Riders’ Idowu worked hard to live up to standard set by older brother

Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker Oluwaseun Idowu battled literally and figuratively to get out from under his brother Olatunji’s shadow for most of his life.

“I can’t tell you how much in high school they used to call me (T.J.’s little brother),” the 23-year-old Idowu said as the Roughriders prepared for Friday’s CFL showdown against the Calgary Stampeders. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Idowu, who is the youngest of three children in his family, recalls always trying to earn the upper hand in their sibling wrestling matches.

“That’s the only reason I started working out in the first place because he’d be at home, we’d get into arguments and he’s playing football and he’s working out all the time and he’s big,” Idowu said.

“I started working out all throughout middle school actually. I remember one time when he was off in college, he came back to visit me and I was in high school and I cleared out all the couches and all the chairs and said, ‘We’re going right now.’ “

After years of trying, Idowu eventually earned a highly coveted win.

“So that was my payback for life,” he said.

But like many other sibling rivalries, it didn’t come from a place of hatred. Idowu said watching his brother and sister, Olayinka, growing up had a profound impact on his life.

“When we were way younger, there was a lot of stuff that we had to handle as kids that (T.J.) took the bulk of at that time. At one point he was handling some of the taxes and he was 12 years old,” Idowu said.

“Seeing that made me feel that at a certain point, ‘I’ve got to take ownership and I’ve got to be the one kind of putting stuff on my back and really carry everybody through.’ “

While T.J. became an influence off the field, he was the main reason Oluwaseun got onto the football field.

“He has been there throughout the whole process. He started the whole football thing to begin with in the family,” Idowu said of his brother, who’s four year older than Oluwaseun.

Idowu said he began to play football because of the success his brother was having on the field. Even then, Idowu never considered it a passion until his senior year of high school.

“I didn’t even start watching college or pro football until my senior year of high school so it was really all him,” Idowu said. “Before that, I was playing basketball (and) my main thing was track. He got me into football and after that, it was like, ‘This is the sport right here.’ “

His brother, who was a safety at the University of Albany, was also the one who encouraged Idowu to try his luck at becoming a walk-on at the University of Pittsburgh.

“He was like, ‘I believe that you can walk onto this team. I don’t see why you couldn’t get a scholarship in time, get on there and you get a good education at the end of the day either way.’ He really started that whole process,” Idowu said.

And now that process has led Idowu to the Roughriders, where’s he’s trying to make his name known to Rider Nation.

And if fans have trouble pronouncing it (oh-loo-UH-shayown e-DOUGH-woo), he also goes by Seun (pronounced like Shawn).

Idowu said he almost missed going on stage for his graduation because of the confusion around his name.

“I didn’t even hear my name because they didn’t say it right and I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I’m up,’ ” he recalled.

Idowu and his family are originally from Nigeria, where they lived until he was eight years old.

“Life was good. There was struggles here and there just like anywhere. Sometimes it’s pretty rough in some areas and stuff like that,” Idowu said. “There’s a lot of stuff being there that taught me so much about life.

“It was a quick learning curve as far as maturity goes in the things you see and the things you experience.”

That experience has led to some bonding between Idowu and fellow Roughriders Solomon Elimimian and Mike Edem, with all of them having grown up in Lagos.

“We will be in the locker room making all these jokes because we understand that there’s stereotypes and stuff like that, that we know in our family and it’s the same way,” Idowu said.

His family moved to New York and split time between the Big Apple and Pittsburgh. Idowu stayed in Pittsburgh after earning a spot on the Panthers football team.

But he received some harsh criticism for his play.

“I first came into Pitt as a running back and then they moved me to corner and then that’s when I was told, ‘Man, you suck,’ so I would just drill myself every day after practice,” Idowu said.

And so came a move to linebacker after Idowu bulked up.

“I just stuck to it and ended up where I’m at,” he said.

Now the 6-foot-0, 230-pound linebacker is earning his stripes with the Roughriders. In 12 games this season, Idowu has recorded 15 tackles and four special-teams tackles. He got an opportunity to join the Roughriders after a tryout in Vero Beach, Fla.

“The (Roughriders’ executives) came over and said, ‘Whatever happens, we’d love to have you out here so we will be in contact and everything like that,’ and it was a great opportunity for me,” Idowu said. “I kept that in my back pocket and it ended up coming up really handy so I’m blessed to have this opportunity.”

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still go to his brother, who now works in finance, for advice.

“When I go back home to visit him, he’s like, ‘Did you look at this stuff? When you get back home, we can get this set up,’ and he’s doing all the math and stuff,” Idowu said. “He’s a real smart dude so he has all that stuff figured out and I really trust him with a lot of that end of things.”

But for Idowu, one of his biggest accomplishments so far is no longer being just T.J.’s little brother.

“I would post on social media and people would be like, ‘T.J., your little big brother is doing all this stuff,’ so it’s kind of cool to get out of under that shadow and be my own person,” Idowu said.

“I was working at that all throughout high school and I didn’t want them to call me that anymore but I’m glad I got that done.”

The Green Zone pregame show gets underway Friday at 5:30 p.m.