cheering me on, people wanting me to do good for the team. [When] I picked up CrossFit, I walked in the gym one time, and people were running, lifting, gymnastics, they were doing things on the bar, it was crazy. I loved that. I love hard things, and people are exhausted after a workout. I tried it, and my first year, I was ranked top 10 in Africa, number one in Egypt in the CrossFit Games.

The biggest thing for me was the community. I loved the community. I love that people were cheering for me. I love that people wanted me to do good for their clubs and represent them, because now that’s in football. When I fell in love with football, I was like, “oh, this is the same, even better, because I have teammates now. I have 103 teammates, and I can be a captain, I can be a leader and all that, I love it.”

When I did CrossFit, I was a coach, too. I started coaching my second year. I did a lot of CrossFit, worked out every day, twice a day, one on morning, one at night. I took really good care of my body. I was in really good shape, and I’m still in good shape, but I was slim. I was like 200 pounds. When my brother was visiting after 10 years apart, he saw me, and I was just a skinny, scrawny dude.

He suggested to my dad, because I was in such great shape, and I could have helped his team, too, he was like, “send him to America with me. I’m a high school football coach and English teacher.” At that time, and I did not speak in English or play any football. I did not know what football. I just knew that people were running and hitting each other, so I was like, “yeah, I’ll do it.”

I started as a wide receiver because I was skinny and couldn’t catch the ball. They tried me as a linebacker; there was too much stuff going on. They pulled me in the d-line and told me to go get the guy who has the ball, and I was like, “alright, I can do that”. I just started grabbing face masks, throwing people, hip tossing them (laughs). One day, I was watching Aaron Donald play, and I truly fell in love with the sport because I felt the camaraderie. I have a goal I have, I want to achieve something. I was watching Aaron Donald play, and I was like, “what high school he goes to?” My brother was like, “bro, that’s the NFL.” “What’s that?” He was like, “bro, that’s the National Football League.” I was like, “okay, I want to go there. He was like, “bro, you understand that only the 1% goes there, right?” I was like, “yeah, I’m gonna be the 1%. I’m gonna go there.”

He’s like, “okay, you gotta get the D1 scholarship. You gotta be a captain. You gotta do good in college, get invited to the Combine. You gotta do all that…you gotta learn, bro. You don’t have a d-line coach at your high school. You don’t have a sled at your high school. You played it in one of the lowest divisions in high school. You’re never going to get seen from Loara High School.” I was like, “okay, teach me”. I literally started watching YouTube videos on how to pass rush and how to do one-on-ones, how to cover and do all that now.

I literally just went to all the camps, and I started dominating. People were like, five stars, four stars. They put me wherever I can play. Put me zero shade, 2i, three-tech, 4i, five-tech, six, nine, put me wherever. I start going through the line and just start dominating people. The coaches and the players were like, “who the hell is this kid?” My brother went, “this is a man hustling, and he’s been only playing football for two years. He’s my brother.” People were amazed by my story and amazed by how much potential [I could have]. I only played two years of high school football, and because it was COVID, I only played five games [my last year].

It was such a blessing, man. It was so amazing. That’s why I truly believe that God brought me out of Egypt, to believe in Him, first of all, and also to share my testimony. I’ll be the first Egyptian to ever get drafted NFL. I’m already the first Egyptian to ever play college football, first Egyptian to ever gain the invite to the Combine. God is truly using me. Spencer Danielson, my head coach [at Boise State], he played with my brother at Azusa Pacific, so when I was getting known and getting recruited, and I was getting offers, Spencer texted me, and he was like, “I love your film.” He was the d-line coach back then. He loved my film. I got excited, and I went to show my brother. I was like, “hey, check this out. Boise State texted me.” He was like, “wait, that’s Spencer Danielson. I played with that guy. That’s my friend! That’s crazy.”

That’s why I truly believe. It’s also a small world for me to come all the way from Egypt, over 5,000 miles. But it takes hard work. It took me a lot. I’m always hungry. I want to learn. I want to achieve. I want to be great, have a career like Aaron Donald had, maybe even better. I’m setting goals for myself. I’m just doing it because I feel like, when I set a goal, I accomplish anything that I set myself to.

JI: I remember watching you at the Combine and hearing you yell before the hoop drill. I thought it was so cool.

AH: That’s literally me. If you ask anybody, my coaches, even my quarterback, Mad Dog [Maddux] Madsen, they’ve seen that in practice multiple times. That’s literally me. I do everything like that. I just truly try to have passion for anything I do, because if I don’t, then why the hell am I doing it? I love it. I love that. I didn’t hit the highest numbers [at the Combine]. I didn’t run the fastest, but I promise you, I had the most passion about it, and I had the desire to excel about it. I might not been the tallest guy in the Combine, but, man, I’m gonna come after you every single rep. I never stop. If you give me a foot, I’ll go a mile. Give me a mile, I’ll do a marathon. I’m so dedicated to this, and I love it. I want to do anything to help my team be in the best possible spot. These drills, I’d literally never done them before. I never understood what a 40 was, or what’s a vert. What’s that? Broad jump, huh?

It’s amazing, man. It all starts with mentality I have. I have a lot of passion for everything I do. I am proud. This is literally me in practice. I’m not going to be any different. If you were there at the East-West Shrine Bowl, I was the same exact way.

JI: I wanna talk about that jiu-jitsu experience, too. I feel like that experience would really help out along the defensive line, right?

AH: Absolutely. Jiu-jitsu, it’s all hands, it’s all grabbing. You have to stay tight with your hands. That and wrestling, it’s always about leverage, right? It’s always about knowing your leverage and owning it. You don’t want to get out of leverage, you don’t want to be in a bad spot. Same thing with football. Same thing with the offensive line, it depends on where he kicks and depends on where he punches. This is going to be my set point. He normally set points over there.

It depends on what he’s scared of with me. If he jumps at me because he’s scared of my power, then I’m just gonna go straight to him. I gotta take the inside. It’s just stuff like that, seeing where his pattern is. Is he a low puncher, is he a high puncher? Does he like to do that circle of motion? It’s the same thing with jiu-jitsu. Does the guy like to go to the chest right away? Does the guy like to grab right away? Does he like to grab my wrist? That’s all fingers. That’s all finger grabbing. That’s all knowing where your opponent can’t get a hold of your hand or can’t get a hold of your collar, or the back of your neck or the middle of your chest. It’s all owning it. It’s understanding leverage and understanding where my set point is in football and in Jiu Jitsu, and where I should land my feet, and where should I put my feet? Where I can lift him and put him on his back and be on top of him. This is where you want to be to get to his back, or something like that.

[Jiu-jitsu] gets your hands super strong, and it gets your hands super violent. You want to be snappy. In football, it’s being strong in your hands getting to using your whole body, not just striking with your hands. Hands is a huge part, because they’re the controllers, but using your whole body into it, from ankles to calves to glutes, the hamstrings, the back, the neck, all that’s needed to go in that force. I’m saying not just hands, because those are the controllers. If your whole body into it, man, if you do that every single time…

The offensive lineman might get hit, once, two, three, four [times], but he’s normally gonna get exhausted, yeah? Het’s gonna get tired. This winning opportunity, I just need one sack. I just need to get through once, and that’ll be good for me. A man can’t take a beating over and over and over and over and over and over. Understanding my set-up, my attack and my point of view it’s like, “okay, I’m gonna hit you with power, power, power, power, and you’re not going to be able to handle it anymore. You’re gonna try to jump. Here we go. I’m in the quarterback’s face. Oh, you thought I was gonna go speed again. Nope, I’m gonna go power again.” Changing the patterns on him, and understanding your opponent, I feel like it plays a big part of both sports.

If it’s jiu-jitsu, too, does he like to take down, or he plays a lot of defense, does he like to be on his butt a lot and trying to wait for you, or does he go attack you and trying to single leg and double take you? It depends on the offensive lineman or jiu-jitsu guy I’m playing. It’s kind of the same thing.

JI: How do you like to spend your free time after football?

AH: That’s a good question. Because I’m in the middle of the [draft] process right now, I’m all working out, stuff like that. I like fishing. I haven’t caught a fish yet, but I like to pick up different hobbies a little bit, like to try and different food spots. I like to go to jiu-jitsu. It’s my kind of hobby, off time a little bit. I like to just hang out with friends, but I like fishing. I want to pick up that hobby. I want to become better at it. I want to become better at fishing. I like to spend time with my girlfriend and go on dates and try different food places. I have a wonderful life, and I’m super grateful,

JI: What type of stuff do you like to cook?

AH: I’m a steak guy. I love cooking steak. I like to cook; I’m a good cook. I like to experience different stuff. This Sunday, I cooked my girlfriend a shrimp pasta and did my own thing. I didn’t go with a recipe. I just got off my thumb ahead of it, add a bit of a little heavy, cream, yeah, some onion, garlic powder, some lemon juice. I just did it my own, and she loved it. I love cooking like that. After we’re done talking, a guy wants to hook me up with tuna. It’s fresh tuna, salmon. I love fresh stuff. I’m not a big fried [foods] guy. I love avocados, tuna, a little bit of rice, olive oil. I love all that stuff. I love all-natural foods, fruit. But I’m a big steak guy. I love steak, especially filet mignon. I can cook that.

JI: How do you like your steak?

AH: Oh, that’s good question. Medium or medium rare. If it’s super thick, then probably go for a medium and look, it would turn out like a medium rare, you know? I don’t go off. I don’t go off a temperature either. I try. I like, I like the eyeball. Oh

JI: Let’s say I’m an NFL general manager. What would I be getting if I drafted you to my team?

AH: You’re getting a dependable, tough, physical guy, a culture guy. You’re getting a guy that’s never going to get satisfied. I’m never satisfied. I’m never going to settle. I’m a guy that don’t really care about the money. The money is nice, but [I want] more.