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Volume 64 No. 43
PHOTO BY YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM, ILLUSTRATION BY KENNY CRUZ, THE SPECTRUM
How Kristjan Sokoli went from an Albanian who had never heard of football to a Division I player with eyes on the NFL TOM DINKI
SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
If Kristjan Sokoli had to describe a nose tackle in one word, it would be “relentless.” He said there are bad plays and good plays for the position. A good play is when there’s a wide gap between the center and guard. This allows him to swipe away the center’s hands and get into the backfield to make a tackle for a loss. Here’s what Sokoli calls a ‘bad play’ – or what normally happens when he lines up on the defensive line for the Buffalo football team. You think the center is going to block you. And as you go to attack the center, the center doesn’t block you. The guard comes and ear holes you. Your tackle’s coming inside to try and get into his gap but he can’t get into his gap because you’re in his gap now because you got ear holed by the guard. So not only do you not know what’s going on, you got ear holed, and the tackle steps on your foot and then you just want to scream out of anger.
It’s what comes with being a nose tackle. Few would call it a glorified position. For every play Sokoli ends up with a sack or tackle for a loss, there’s 50 plays he gets his foot stepped on. It’s why he has to be relentless. “You just got to keep fighting,” Sokoli said. “Even though sometimes it might not make a lot of sense you got to keep fighting and then you get to enjoy the better moments of it when it does make sense.” Sokoli did the same after immigrating to the United States from Albania at the age of 9. He didn’t speak a word of English – and was ridiculed for it. He didn’t have the same luxuries as other kids. His father struggled to make money as an apartment complex janitor. He had to convince his parents football was safe even as the injuries piled up. Edmir Sokoli, his cousin, mentor and the person who showed him what American football was while trying to keep Sokoli on the right path, went to
prison for armed robbery. Nothing made sense. But Sokoli kept fighting to get through. He became so good at English he helped his parents learn the language. He earned a full scholarship to a Division I university. His father is now superintendent of that apartment complex. Sokoli is enjoying the better moments. “I’m like, ‘What am I doing here? Some Albanian guy?’” Sokoli said. “I was in Albania, now I’m playing in front of 20,000 fans in Buffalo, New York in college football.” Sokoli played his last game in a Buffalo uniform on Nov. 28, and hopes his next football game will be on an NFL field. It would be yet another accomplishment for a player whose journey to the gridiron spans almost half the globe. “Being from my background, I’ve had to get through different obstacles and people telling me I can’t do this or people giving me the cold shoulder,” Sokoli said. “I’ve always tried to just stick to the plan
and stick to what I know is right. Knowing that I’m some kid from Albania, that’s definitely a motivating factor.” *** It’s a late October practice at UB Stadium. Sokoli and the rest of the starters run sprints down to the end zone for more than 10 minutes. After he gets done with his own conditioning, Sokoli doesn’t stop to rest. He walks over and stands in front of the reserves that are running condition drills themselves. Sokoli claps and offers words of encouragement to his teammates – most of whom he towers over. He’s 6-foot-5 and 293 pounds. His high school coach called him “Moose.” His former Buffalo teammate and roommate, Dalton Barksdale, said Sokoli eats five meals a day. He stands out on the field by not only his size, but also by his long brown hair that flows out the back of his helmet. SEE SOKOLI, PAGE 5
‘Serial’ podcast calls on UB professor’s expertise Law professor Ewing featured on murder case series CHARLES W SCHAAB
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Charles Ewing says that people kill because something happens to them that pushes them over the edge. “People sometimes lose it,” he said. Ewing, UB Law professor and SUNY distinguished service professor, has examined hundreds of killers across the United States and Canada, most of whom have killed someone close to them. His knowledge of how a young murderous mind operates is what inclined an executive producer of the podcast “Serial” to contact Ewing in search of answers. “Serial,” a podcast that has broken the iTunes record for the most downloads in the shortest period of time examines a 1999 Maryland murder of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee. Lee was found strangled to death in a park outside of Baltimore a month after being reported missing. The
podcast has sparked debate whether the first-degree murder conviction of her exboyfriend, Adnan Syed, was justified. The New Yorker has called the series “the podcast to end all podcasts.” Even Ewing, who has been featured in dozens of national network and cable television programs, has been affected by the fame of “Serial.” “I got a call from an attorney in another state, who asked me to examine a murder defendant he is representing,” Ewing said in an email. “I asked where he’d gotten my name and he said, ‘Serial.’” Law school students were especially surprised and proud to hear one of their professors on the widely listened podcast, which aired its first episode in October. “I thoroughly enjoyed the podcast,” said Charles Cook, a first-year law student. “Ewing’s information on what happens to the killers mind after the fact of the murder really transformed how I viewed Adnan as a killer.” Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder created the new-fangled series. They were both producers of the other National Public Radio podcast “This American Life,” of which “Serial” is a spinoff.
Koenig, who also hosts “Serial,” explored if a person who is seemingly incapable of committing a murder could kill. So, she turned to Ewing. “I decided not to respond at first,” Ewing said through email of Snyder’s consistent calling and emailing. “But she was so persistent … and I agreed to do a short interview with Ms. Koenig.” Koenig, too, showed her persistency throughout the series, regularly hunting down sources and interviewing people close to Syed and Lee to flesh out parts of the trial that seemed unclear. That short interview of Ewing aired in episode 11 of the podcast’s inaugural season, which has 12 episodes. The title of the episode is “Rumors,” which takes a comprehensive look into convicted murderer Syed’s past. “I think we’re all capable of committing homicide under the right circumstance, and I think most people are good people,” Ewing told Koenig in the episode. “Except for stone-cold killers – and I’ve seen some of those – most people who kill are fairly normal, ordinary people.” SEE SERIAL, PAGE 2
COURTESY OF UB NEWS CENTER
UB law professor Charles Ewing was featured on the podcast “Serial” due to his expertise in forensic psychology involving murderers.