Cal Football: Chigozie Anusiem Embraces His Title as Bears' Top Trash-Talker
You could probably start a pretty good argument by asking Cal football players who’s the fastest the team. Or the strongest. Maybe even the best-looking.
But there seems little debate over which Golden Bear talks the best trash.
It’s junior cornerback Chigozie Anusiem.
Senior safety Elijah Hicks (below) easily conferred that title on Anusiem. “He enjoys it and everything. He’s good at it, too, getting in people’s heads,” Hicks said. “It’s funny because sometimes, I’m like, `Dang, Chigi really be talking sh#@!”
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Sophomore wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter (above) has been the target of Anusiem’s verbal barrage. But he has no complaints.
“That’s just how Chigi is. I like it. I’m a competitor, too, so I try to go back at him here and there,” Hunter said. “I don’t really talk but I like that he gives me motivation.”
Asked to cite an example of Anusiem’s aggressive lip service, Hunter recalled being told by the two-year starter that he’d never beat him on a deep pass pattern. “That one made me feel real good,” Hunter said, welcoming the challenge.
Anusiem, a smart and thoughtful native of La Habra in southern California, acknowledges his place in the Bears’ trash-talking pecking order.
“I do talk the most trash on the team, I probably would say,” he confirmed. “To me, it makes me kind of play better because, obviously, everyone wants to beat me. So I have to always be at my best.”
Anusiem insists he knows where to draw the line. Mostly, he said, it fuels motivation for himself and whomever he’s matched against.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m doing good in a practice. I might go talk a little trash so that they want to go harder against me,” he explained.
Defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon (below) says Anusiem has grown as a player, becoming more a more mature and consistent player. But he cringed a bit when asked how coach Justin Wilcox and the staff responds to trash talk.
“We don’t encourage any trash talking. Obviously, they’re friendly with one another. Competitive spirits are competitive spirits,” he said. “You guys know coach Wilcox . . . there’s not a lot of condoning or encouraging trash talk. But it’s football. We’re not extinguishing fun.”
That’s good because trash-talk has a deep tradition in football at all levels and isn’t likely to go away.
Anusiem said he agrees with Hicks’ assessment that he’s the team’s best trash talker.
And who is No. 2?
“I don’t even think there’s a close second.”
NO TRASH TALK AT HOME: It seems unlikely that Anusieum traffics in trash talk back home. His parents, Moses and Blessing Anusiem, are immigrants from Nigeria, and Chigi grew up in a serious household.
School was always the top priority, and Anusieum recalls in the video below the time his mother threatened to pull him from the high school football team when one of his grades slipped just a bit during the 10th grade.
“When I’m in the middle of it, obviously, not being able to hang out with my friends every weekend, it sucks,” he said. “But looking back, they were just looking out for me, doing what’s best for me.”
Cover photo of Chigozie Anusiem by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
