2025 CFL DRAFT: Calgary's Ope Oshinubi used football dreams to survive serious skin syndrome
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Ope Oshinubi is oh-so wide-eyed — perhaps more than any of the prospects in the 2025 CFL Draft class — about the opportunity for a career in pro football.
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Because not long ago, the running back from Calgary could barely open his eyes — his sight threatened for years by a serious skin condition.
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The disorder — known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome — first took hold of him while he was attending middle school and comprised his ability to see, walk and even eat for weeks at a time.
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'Yeah, so it's an autoimmune disease that affects your mucosal membranes,' explained Oshinubi. 'You get these lesions that show up all of your skin, and it was the worst in my mouth.
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'It really was emotional for me,' he continued, recalling his days before football during years spent in and out of the hospital. 'It was really tough for me, because it just kept recurring and kept recurring and recurring, and it was really hard for me.
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'There were honestly times I really didn't think I was gonna make it.'
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What kept him going, he declares, was football.
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'Yeah … my family really wanted me to stop playing sports and stop doing everything at that time, and I really, really wanted to play football,' Oshinubi said. 'I had never played football. At that point in time, when I was going to high school, I really wanted to play football, and I was able to get through that sickness.
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'Thank God I made it through.'
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Fast-forward a handful of years and Oshinubi is through with flying colours, having taken up football and excelled at it enough — he posted the fastest 40-yard dash at the 2025 CFL Combine with a time of 4.41 seconds — to become one of the higher-profile Canadians eligible for Tuesday's CFL Draft (4 p.m., TSN).
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The graduate of Robert Thirsk High School in the city's northwest is one of a few talents from Calgary likely to hear his name called during this year's edition of the annual pick-em.
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And when he does, Oshinubi is likely to become emotional all over again.
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'I feel like football was a big influence on me as a kid, because at the time, I was so sick — I couldn't really walk and really do anything,' said the now 6-foot-2, 225-lb. University of Alberta Golden Bears backfield graduate. 'So it really put in perspective for me of what it means to have an able body — that's a real blessing. So that really drove me to use it to the best of my abilities in every way I could. That's really what created the passion of football for me.
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