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As the water began to rise around Wesam Abdallah inside LaSalle’s Street Market in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, his brother Nader was busy trying to earn a spot on the defensive line for Ohio State.
Nader Abdallah, a Metairie, La. native, was fighting for playing time when Hurricane Katrina passed through the neighborhood he used to call home in August 2005.
Younes and Izzieh Abdallah fled their Magnolia Projects residence in the Third Ward with son Mazen and daughter Linda, while Wesam stayed behind to care for the family store.
Realizing a Dream“It was a restaurant, grocery store (and) meat market,” Nader said. “It was pretty much the projects’ corner store.”
Hulio’s, as locals referred to the store, was all the Abdallah’s had. Having immigrated from Palestine, Younes and Izzieh met up with a family member in New Orleans to get their feet on the ground.
The store they built garnered enough respect to last 25 years without being robbed in one of the city’s more dangerous areas.
It was a family project, with each member dedicating themselves to the day-to-day operations when time permitted. Nader had spent two-thirds of his life helping the family maintain the corner store.
“I was a butcher, stocked shelves, worked the cash register,” the fourth-year junior said. “I worked there since I was 6-years-old. I didn’t play football until I was a junior in high school, so that was pretty much my whole life. People came in for Po’ Boys, jambalaya, gumbo. We could serve it all, anything you could imagine. It was an everything-you-need store.”
Having red-shirted his freshman year, Nader was preparing for his first opportunity to play as a Buckeye. Meanwhile, things were getting worse back home as Katrina passed through New Orleans. Beating the odds
“After Katrina everything was fine,” Abdallah said. “But the levees broke a day later and that’s when everything went bad.”
As the water poured from the breaches in the levee system, Wesam began to take notice of the inactivity within the store.
“No more customers came in and he was like ‘What’s going on’ then he saw the water keep rising and rising,” Nader said. “The business was completely demolished.”
Wesam worked his way to the attic of Hulio’s where he eventually passed out due to fatigue. As he lay motionless in the attic, a bird flew in, landing on his face and waking him to see the chaos that waited outside.
Water covered the streets that the Abdallah’s called home while gun-toting residents attempted to break into the store in search of cash.
“There were people trying to get in there so he grabbed the little things he had – a couple water bottles and some cash – and he jumped out the attic,” Nader said.
Wesam left after dark to avoid the boisterous crowd below, swimming almost seven miles through water crammed with dead bodies to get to the nearest bridge. He found refuge in the form of an abandoned car, which he used to make his way to Houston to meet up with his immediate family.
“I didn’t get to talk to my brother,” Nader said. “We couldn’t get in contact with him … It was a real scary situation.”
The silence was all too familiar for a family who had previously lost two sons and brothers. The eldest son, Husam, was accidentally shot when Nader was young and another, Shadi, died shortly after the 2005 OSU Spring Game in an accident while behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler.
Wesam ultimately re-connected with the rest of the Abdallahs, prepared to start over from scratch.
“My family moved up with me for six, seven months to try to get back on their feet,” Nader said.
Wesam, now a creditor, and his two other siblings relocated permanently to Houston while Younes and Izzieh returned home to Palestine.
Second ChancesThe family will reunite in New Orleans Jan. 7 to watch Nader and the Buckeyes take on the LSU Tigers close to the place they used to call home.
“I go back to where we used to have the store and there’s nobody there anymore,” the defensive tackle said. “It’s all wiped out. All they got is a bunch of trailers, people living in trailers still.”
Younes Abdallah is making the trek from Palestine for the first time in seven months to meet with Nader and Izzieh, who made the trip a few weeks ago to watch her son in the home finale against Illinois Nov. 10.
The interest in football is new for the patriarch of the Abdallah family.
“(My dad) was a coach overseas and he used to see how what they’d always do is play sports and not worry about academics,” Nader said. “But he didn’t know the opportunities sports can do for you over here with scholarships. My brother convinced him to let me play and he’s very happy about that.”
Thanks to a family effort to help Nader rededicate himself after last season’s loss to Florida, the Abdallah’s will get the chance to see their son shine on college football’s biggest stage yet again.
“After the National Championship last year, (Mazen) came down here,” Nader said. “Every morning at 6 a.m. I was working out, running, and I lost 45 pounds. I had to do what I had to do, and I had to prove to the coaches that I wanted it and would work for it.”
Teammates noticed the rejuvenated Abdallah in all aspects of play. “He came on as a leader,” defensive tackle Doug Worthington said. “As somebody who feels that clock ticking and knows he has to strive … We all stayed on him because when you see a guy in the gym working that hard it only brushes off on you. He’s been a blessing in the weight room and the film room.”
Coaches rewarded the hard work with a starting spot in seven of the Buckeyes’ 12 games this season. Abdallah paid the coaches’ confidence forward, recording 18 tackles and a sack – a total he hopes to build upon against the Tigers.
“I always had the passion to play,” Nader said. “It was just very discouraging at times because sometimes I was lost. … (My brother) really put me on the right track. I always had faith one day I was going to do it, I just didn’t know exactly how to and he showed me.”
Refocused and in better shape than ever, Nader is ready to show the friends, family and former teammates the progress he’s made since his time at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie.
“It’s going to be the greatest experience of my life going home to play against my former teammates, my family and my home team,” Abdallah said.
For a man who has experienced more off-the-field loss than most 22-year-olds, Abdallah seems at peace with everything that has happened, accepting it for what it is and moving forward to continue the life his parents built when they moved to America.
“Nader has been through so many ups and downs throughout his collegiate career that we didn’t really know how the rollercoaster would end,” Mazen Abdallah said. “So for Nader to be starting on the number one ranked defense on the number one ranked team in the land in the National Championship is exhilarating for our family.”
The same shoulders that once held fear now hold a family’s hopes and dreams – a load that the defensive tackle is more than ready to take on. “I want to make this an American dream,” Abdallah said. “Right now, it’s in the process. I’ve got to play my best. I’m trying to represent for Palestine, New Orleans, my family, everybody.”
Zack Timmons can be reached at [email protected].
