Kene Onyeka would like TigerTown to know this about the team’s new Canadian defensive end.
“A big part of who I am is a person who does a lot of different things,” says the 29-year-old, 6-foot-3 former member of the Ottawa Redblacks.
“I don’t like to be one-dimensional. I’m an athlete, yes, but I’d also say I’m a scholar, I like to learn. I’m curious about things. And I’m an engineer by trade.”
He also owns a contract cleaning business in the nation’s capital which he’ll run from a distance after signing with the Tiger-Cats in the first few minutes of free agency.
And he’s had previous side gigs using his degree in mechanical engineering—not an easy course load when you’re also playing high-level (two-time all-Canadian) football—in project management and has his telescope focusing in on a post-CFL future in high tech engineering sales.
But first, the football. He was one of the longest-tenured Redblacks, among just a handful who been with the team as long as his seven years which encompassed six seasons. Onyeka, kicker Lewis Ward, punter Richie Leone and defensive back Justin Howell, who’d played with him at Carleton, all arrived in Ottawa in 2019. Howell went in the seventh round of the 2018 draft, while Onyeka was taken in the fourth round, 29th overall.
In that same draft, Onyeka’s older brother Godfrey, a defensive back from Laurier, was selected 10th overall by Edmonton and is still playing in the league, now for Calgary.
The Onyekas, originally from Nigeria, are a football family. Kene Onyeka is the only defensive lineman selected in the 2018 draft who is still in the CFL, and Kene’s and Godfrey’s cousins include Nakas Onyeka who was a linebacker for four different teams, ending his career four years ago, and defensive back Kosi Onyeka, who spent four seasons in Saskatchewan before he was released last fall.
When he was nine years old, Onyeka immigrated with his family to Brampton from Nigeria and he considers Igbo his first language and English his second, although you have to listen hard to find the trace of an accent which, he says, “went away when I was in grade 7 and 8. But if I get really worked up, like if I’m arguing with someone, then you can hear it.”
Brampton was a basketball hotbed and he was taller than most of his classmates so that was the first sport he gravitated toward in Canada. But he says that it still bothers him that if you’re big and stand your ground, “and if someone runs into you, it’s a foul on you. To this day it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
What did make sense was football. His cousins introduced Onyeka and his brother to the game, “and it was an easy transition. We were all super competitive, we played in the backyard and started playing the game in high school. It was something I was good at and it was really fun so it made sense to continue in that trajectory.”
He went to Carleton where he played football, but that was secondary to getting a five-star education in a profession, either law, medicine or engineering. He chose the latter.
“Now I have the mechanical engineering degree and I can have a lot more options with my life post-football,” he says.
Onyeka was all-Canadian in 2017 and ’18 and ranked in the top 15 by Central Scouting for the 2018 draft but had informed CFL teams that he would be returning for a final year and wouldn’t be available until 2019, one of the reasons he was still available to the Redblacks in the fourth round.
While he made roughly a tackle a game playing defence in the middle part (2021-24) of his Ottawa tenure, he really excelled on special teams. He had 11 special teams tackles last year, and 35 in 35 games over the past three seasons. And, remember, he’s 244 pounds. That’s a lot of momentum bearing down on a returner.
“My expectations of myself are usually higher than what others have of me,” Onyeka says of the downfield tackling numbers, hinting they should be higher. “That was just the way I was raised. So I can do more. I don’t doubt it.
“I enjoy special teams. In the seven years I was there, there was only maybe one year where we weren’t that great on special teams but every other year we were No. 1 or No. 2 in the league. Teams are something I’ve always done in my development as a player.
“When you play at a high level you take notes of teams that are easier to play against and the teams who are tougher and Hamilton was always a very tough team, a very physical team to play against. You always leave the game, knowing you’ve played a game.”
That was one in a web of components which brought him to Hamilton after discussions during the free agency negotiation window. He was told by current Ticats and some older former teammates he trusted that the “guys are very close in Hamilton and there is a lot of support from the organization.” And he’s also impressed by how important the team is to the city.
“The Redblacks are really important to Ottawa too but I don’t know if there’s any team in the East that gets the in-depth support from the city that the Ticats do.
“One reason I came is that I’ve really got to see the CFL through only one lens so far,” he said. “I’ve only seen what it’s like being in Ottawa vs. the World. We didn’t have a great season last year so I thought it would be a good time to make a change, so that was a factor and, as I’m getting older and I’m turning 30 this year. My family and proximity to my family becomes a lot more important.
“I think (former Ottawa head coach Bob) Dyce being here is a big factor too. Anyone who’s played at the professional level realizes there’s a lot of turnover, whether it’s players or the coaches and a lot of people will have their favourite coaches. To me it’s a huge factor.”
Also in play is that the Ticats are clearly looking to deepen the availability and impact of Canadian content on defence. In the midst of the off-season, the presumptive starting four on the defensive line are all Americans, but things change. And there is an obvious pathway for Canadians as part of the regular in-game rotation with the arrival of Onyeka and fellow free agent Charbel Dabire, the return of Owen Hubert and youngsters Isaiah Bagnah and Luke Brubacher, who both have been injured, and the October signing of Kail Dava, who played eight games for Calgary in 2024.
“I definitely see that and it’s part of why I see this as a good fit,” Onyeka says. “I’m excited to be here and play special teams with Bobby Dyce but I also would like to have a bigger role on defence, even if it’s rotating in and just doing the work. I like to feel like I’m more of a complete football player, that I can do a bit of everything. That’s the way it’s always been.”
Onyeka says there will always “be a special place in my heart” for Ottawa, where he spent a lot of time doing community work, a social commitment he says he’ll continue here. As that unfolds, Hamilton will get to know about him, and about his pride in being of Nigerian heritage.
“I’m a bit all over the place as a human being,” he says. “I think it’s very important to ask the big questions. Critical thinking is very big and I don’t think it’s a thing that a lot of people do; they just do things and don’t understand why they’re doing them. A big part of this is growing up with my parents.
“I’m a person who’s very curious about life.”
