August 27, 2024 • 36 mins
Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila is a retired Green Bay Packer. He lives with his wife, Eileen, and their beautiful family. He had a successful NFL career and after he retired he stayed active in Green Bay. But behind the smiling dad and doting husband facade, Kabeer was changing. He had discovered a group that held his attention. It was a group that would alter the course of his family’s life.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a warm, sticky July day in twenty seventeen, and
Eileen Baja Biamila is packing for a family vacation. At
least that's what her husband Kabir thinks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Kabir just thought, oh, she's obeying me. She's getting ready
to pack for Straightway.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Kabir is a former NFL player for the Green Bay Packers,
and in the last year he'd become obsessed with an
insular religious community in Tennessee. It's called Straightway Truth Ministry.
That summer, the family was supposed to go on a
trip to Washington, DC, but at the last minute, Kabir
went rogue. He wanted them to visit Straightway instead. Eileen
(00:37):
didn't want to go.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I knew him like, if we go there, we're in
the Devil's breaker. That's how I thought of it. That
Who knows what would happen to me if I allowed
my family to go. I don't know, but I was like,
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Eileen had a lot of reservations about visiting what she
calls the Devil's playground. What she knew about the group
made her uneasy. In fact, since finding Straightway, Kabir seemed
to be on his own journey and Eileen wasn't a
part of it. One night, she even dreamed she saw
a building on fire.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
There's a bunch of our friends going, don't go in,
and people like wave in their hands like don't go,
don't go in. Cabir is saying, let's go, come on,
let's go in. It's obviously on fire. Everybody can see it.
Everybody's warning us, and he's saying go. And it was
like this thing and me going, how can I leave
my kids to their death? That's what I felt like.
(01:30):
And I was like, I can't, can't.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Do So that was.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
That was where I had to make decisions that I
never implied i'd.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Make, like leaving her husband of sixteen years. Ever since
Kabir announced a family would be going to Tennessee instead
of DC, Eileen has been strategizing in secret, figuring out
how to leave and how to take their seven children
with her.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So every time I did laundry, I'd fold it and
I'd set up baskets for each kid. I would just
kind of set more clothes aside. Was just eventually stacking
up to it was like five six baskets full of clothes.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
One morning after Kabir leaves for the day. Eileen packs
the clothes into the minivan. She wakes up the kids.
At this point, they still think they're going to straightway,
but their mom's behavior seems a little off.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
They're like, Okay, we know something's going on. This is
like serious, this is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Eileen knows this is her moment. If she wants to
protect her children from her husband's new and unfamiliar religious
beliefs and the community that they're rooted in, she needs
to leave now.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I just remember praying God, just give a smooth passage.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I'm Kaylen Kaylor. I'm an investigative journalist and sports reporter,
and I've been writing about the NFL for eight years.
I'm also from Wisconsin, and I grew up with a
ton of cheeseheads. Back in January twenty twenty, my Sports
Illustrated editor sent me a local news paper article. It
was about Eileen's husband, former Green Bay Packer defensive end
Kabir Baja Biamila, who went by KGB. He'd had a
(03:09):
strange run in with the Green Bay police.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Good evening, thanks for joining us for our packer.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Kabir Baja Biamilla, explaining what led to the arrest of
his friends on Tuesday nights.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
These two men were from the same group. Eileen was
so worried about a Straightway Troop ministry, and they had
apparently brought loaded guns to Eileen and Kabir's kids Christmas
show Could You Be?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Posted on YouTube saying he believes his friends were arrested
because of their association with him.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
There was a lot to process the guns, the arrest,
the estrangement from his wife, and especially Kabir's conversion to
this new religion. A once devout Christian, Kabir now believed
Christmas had pagan roots and he didn't want his children
to have anything to do with it, so he'd sent
his Straightway quote unquote brothers to film and intimidate. When
(03:56):
the news broke, the community was shocked. What was going
on with Kabir? How had he gone from Packer to Paria.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
I am going to share my journey of how I became,
how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite
on which a straightway ministry.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
As soon as I learned of the Christmas incident, I
was all in on reporting Kabir's story. In July twenty
twenty Sports Illustrated published my investigation Pray for Kabir. This
podcast is an expansion of that reporting. We've talked to
new sources, uncovered new details about Straightway Truth Ministry, and
spent more time with people who were close to Kabir.
(04:40):
This story started with one ex football players search for
a way to fill the void after the NFL, and
it turns out there were others who fell down this
spiral too. In this series, we're going to hear from
people who dropped everything to follow Straightway's leader, Pastor Dowell,
and the people whose lives were forever changed as a result.
Speaker 7 (04:59):
If you mixed homesteading with guns and church and a
little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we
liked while you got Straightway.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
We have a couple of retired, prominent retired NFL football
players in the ministry.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
When people don't know about something, really fully understand, kind
of like on edge about it, especially in small town.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Now, the narrative of Man TJ is going crazy, He's
lost his mind, he's joined a cold.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
This is spiral episode one, the split.
Speaker 8 (05:46):
He looked like a physique model.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Man.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
I was so embarrassed to see that dude, man, he
had everything I wanted I wish I had.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
In a body type.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
This is Mike Montgomery. He was the Packers six round
draft pick in two thousand and five. He played college
football at Texas A and M. By the time Mike
got to Green Bay, Kabir had already been playing with
the team for five years and Mike was in awe.
Speaker 8 (06:11):
He had as he had arms and everything, and I
was like, man, I need to change my diet. That's
what a prototype NFL defensive line that looked like. And
now it looked like like I just got done eating
a hot dog sandwich contest.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And all of those things Mike noticed about Kabir eventually
led him to his biggest claim to fame, breaking the
Packers franchise sack record previously held by the late Great
Reggie White.
Speaker 9 (06:41):
Sack.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Paja Bammella.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
Over Brian McKinney.
Speaker 9 (06:51):
What the sack.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Six pressure pat sign of Paja b Amella.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Kabir's parents were born in Nigeria. His mother was Christian
and his father Muslim. Though he says he wasn't very religious,
his family went to a Christian church and they also
observed Ramadan. He said it wasn't until college that he
started to take his Muslim faith seriously. And there, when
he was a student at San Diego State, he met
a tall woman with long, dark hair and a bright smile.
(07:23):
Her name was Eileen Bermundo.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Kaber at the time was nerdy. Maybe he was like
he had thick, like bottle cap glasses. He looked like Rkle.
He had his shorts above his belly button, so they
were really hiked up, and he's got long legs already,
and he had a lisp. I mean, people would joke
around like he talked like Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
In those days. Eileen was working as the assistant strength
and conditioning coach for San Diego State. She played volleyball
during her own college career, and even today, she still
looks every bit like a chain who might tell you
to do burpies at any moment.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
He was just an oddfall. I remember him coming in
to my office and he was trying to give me
a hug, and I'm thinking, don't like, okay, I'm trying
to be professional, and I think I well, I know,
I said, dude, get away from you stink.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Not exactly the meet cute, she might have imagined there
was something about him that she just couldn't shake. He
was kind.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I ran out of creamer, and so what he did
was he he bought me creamer and he put it
like on the door, on the doorknob, and so I
saw it the next morning, and so I just thought, well,
that was sweet.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Sweet, but not sweet enough to change the fact that
he was a goofy nerd with a bad fashion sense.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
He always wore sweats, they were like way above his ankles,
and then he would wear these ugly clogs, they were
like leather clogs.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And then one day she saw him a little bit differently, a.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Decent, like big pair of sweats that looked no one.
And I remember both my friend were like WHOA, Like,
oh my gosh, that's comm here, you know, And so
that in terms of like physical traction, that was the
first time ever.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I really wanted to ask Kaber about this and a
million other things too. I did the longest interview of
my life with him for the written story. It was
about six hours long over zoom. But unfortunately he wouldn't
agree to an on the record interview for this podcast.
So in the meantime, we'll hear from a lot of
people who know Kabir and know his legacy.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
He's a fifth round draft pick who's undersize for his position,
yet rookie defensive end caber Baja Bia Miller.
Speaker 10 (09:30):
That's a mouthful.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
In April two thousand, the Green Bay Packers drafted Kabir.
Speaker 10 (09:35):
He was just a young, naive guy that asked a
ton of questions.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
This is former Packers head coach Mike Sherman.
Speaker 10 (09:42):
He gave great effort and kind of drove his teammates
a little bit crazy because he's a little bit different
than everybody else in that way. But a good person,
someone you like to talk to because he was always
had a smile in his face.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Once Kabir got to Green Bay, he and Eileen would
spend hours on the phone together while she was dyll
in California. This is back in the days when long
distance calls still cost extra. There was definitely something there,
but as a devout Christian, Eileen wasn't ready to take
the next step with someone who wasn't on the same page.
And then one day she got one of those fancy
(10:16):
long distance calls.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I remember when he called me and he says, all right,
I don't want to tell you this. He goes, but
I became a Christian, you know, gave my life to Jesus.
And he goes, but I'm and this is the funny thing.
He's like, But I'm not going to be outspoken like you.
I'm not going to share my faith like you.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Kabir didn't convert for Eileen, but in the course of
their conversations they talked about a lot of things, including
Eileen's faith. And when Kabir got to Green Bay, he
was mentored by someone who he really looked up to,
who was a devout Christian, and these conversations inspired him
and changed him. And when Eileen heard his news, it
changed her too.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And that's where at the time for me, it was
like God opened my eyes to like, Okay, this is
the man for you.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
From there everything happened pretty fast.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
The first time I came to Green Bay was the
day we got married. So I'm flying at eleven. I
think he had a break from practice. We go get
married at a small side chapel at Green Bay Community Church.
We actually had loner rings because of the rings that
he was like trying to make weren't ready, so we
didn't even get married with rings.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
After a whirlwind wedding, Eileen had to move her entire
life from sunny Sokal to the frozen tundra.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Everybody is wearing green. I was like, whoa, this is weird.
They are like ten years behind, like the hair, the accents.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Eileen wasn't quite prepared for the unique brand of Midwestern
culture that Green Bay is famous for. She had always
lived in bigger cities, and now she was in a
place where the latest fashions came from the pro shop.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I was like this, I am about to enter a
whole different world of just it's weird.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Football had been a big part of Eileen's world, but
in Wisconsin, football isn't just a hobby or an interest.
It's an entire way of life. All over the city
you can find garage, door murals, and painted fences featuring
a great player or a memorable tackle. The streets are
named for legendary Packers. There's Mike McCarthy, Way, Bart Star Drive,
Lombardi Avenue, and it's impossible to go anywhere in this
(12:25):
city without seeing someone sporting the green and gold.
Speaker 10 (12:28):
It's everything to everybody.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Here's former head coach Mike Sherman again.
Speaker 10 (12:32):
No, I felt a lot of responsibility to the fans
of the green Bay Packers, and we go out and
win every single game, particularly at home, but all across
the state. You've had people in the stadium, in the
parking lot, in their driveways, in their garages watching it
on TV, just waiting for the Packers to win a
football game.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I've been to most NFL cities and I'm telling you
there's nothing that compares to green Bay.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
There is a historical market over there. I don't know
if you've seen any of these in Green Bay yet.
There's a thing called the Packer Heritage Trail.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
This is Jeff ash He worked as a writer and
editor for the Green Bay Press Gazette for twenty five years,
and he's a self professed historian of Green Bay.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
There's a series of historical markers in various places. I
think that was just City.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Stadium, City Stadium as in the home of the Packers
from nineteen twenty five to nineteen fifty six. The markers
actually covered twenty five sites around the city dedicated to
all things Packers. Our producer Buffy Gorilla spot's the historical
marker outside the church where Hall of Fame coach Vince
Lombardi went to daily Mass.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
This is where the Lombardies went to church. He was
a devout Catholic and he would arrive eight minutes before
eight am on weekdays, park in the back lot and
enter the church through a side door.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Now that he was saved, Kabir got spiritually involved with
the football community. He was going to the Packer's weekly
Bible study, and after Eileen moved to Green Bay, she
went along too. Eileen says it didn't take long for
Kabir to go from a quiet Christian to a very
outspoken one.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Once he came to the truth, it was like, all right,
I'm going to debate and fight for Christianity, and so
that's what he did.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He got so into the debates with his teammates that
Eileen had to step in as a referee.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I'm the good companies of bad cop. I would be
trying to kind of temper things or diffuse things or
put out like these fires, and I'd be like, oh
my gosh, that comer, what are you doing? What are
you saying?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Even with his fellow Christian teammates.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
So there was a lot of the Christians that were going,
what is he doing?
Speaker 8 (14:42):
He was vocal, very vocal.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Fellow former packer again, Mike Montgomery.
Speaker 8 (14:47):
Yeah, he tried to save everybody. But that was the
type of guy to Beer was. He was a guy
who wanted the best for everybody. So he would talk
to everybody and see where they're at spiritually to give
him on the right tracks.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
But there was no letting up anyone, and everyone was
a prospective convert, even Bob McGinn, a longtime Packers reporter.
Speaker 11 (15:09):
Sometimes you had to wade through a lot of stuff
before you get Before I could pin him down on
the football, he wanted to hand me religious pamphlets, or
he wanted to talk to me, Bob Bob, and he
wanted to talk to me about his faith or religion
or my faith. And I said, caam here, I only
got like ten more minutes in this locker room today.
(15:31):
I said, I'm sorry. We all got our own views
on a long religion. I said, I'm sorry, I don't
want to discuss that with you. Can we just please
talk football? And he would kind of smile and he'd
go along with him. Then he'd answer my questions. But
this happened a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Talking religion with Bob was a non starter, but there
was someone in the Packers organization whose job it was
to engage with this passionate young player. All right, so
we're on our next stop.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Tell me where we are.
Speaker 12 (16:00):
We're seeing Father Jim, who was the Packers priest for
a long.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Time and during all of the years that kuld be
played There.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Are you so good to see you, Buffy.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Football is so intertwined with the culture that people here
half jokingly say it's part of their religion. And as
it turns out, religion and sports are kind of a
two way street.
Speaker 9 (16:26):
You swing a cat in the city of Green Bay
and it's going to land on Catholic church properties somewhere.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Father Jim Baroniac was the Packers Catholic chaplain for years.
If you didn't know that football chaplains were a thing,
they totally are. Most NFL teams have at least one
to provide religious services to players. Buffy and I met
Father Jim at his church. Our Lady of Lords, come
on in, you guys.
Speaker 9 (16:47):
I'm Calin Lichton left there.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And when he welcomes us, he's wearing his white robe
and he gives us both a warm handshake. Then he
leads us into his office, which is decorated with a
mashup of religious iconography and autograph football and helmets.
Speaker 9 (17:02):
My Green Bay Packer helmet, you'll see it is signed
by our three quarterbacks, our three Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
Up in the center is Bart Starr, to the left
is Brett Favre, and to the right is Aaron Rodgers.
So while that's probably worth an awful lot of money,
(17:23):
I knew all three of those figures very well and
love them all dearly.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
His job with the Packers meant Father Jim ministered to
the whole team, and after Kabir converted to Christianity, he
was eager to have deep theological conversations with people like
the Packers priest.
Speaker 9 (17:40):
There's this period of enlightenment that one has, whether you
are Protestant or Catholic or Muslim, that when you fall
in love with the faith, you are on fire for
the faith, and sometimes there's no stopping such people. Perhaps
I had a little that apostolic zeal when I was
first ordained a priest. Here I come to save the day,
and then all the sudden you discover maybe the world
(18:01):
doesn't need saving the way I thought, you know what
I mean. And so with Kaber being so on fire
with his newfound faith, I think he was out to
share it, to evangelized, to spread it, and to recruit.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Kaber was constantly trying to engage Father Jim.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
Is it okay that I would come and meet you
on Tuesday, player day off, for instance?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And Father Jim being Father Jim, he said yes.
Speaker 9 (18:27):
And sure enough he would come. And I think Kaber
would get a kick out of this, and he would
agree that when he would come and visit, that would
be for hours long duration. As you can tell, I
have no problem carrying on a conversation. Kaber could go
much longer and much further than I could in a conversation,
so he was there for the long haul on several occasions.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
One on one. Father Jim didn't mind these debates, but
that wasn't enough for Caber. He became more and more
committed to his own beliefs into challenging the belief of
those around him, no matter how uncomfortable it made anyone else.
Speaker 9 (19:04):
I remember coming home one night from the Arizona Cardinal game.
Do the math. You know, that's a long flight.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's usually the time that players take to unwind or
fall asleep, just take a moment to themselves, but not Kabir.
Speaker 9 (19:20):
There were men of the Jewish tradition on our flight,
and he was pressing me for answers as to what
would happen with their salvation. That's when I knew it
became extraordinarily uncomfortable for me and many other people with
an earshot of our seats, because I was trying to
(19:41):
be very sensitive to his needs to what he was
holding to be true. At the same time, these people
that are on the flight with us are extraordinarily good men.
So Kabir was very upset with me, and I think
he thought that I was giving too much of a
political answer or a cop out that I would not
(20:02):
condemn them to hell.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
But Kabir didn't just have these conversations with Father Jim.
He would have them in the locker room.
Speaker 12 (20:11):
Did any of the players ever come to you and say,
I'm having an issue with how he can't talk about
anything else yor like. Did you ever actually personally hear
those concerns or complaints.
Speaker 9 (20:23):
Yes, yes, I had heard that several times.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Kaber even told me that during training camp one year,
there was a night where he got into a heated
debate with some of his teammates. He told them that
if the locker room blew up right then that ninety
nine percent of the players on his team would go
to hell. After that, Kabir said, Then quarterback Aaron Rodgers
turned on him. Kabir claims Rogers said, if this is
(20:49):
what a Christian looks like, I don't want anything to
do with it. Kabier showed no signs of toning it down,
and pretty soon he was going to take things to
the next level. More on that in just a minute
Stay with us. For KGB, being devout meant being on
the straight and narrow, not drinking or doing drugs or
(21:10):
even swearing. He also believed strongly in what some would
call the sanctity of marriage, one man, one woman, forever,
no stepping out, no breakups, so teammates going through divorces
were an easy target for his judgment. One teammate, who
I interviewed for my Sports Illustrated Stories, told me that
he remembers Kabir saying the blood is on your head.
(21:33):
That teammate wanted to remain anonymous because he was worried
about backlash. He said other teammates tried their best to
avoid Kabir's probing about their personal lives. No one wanted
to get trapped in a Jesus talk. But none of
it mattered on game day because KGB was crucial to
the Packers defense. Kabir became a fan favorite, both on
(21:54):
the field and off. Everyone around town knew who he was.
He supported Green Bay charities and made public appearances, and
when he retired in two thousand and eight, he did
something very few Packers players do. He stayed in Green
Bay and he put down roots. He and Eileen decided
to build a house.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We got this property, started building. He was kind of
like the GM of the project.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
And the project was ambitious, twenty one thousand square feet
with an indoor pool and a basketball court. In the
process of building, Kabir kept pushing to add more, an
extra bathroom, another kitchen. He wanted this home to be
part of their ministry so they could help anyone who
needed space, and they called it Praise Land in honor
of their shared faith. Their family was growing and Kabir
(22:45):
had started a second career.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
He was already working as a financial.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Advisor and things were looking good.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I thought for the most part, I thought we had
transitioned very well.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And that's a pretty big deal because it's not a given.
After the sound of cheering fans fade away. Players lose structure,
camaraderie and a game that is all consuming. Their source
of income is cut off, their bodies are worn down,
and some are dealing with the aftermath of head injuries.
Life after football is tough, especially because when you're retired
(23:19):
by age thirty, you still have a lot of life
to live. As Kabir built up his new identity from
NFL player to ex NFL player, his intensity never went away.
He was still ambitious in his career, even if it
was a new one, and he was just as fervent
(23:41):
about his faith. His day to day routine may have
looked a little different, but he'd still dress in the
clothes Iileen laid out for him, he'd eat the breakfast
she'd cook for him, and then climb up the stairs
and retreat to his office. Since settling into retirement, Kabir
had a lot more time, and as he was messing
around on his computer and looking at YouTube video in
between meetings with clients, he found a channel that piqued
(24:03):
his interest big time. One day in the spring of
twenty seventeen, Kabir asked Eileen to come into his office
to show her one of those videos, and from the
computer's tenny speakers, she heard a man's deep.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Voice checking his out, honey, checking his out.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Behind the man is a woman wearing a long sleeved
black shirt. Her arms are crossed at her chest, and
she also wears a black head covering with a gray
floral print. The man is the head of Straightway Pastor
Charles Dowell, and the woman is his wife. Carol Dowel
is filming her for a video. It's called Pastor Dowell's
Wife answers a woman wife, roll.
Speaker 9 (24:42):
Ah, I've demanded a commander for you to stay at home.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (24:45):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Dowel peppers his wife with questions about her responsibility in
the couple housework and looking after him in his every
need to You had.
Speaker 6 (24:54):
To cook, you had to clean, you had to rear
the children, take care of me.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
It wasn't so much that Eileen disagreed with what Charles
and Carol Dowell said.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
For the most part, I agree with her.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
The cooking and cleaning is just part of being a woman.
Keeping your home. You want your home to be clean.
You want when the head of the house comes home
for things to be nice, neat, tidy for because he's
worked hard. You want him to be able to come
home and relax in his castle.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
At the same time, there was just things that she
was saying that it I'm like, okay, well to reach
her own and I don't like making judgment calls.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
But she couldn't quite shake the way it was said,
all of those yes sirs from a wife to a husband.
It wasn't what she was used to and it wasn't
what they as a couple had ever done. And Eileen
definitely didn't know that Kabir had already been in contact
with this man. Over the last couple of years, there
had been hints that Kabir's beliefs were evolving, and they
(25:54):
also didn't sit very well with Eileen, and that really
became clear to her when, after having six in a row,
she gave birth to their seventh child in twenty fourteen.
Kabir's new beliefs created friction in their marriage, but Eileen
remembers one moment in particular that just gutted her even
more than the request for submissiveness in their new family routines.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
We never found out what sex were having, and every
time we would have the baby, Kabir would say yes,
and I knew it was a boy. So number seven
I just close, I'm just having a baby. And I
remember there was none that it was like, it's a girl.
Just like that, it's a girl. And I remember like
(26:39):
opening my eyes and turning him and I was like,
please be happy. It was just so weird, you know,
And it was no, I am. But it wasn't the
same for Kabir.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
A daughter wasn't in the plans.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
He would always say, yeah, I'm gonna have twelve sons.
I'm gonna have the twelve Sons of Israel, and he
would always refer to that.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Kabir wasn't ready to raise a girl. It was all
new to him and he had to figure it out
as they went. And some of the things he decided
really shocked Eileen, Like when their daughter was still really little.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
He was like, you know what, like, our daughter is
going to wear a headcover from now on.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He wanted their infant to wear a head covering, which
might be common in some communities but had never been
done in theirs.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And so she was little, so she was still breastbeing
and actually at first it was like, when we pray,
she's going to have her head covered. So when we
were at church, I completely disagreed, but I was trying
to be submissive, and so I'm holding the baby and
when they're praying, I would just put the blanket on
and take it right back off. And I was like
a little bit rebelling too.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You know, this wasn't enough for Caber. The blanket wasn't
cutting it anymore. He wanted her to get a real headcover.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Everything revolved around this headcover on a two or three
year old girl. That was definitely obviously a point of contention.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It may have started with the head covering, but it
didn't stop there. Kaber also printed out and gave Eileen
long articles on being a submissive and respectful wife. He
started asking the family to strictly observe the Sabbath from
Friday at dusk to Saturday at dusk.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
He was like, no TV, no outside, like shutting everything down.
And so for my kids, I mean my older kids,
they would just sleep the day away because it was
nothing to do. We would do Bible study the next morning,
and at that time it was already so tense.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Even though Kabir had introduced a lot of new ideas
to the family, up until that point the spring of
twenty seventeen, he had kept the Straightway videos mostly to himself.
He knew that Eileen was uneasy about all of it,
and she was working behind the scenes to keep their
kids in the dark for as long as possible. But
it couldn't stay like that forever.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
There was one day where Kaber had asked me, Hey,
can I show them Straightway stuff? And I was like, career,
I think we need to talk about this first, And
so that's what we agreed on that we wouldn't do that.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Eileen had researched Straightway herself. She says she came across
a website where people who said they'd been part of
the group wrote about their experiences, and she didn't like
what she found.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
It was allegations of all these different complaints about like
gun confiscation, families being abused or messed up. It was
just pages and pages of these testimonies, and I'm like,
what in the world. And I remember talking about it.
I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Even though it was just one website. It left her
feeling really uneasy, but she and Kabir had agreed not
to introduce the kids to Straightway, at least not until
she could figure out exactly what was going on and
what to believe. After months of friction, Eileen saw this
as a small win, a little packed between them to
keep Straightway and its YouTube channel at a distance. It
(29:56):
wasn't perfect, but it was manageable, and the family was
still spending a lot of time together and keeping their
own routine, like Saturday morning donuts.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I went, I left to get the donuts, come home
and it's quiet. I'm like, what's where is everybody?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Eileen looked around and then her voices coming from Kabir's office.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
He has a lock on his office door that you
need a combination, and at that point I did not
have the combination. To get in.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Eileen literally had to get permission to enter a room
in her own house.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I couldn't just walk in. It was like knock knock.
I had to wait to be let in.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
When Kabir let her in, she saw her children sitting
on the floor of his office watching TV and on
the screen was Pastor Dowell. Her family was watching a
live stream of a Straightway service from Lafayette, Tennessee, Eileen's
stomach sank.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And as I'm sitting and listening because I wasn't trying
to cause a rocus in front of my kids. I'm
listening to this sermon or this live speaking and I'm
going he is totally talking about you.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Right now, right in the middle of this sermon being
washed by people all over the country. Eileen immediately recognized
that Pastor Dowell was not so slyly referencing Kabir and
their family, and so did one of her kids.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And I hear one of them say so, Dad, So
when he was talking about the millionaire with seven kids,
was he talking about us?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Eileen found this all really disturbing. Kabir had broken the pact.
Straightway's pastor was alluding to her family and sermons, and
she was afraid her husband was getting used for his
money and his status by this pastor who was miles
away and commanding so much of his time. It felt
like her life as she knew it was slipping away,
and Kaber was growing into someone she didn't recognize anymore.
(31:45):
And it wasn't just her. Their friends were worried too.
They missed that goofy, nerdy, fun guy that they'd hang
out with. They couldn't relate to the version of Kabir,
who seemed tougher on his kids and more isolated than
ever before. But nothing seemed to make difference. All of
that religious fervor that fathered Jim described earlier, it was
now focused on straightway and there was no changing Kaber's mind.
(32:09):
He was on a new path and he was ready
to bring his wife and kids along with him. But
Eileen wasn't so sure she wanted to go. There was
a pre vacation buzz of excitement in the air at Praiseland.
Eileen was getting everything ready for that trip to Washington,
(32:30):
d C. But Kabir wasn't. Last minute, he had changed
the plan.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
He says, We're not going to go to Washington, d C.
We're going to go to Tennessee. Oh, Michael's in Tennessee.
And that's when he says, oh, it's downing stream with ministries.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
After all she had seen and heard and all the
research she had done, after she had walked in on
Cabir blatantly ignoring their agreement about what they would and
wouldn't expose their kids to Eileen finally hit a breaking point.
She told him she pleaded with him not to take
the family to ten See. He could see how upset
she was, so reluctantly he agreed, but not for long.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And then the next day it's like, Eileen, I'm taking
the two oldest. And then the next day is Eileen,
I'm taking all the kids with or without you. Then
there was no way I was going to leave my
kids with him, Like if they were going to go,
I was.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Going to go.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And this is when she started squirrelling away their clothes,
stacking them up in big laundry baskets that could be
your thought were destined for Tennessee, but Eileen had other plans.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I knew that he was going to be an Appleton,
which was thirty minutes away, and he had a meeting there.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Eileen had this small window of time. Kabir was at
a meeting and it was a Wednesday. Every Wednesday, Eileen
would take the kids out for ice cream with a
group of moms and their kids. So it was this
perfect opportunity she could leave for the ice cream date
like everything was normal, But it wasn't a normal day.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
It was around eleven o'clock, where I'm like, okay, guys,
lott up, let's go. I told my two oldest so
one was fifteen and when the other one was thirteen,
I said, hey, guys, you needed your watches here because
they had GPS on it. I also had to leave
my phone. I already get a you know, one of
those like whatever can they call the trackphone.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Only Eileen's closest confidants knew her destination. When Kabir got home,
all he would find was a letter from his wife
saying she hadn't kidnapped the kids, but that she wouldn't
put them in a dangerous situation by bringing them to straightway.
She piled her kids in the car with all their
clothes and laundry baskets and started to drive.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
I just remember like bursting into tears, and I had
not done that so long. You're in that mode of
just protecting your kids and get everything situated.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Even as she was driving away, Eileen kept thinking.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
He's going to come back to senses, and obviously that
never happened.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Eileen had come to the difficult realization that her life
would probably never be the same again. It was Kabir
who had changed, but it was Eileen who had to
deal with the fallout. And it turns out this was
just the beginning. Pastor Dowell and Straightway Truth Ministry had
influence on other NFL players too, and so many others.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Right at the end of the summer, and they're like,
it's like, hey, it's sister Lisa, go ahead and move
on down there. And we're like, oh, okay, that's that's
pretty cool.
Speaker 9 (35:15):
There isn't a whole lot to say about him other
than they're called a cult and that scares the shit
out of people.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
I'm sorry, it does. It does.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
That's next time on Spiraled. Spiraled is a production of
Sports Illustrated Studios, I Heart Podcasts and One on One
(35:44):
Studios podcast The show was reported by me Kaylen Taylor,
with additional reporting by senior producer Buffy Gorilla. Writing service
provided by Buffy Gorilla and Jen Kinney, sound design, mixing
and mastering by Charlie Kaier. Sarah Sneath is our fact checker,
Scott Stone is our executive producer, and Daniel Waxman is
Director of Podcast Development and podcast Production Manager at One
(36:05):
on One Studios. At iHeart Podcasts, Shaun Tuton is our
Executive producer. Special thank you to Michelle Newman, David Glasser,
and David Hudgin from One on One Studios. For more
shows from iHeart Podcasts, go visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
It's a warm, sticky July day in twenty seventeen, and
Eileen Baja Biamila is packing for a family vacation. At
least that's what her husband Kabir thinks.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Kabir just thought, oh, she's obeying me. She's getting ready
to pack for Straightway.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Kabir is a former NFL player for the Green Bay Packers,
and in the last year he'd become obsessed with an
insular religious community in Tennessee. It's called Straightway Truth Ministry.
That summer, the family was supposed to go on a
trip to Washington, DC, but at the last minute, Kabir
went rogue. He wanted them to visit Straightway instead. Eileen
(00:37):
didn't want to go.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I knew him like, if we go there, we're in
the Devil's breaker. That's how I thought of it. That
Who knows what would happen to me if I allowed
my family to go. I don't know, but I was like,
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Eileen had a lot of reservations about visiting what she
calls the Devil's playground. What she knew about the group
made her uneasy. In fact, since finding Straightway, Kabir seemed
to be on his own journey and Eileen wasn't a
part of it. One night, she even dreamed she saw
a building on fire.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
There's a bunch of our friends going, don't go in,
and people like wave in their hands like don't go,
don't go in. Cabir is saying, let's go, come on,
let's go in. It's obviously on fire. Everybody can see it.
Everybody's warning us, and he's saying go. And it was
like this thing and me going, how can I leave
my kids to their death? That's what I felt like.
(01:30):
And I was like, I can't, can't.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Do So that was.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
That was where I had to make decisions that I
never implied i'd.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Make, like leaving her husband of sixteen years. Ever since
Kabir announced a family would be going to Tennessee instead
of DC, Eileen has been strategizing in secret, figuring out
how to leave and how to take their seven children
with her.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So every time I did laundry, I'd fold it and
I'd set up baskets for each kid. I would just
kind of set more clothes aside. Was just eventually stacking
up to it was like five six baskets full of clothes.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
One morning after Kabir leaves for the day. Eileen packs
the clothes into the minivan. She wakes up the kids.
At this point, they still think they're going to straightway,
but their mom's behavior seems a little off.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
They're like, Okay, we know something's going on. This is
like serious, this is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Eileen knows this is her moment. If she wants to
protect her children from her husband's new and unfamiliar religious
beliefs and the community that they're rooted in, she needs
to leave now.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I just remember praying God, just give a smooth passage.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I'm Kaylen Kaylor. I'm an investigative journalist and sports reporter,
and I've been writing about the NFL for eight years.
I'm also from Wisconsin, and I grew up with a
ton of cheeseheads. Back in January twenty twenty, my Sports
Illustrated editor sent me a local news paper article. It
was about Eileen's husband, former Green Bay Packer defensive end
Kabir Baja Biamila, who went by KGB. He'd had a
(03:09):
strange run in with the Green Bay police.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Good evening, thanks for joining us for our packer.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Kabir Baja Biamilla, explaining what led to the arrest of
his friends on Tuesday nights.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
These two men were from the same group. Eileen was
so worried about a Straightway Troop ministry, and they had
apparently brought loaded guns to Eileen and Kabir's kids Christmas
show Could You Be?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Posted on YouTube saying he believes his friends were arrested
because of their association with him.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
There was a lot to process the guns, the arrest,
the estrangement from his wife, and especially Kabir's conversion to
this new religion. A once devout Christian, Kabir now believed
Christmas had pagan roots and he didn't want his children
to have anything to do with it, so he'd sent
his Straightway quote unquote brothers to film and intimidate. When
(03:56):
the news broke, the community was shocked. What was going
on with Kabir? How had he gone from Packer to Paria.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
I am going to share my journey of how I became,
how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite
on which a straightway ministry.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
As soon as I learned of the Christmas incident, I
was all in on reporting Kabir's story. In July twenty
twenty Sports Illustrated published my investigation Pray for Kabir. This
podcast is an expansion of that reporting. We've talked to
new sources, uncovered new details about Straightway Truth Ministry, and
spent more time with people who were close to Kabir.
(04:40):
This story started with one ex football players search for
a way to fill the void after the NFL, and
it turns out there were others who fell down this
spiral too. In this series, we're going to hear from
people who dropped everything to follow Straightway's leader, Pastor Dowell,
and the people whose lives were forever changed as a result.
Speaker 7 (04:59):
If you mixed homesteading with guns and church and a
little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we
liked while you got Straightway.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
We have a couple of retired, prominent retired NFL football
players in the ministry.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
When people don't know about something, really fully understand, kind
of like on edge about it, especially in small town.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
Now, the narrative of Man TJ is going crazy, He's
lost his mind, he's joined a cold.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
This is spiral episode one, the split.
Speaker 8 (05:46):
He looked like a physique model.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Man.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
I was so embarrassed to see that dude, man, he
had everything I wanted I wish I had.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
In a body type.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
This is Mike Montgomery. He was the Packers six round
draft pick in two thousand and five. He played college
football at Texas A and M. By the time Mike
got to Green Bay, Kabir had already been playing with
the team for five years and Mike was in awe.
Speaker 8 (06:11):
He had as he had arms and everything, and I
was like, man, I need to change my diet. That's
what a prototype NFL defensive line that looked like. And
now it looked like like I just got done eating
a hot dog sandwich contest.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And all of those things Mike noticed about Kabir eventually
led him to his biggest claim to fame, breaking the
Packers franchise sack record previously held by the late Great
Reggie White.
Speaker 9 (06:41):
Sack.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Paja Bammella.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
Over Brian McKinney.
Speaker 9 (06:51):
What the sack.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Six pressure pat sign of Paja b Amella.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Kabir's parents were born in Nigeria. His mother was Christian
and his father Muslim. Though he says he wasn't very religious,
his family went to a Christian church and they also
observed Ramadan. He said it wasn't until college that he
started to take his Muslim faith seriously. And there, when
he was a student at San Diego State, he met
a tall woman with long, dark hair and a bright smile.
(07:23):
Her name was Eileen Bermundo.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Kaber at the time was nerdy. Maybe he was like
he had thick, like bottle cap glasses. He looked like Rkle.
He had his shorts above his belly button, so they
were really hiked up, and he's got long legs already,
and he had a lisp. I mean, people would joke
around like he talked like Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
In those days. Eileen was working as the assistant strength
and conditioning coach for San Diego State. She played volleyball
during her own college career, and even today, she still
looks every bit like a chain who might tell you
to do burpies at any moment.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
He was just an oddfall. I remember him coming in
to my office and he was trying to give me
a hug, and I'm thinking, don't like, okay, I'm trying
to be professional, and I think I well, I know,
I said, dude, get away from you stink.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Not exactly the meet cute, she might have imagined there
was something about him that she just couldn't shake. He
was kind.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I ran out of creamer, and so what he did
was he he bought me creamer and he put it
like on the door, on the doorknob, and so I
saw it the next morning, and so I just thought, well,
that was sweet.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Sweet, but not sweet enough to change the fact that
he was a goofy nerd with a bad fashion sense.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
He always wore sweats, they were like way above his ankles,
and then he would wear these ugly clogs, they were
like leather clogs.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And then one day she saw him a little bit differently, a.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Decent, like big pair of sweats that looked no one.
And I remember both my friend were like WHOA, Like,
oh my gosh, that's comm here, you know, And so
that in terms of like physical traction, that was the
first time ever.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I really wanted to ask Kaber about this and a
million other things too. I did the longest interview of
my life with him for the written story. It was
about six hours long over zoom. But unfortunately he wouldn't
agree to an on the record interview for this podcast.
So in the meantime, we'll hear from a lot of
people who know Kabir and know his legacy.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
He's a fifth round draft pick who's undersize for his position,
yet rookie defensive end caber Baja Bia Miller.
Speaker 10 (09:30):
That's a mouthful.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
In April two thousand, the Green Bay Packers drafted Kabir.
Speaker 10 (09:35):
He was just a young, naive guy that asked a
ton of questions.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
This is former Packers head coach Mike Sherman.
Speaker 10 (09:42):
He gave great effort and kind of drove his teammates
a little bit crazy because he's a little bit different
than everybody else in that way. But a good person,
someone you like to talk to because he was always
had a smile in his face.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Once Kabir got to Green Bay, he and Eileen would
spend hours on the phone together while she was dyll
in California. This is back in the days when long
distance calls still cost extra. There was definitely something there,
but as a devout Christian, Eileen wasn't ready to take
the next step with someone who wasn't on the same page.
And then one day she got one of those fancy
(10:16):
long distance calls.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I remember when he called me and he says, all right,
I don't want to tell you this. He goes, but
I became a Christian, you know, gave my life to Jesus.
And he goes, but I'm and this is the funny thing.
He's like, But I'm not going to be outspoken like you.
I'm not going to share my faith like you.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Kabir didn't convert for Eileen, but in the course of
their conversations they talked about a lot of things, including
Eileen's faith. And when Kabir got to Green Bay, he
was mentored by someone who he really looked up to,
who was a devout Christian, and these conversations inspired him
and changed him. And when Eileen heard his news, it
changed her too.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And that's where at the time for me, it was
like God opened my eyes to like, Okay, this is
the man for you.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
From there everything happened pretty fast.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
The first time I came to Green Bay was the
day we got married. So I'm flying at eleven. I
think he had a break from practice. We go get
married at a small side chapel at Green Bay Community Church.
We actually had loner rings because of the rings that
he was like trying to make weren't ready, so we
didn't even get married with rings.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
After a whirlwind wedding, Eileen had to move her entire
life from sunny Sokal to the frozen tundra.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Everybody is wearing green. I was like, whoa, this is weird.
They are like ten years behind, like the hair, the accents.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Eileen wasn't quite prepared for the unique brand of Midwestern
culture that Green Bay is famous for. She had always
lived in bigger cities, and now she was in a
place where the latest fashions came from the pro shop.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I was like this, I am about to enter a
whole different world of just it's weird.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Football had been a big part of Eileen's world, but
in Wisconsin, football isn't just a hobby or an interest.
It's an entire way of life. All over the city
you can find garage, door murals, and painted fences featuring
a great player or a memorable tackle. The streets are
named for legendary Packers. There's Mike McCarthy, Way, Bart Star Drive,
Lombardi Avenue, and it's impossible to go anywhere in this
(12:25):
city without seeing someone sporting the green and gold.
Speaker 10 (12:28):
It's everything to everybody.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Here's former head coach Mike Sherman again.
Speaker 10 (12:32):
No, I felt a lot of responsibility to the fans
of the green Bay Packers, and we go out and
win every single game, particularly at home, but all across
the state. You've had people in the stadium, in the
parking lot, in their driveways, in their garages watching it
on TV, just waiting for the Packers to win a
football game.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
I've been to most NFL cities and I'm telling you
there's nothing that compares to green Bay.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
There is a historical market over there. I don't know
if you've seen any of these in Green Bay yet.
There's a thing called the Packer Heritage Trail.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
This is Jeff ash He worked as a writer and
editor for the Green Bay Press Gazette for twenty five years,
and he's a self professed historian of Green Bay.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
There's a series of historical markers in various places. I
think that was just City.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Stadium, City Stadium as in the home of the Packers
from nineteen twenty five to nineteen fifty six. The markers
actually covered twenty five sites around the city dedicated to
all things Packers. Our producer Buffy Gorilla spot's the historical
marker outside the church where Hall of Fame coach Vince
Lombardi went to daily Mass.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
This is where the Lombardies went to church. He was
a devout Catholic and he would arrive eight minutes before
eight am on weekdays, park in the back lot and
enter the church through a side door.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Now that he was saved, Kabir got spiritually involved with
the football community. He was going to the Packer's weekly
Bible study, and after Eileen moved to Green Bay, she
went along too. Eileen says it didn't take long for
Kabir to go from a quiet Christian to a very
outspoken one.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Once he came to the truth, it was like, all right,
I'm going to debate and fight for Christianity, and so
that's what he did.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He got so into the debates with his teammates that
Eileen had to step in as a referee.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I'm the good companies of bad cop. I would be
trying to kind of temper things or diffuse things or
put out like these fires, and I'd be like, oh
my gosh, that comer, what are you doing? What are
you saying?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Even with his fellow Christian teammates.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
So there was a lot of the Christians that were going,
what is he doing?
Speaker 8 (14:42):
He was vocal, very vocal.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Fellow former packer again, Mike Montgomery.
Speaker 8 (14:47):
Yeah, he tried to save everybody. But that was the
type of guy to Beer was. He was a guy
who wanted the best for everybody. So he would talk
to everybody and see where they're at spiritually to give
him on the right tracks.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
But there was no letting up anyone, and everyone was
a prospective convert, even Bob McGinn, a longtime Packers reporter.
Speaker 11 (15:09):
Sometimes you had to wade through a lot of stuff
before you get Before I could pin him down on
the football, he wanted to hand me religious pamphlets, or
he wanted to talk to me, Bob Bob, and he
wanted to talk to me about his faith or religion
or my faith. And I said, caam here, I only
got like ten more minutes in this locker room today.
(15:31):
I said, I'm sorry. We all got our own views
on a long religion. I said, I'm sorry, I don't
want to discuss that with you. Can we just please
talk football? And he would kind of smile and he'd
go along with him. Then he'd answer my questions. But
this happened a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Talking religion with Bob was a non starter, but there
was someone in the Packers organization whose job it was
to engage with this passionate young player. All right, so
we're on our next stop.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Tell me where we are.
Speaker 12 (16:00):
We're seeing Father Jim, who was the Packers priest for
a long.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Time and during all of the years that kuld be
played There.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Are you so good to see you, Buffy.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Football is so intertwined with the culture that people here
half jokingly say it's part of their religion. And as
it turns out, religion and sports are kind of a
two way street.
Speaker 9 (16:26):
You swing a cat in the city of Green Bay
and it's going to land on Catholic church properties somewhere.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Father Jim Baroniac was the Packers Catholic chaplain for years.
If you didn't know that football chaplains were a thing,
they totally are. Most NFL teams have at least one
to provide religious services to players. Buffy and I met
Father Jim at his church. Our Lady of Lords, come
on in, you guys.
Speaker 9 (16:47):
I'm Calin Lichton left there.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And when he welcomes us, he's wearing his white robe
and he gives us both a warm handshake. Then he
leads us into his office, which is decorated with a
mashup of religious iconography and autograph football and helmets.
Speaker 9 (17:02):
My Green Bay Packer helmet, you'll see it is signed
by our three quarterbacks, our three Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
Up in the center is Bart Starr, to the left
is Brett Favre, and to the right is Aaron Rodgers.
So while that's probably worth an awful lot of money,
(17:23):
I knew all three of those figures very well and
love them all dearly.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
His job with the Packers meant Father Jim ministered to
the whole team, and after Kabir converted to Christianity, he
was eager to have deep theological conversations with people like
the Packers priest.
Speaker 9 (17:40):
There's this period of enlightenment that one has, whether you
are Protestant or Catholic or Muslim, that when you fall
in love with the faith, you are on fire for
the faith, and sometimes there's no stopping such people. Perhaps
I had a little that apostolic zeal when I was
first ordained a priest. Here I come to save the day,
and then all the sudden you discover maybe the world
(18:01):
doesn't need saving the way I thought, you know what
I mean. And so with Kaber being so on fire
with his newfound faith, I think he was out to
share it, to evangelized, to spread it, and to recruit.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Kaber was constantly trying to engage Father Jim.
Speaker 9 (18:18):
Is it okay that I would come and meet you
on Tuesday, player day off, for instance?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And Father Jim being Father Jim, he said yes.
Speaker 9 (18:27):
And sure enough he would come. And I think Kaber
would get a kick out of this, and he would
agree that when he would come and visit, that would
be for hours long duration. As you can tell, I
have no problem carrying on a conversation. Kaber could go
much longer and much further than I could in a conversation,
so he was there for the long haul on several occasions.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
One on one. Father Jim didn't mind these debates, but
that wasn't enough for Caber. He became more and more
committed to his own beliefs into challenging the belief of
those around him, no matter how uncomfortable it made anyone else.
Speaker 9 (19:04):
I remember coming home one night from the Arizona Cardinal game.
Do the math. You know, that's a long flight.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's usually the time that players take to unwind or
fall asleep, just take a moment to themselves, but not Kabir.
Speaker 9 (19:20):
There were men of the Jewish tradition on our flight,
and he was pressing me for answers as to what
would happen with their salvation. That's when I knew it
became extraordinarily uncomfortable for me and many other people with
an earshot of our seats, because I was trying to
(19:41):
be very sensitive to his needs to what he was
holding to be true. At the same time, these people
that are on the flight with us are extraordinarily good men.
So Kabir was very upset with me, and I think
he thought that I was giving too much of a
political answer or a cop out that I would not
(20:02):
condemn them to hell.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
But Kabir didn't just have these conversations with Father Jim.
He would have them in the locker room.
Speaker 12 (20:11):
Did any of the players ever come to you and say,
I'm having an issue with how he can't talk about
anything else yor like. Did you ever actually personally hear
those concerns or complaints.
Speaker 9 (20:23):
Yes, yes, I had heard that several times.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Kaber even told me that during training camp one year,
there was a night where he got into a heated
debate with some of his teammates. He told them that
if the locker room blew up right then that ninety
nine percent of the players on his team would go
to hell. After that, Kabir said, Then quarterback Aaron Rodgers
turned on him. Kabir claims Rogers said, if this is
(20:49):
what a Christian looks like, I don't want anything to
do with it. Kabier showed no signs of toning it down,
and pretty soon he was going to take things to
the next level. More on that in just a minute
Stay with us. For KGB, being devout meant being on
the straight and narrow, not drinking or doing drugs or
(21:10):
even swearing. He also believed strongly in what some would
call the sanctity of marriage, one man, one woman, forever,
no stepping out, no breakups, so teammates going through divorces
were an easy target for his judgment. One teammate, who
I interviewed for my Sports Illustrated Stories, told me that
he remembers Kabir saying the blood is on your head.
(21:33):
That teammate wanted to remain anonymous because he was worried
about backlash. He said other teammates tried their best to
avoid Kabir's probing about their personal lives. No one wanted
to get trapped in a Jesus talk. But none of
it mattered on game day because KGB was crucial to
the Packers defense. Kabir became a fan favorite, both on
(21:54):
the field and off. Everyone around town knew who he was.
He supported Green Bay charities and made public appearances, and
when he retired in two thousand and eight, he did
something very few Packers players do. He stayed in Green
Bay and he put down roots. He and Eileen decided
to build a house.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
We got this property, started building. He was kind of
like the GM of the project.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
And the project was ambitious, twenty one thousand square feet
with an indoor pool and a basketball court. In the
process of building, Kabir kept pushing to add more, an
extra bathroom, another kitchen. He wanted this home to be
part of their ministry so they could help anyone who
needed space, and they called it Praise Land in honor
of their shared faith. Their family was growing and Kabir
(22:45):
had started a second career.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
He was already working as a financial.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Advisor and things were looking good.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I thought for the most part, I thought we had
transitioned very well.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And that's a pretty big deal because it's not a given.
After the sound of cheering fans fade away. Players lose structure,
camaraderie and a game that is all consuming. Their source
of income is cut off, their bodies are worn down,
and some are dealing with the aftermath of head injuries.
Life after football is tough, especially because when you're retired
(23:19):
by age thirty, you still have a lot of life
to live. As Kabir built up his new identity from
NFL player to ex NFL player, his intensity never went away.
He was still ambitious in his career, even if it
was a new one, and he was just as fervent
(23:41):
about his faith. His day to day routine may have
looked a little different, but he'd still dress in the
clothes Iileen laid out for him, he'd eat the breakfast
she'd cook for him, and then climb up the stairs
and retreat to his office. Since settling into retirement, Kabir
had a lot more time, and as he was messing
around on his computer and looking at YouTube video in
between meetings with clients, he found a channel that piqued
(24:03):
his interest big time. One day in the spring of
twenty seventeen, Kabir asked Eileen to come into his office
to show her one of those videos, and from the
computer's tenny speakers, she heard a man's deep.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Voice checking his out, honey, checking his out.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Behind the man is a woman wearing a long sleeved
black shirt. Her arms are crossed at her chest, and
she also wears a black head covering with a gray
floral print. The man is the head of Straightway Pastor
Charles Dowell, and the woman is his wife. Carol Dowel
is filming her for a video. It's called Pastor Dowell's
Wife answers a woman wife, roll.
Speaker 9 (24:42):
Ah, I've demanded a commander for you to stay at home.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (24:45):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Dowel peppers his wife with questions about her responsibility in
the couple housework and looking after him in his every
need to You had.
Speaker 6 (24:54):
To cook, you had to clean, you had to rear
the children, take care of me.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
It wasn't so much that Eileen disagreed with what Charles
and Carol Dowell said.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
For the most part, I agree with her.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
The cooking and cleaning is just part of being a woman.
Keeping your home. You want your home to be clean.
You want when the head of the house comes home
for things to be nice, neat, tidy for because he's
worked hard. You want him to be able to come
home and relax in his castle.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
At the same time, there was just things that she
was saying that it I'm like, okay, well to reach
her own and I don't like making judgment calls.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
But she couldn't quite shake the way it was said,
all of those yes sirs from a wife to a husband.
It wasn't what she was used to and it wasn't
what they as a couple had ever done. And Eileen
definitely didn't know that Kabir had already been in contact
with this man. Over the last couple of years, there
had been hints that Kabir's beliefs were evolving, and they
(25:54):
also didn't sit very well with Eileen, and that really
became clear to her when, after having six in a row,
she gave birth to their seventh child in twenty fourteen.
Kabir's new beliefs created friction in their marriage, but Eileen
remembers one moment in particular that just gutted her even
more than the request for submissiveness in their new family routines.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
We never found out what sex were having, and every
time we would have the baby, Kabir would say yes,
and I knew it was a boy. So number seven
I just close, I'm just having a baby. And I
remember there was none that it was like, it's a girl.
Just like that, it's a girl. And I remember like
(26:39):
opening my eyes and turning him and I was like,
please be happy. It was just so weird, you know,
And it was no, I am. But it wasn't the
same for Kabir.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
A daughter wasn't in the plans.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
He would always say, yeah, I'm gonna have twelve sons.
I'm gonna have the twelve Sons of Israel, and he
would always refer to that.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Kabir wasn't ready to raise a girl. It was all
new to him and he had to figure it out
as they went. And some of the things he decided
really shocked Eileen, Like when their daughter was still really little.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
He was like, you know what, like, our daughter is
going to wear a headcover from now on.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He wanted their infant to wear a head covering, which
might be common in some communities but had never been
done in theirs.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And so she was little, so she was still breastbeing
and actually at first it was like, when we pray,
she's going to have her head covered. So when we
were at church, I completely disagreed, but I was trying
to be submissive, and so I'm holding the baby and
when they're praying, I would just put the blanket on
and take it right back off. And I was like
a little bit rebelling too.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You know, this wasn't enough for Caber. The blanket wasn't
cutting it anymore. He wanted her to get a real headcover.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Everything revolved around this headcover on a two or three
year old girl. That was definitely obviously a point of contention.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It may have started with the head covering, but it
didn't stop there. Kaber also printed out and gave Eileen
long articles on being a submissive and respectful wife. He
started asking the family to strictly observe the Sabbath from
Friday at dusk to Saturday at dusk.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
He was like, no TV, no outside, like shutting everything down.
And so for my kids, I mean my older kids,
they would just sleep the day away because it was
nothing to do. We would do Bible study the next morning,
and at that time it was already so tense.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Even though Kabir had introduced a lot of new ideas
to the family, up until that point the spring of
twenty seventeen, he had kept the Straightway videos mostly to himself.
He knew that Eileen was uneasy about all of it,
and she was working behind the scenes to keep their
kids in the dark for as long as possible. But
it couldn't stay like that forever.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
There was one day where Kaber had asked me, Hey,
can I show them Straightway stuff? And I was like, career,
I think we need to talk about this first, And
so that's what we agreed on that we wouldn't do that.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Eileen had researched Straightway herself. She says she came across
a website where people who said they'd been part of
the group wrote about their experiences, and she didn't like
what she found.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
It was allegations of all these different complaints about like
gun confiscation, families being abused or messed up. It was
just pages and pages of these testimonies, and I'm like,
what in the world. And I remember talking about it.
I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Even though it was just one website. It left her
feeling really uneasy, but she and Kabir had agreed not
to introduce the kids to Straightway, at least not until
she could figure out exactly what was going on and
what to believe. After months of friction, Eileen saw this
as a small win, a little packed between them to
keep Straightway and its YouTube channel at a distance. It
(29:56):
wasn't perfect, but it was manageable, and the family was
still spending a lot of time together and keeping their
own routine, like Saturday morning donuts.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I went, I left to get the donuts, come home
and it's quiet. I'm like, what's where is everybody?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Eileen looked around and then her voices coming from Kabir's office.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
He has a lock on his office door that you
need a combination, and at that point I did not
have the combination. To get in.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Eileen literally had to get permission to enter a room
in her own house.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I couldn't just walk in. It was like knock knock.
I had to wait to be let in.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
When Kabir let her in, she saw her children sitting
on the floor of his office watching TV and on
the screen was Pastor Dowell. Her family was watching a
live stream of a Straightway service from Lafayette, Tennessee, Eileen's
stomach sank.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And as I'm sitting and listening because I wasn't trying
to cause a rocus in front of my kids. I'm
listening to this sermon or this live speaking and I'm
going he is totally talking about you.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Right now, right in the middle of this sermon being
washed by people all over the country. Eileen immediately recognized
that Pastor Dowell was not so slyly referencing Kabir and
their family, and so did one of her kids.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And I hear one of them say so, Dad, So
when he was talking about the millionaire with seven kids,
was he talking about us?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Eileen found this all really disturbing. Kabir had broken the pact.
Straightway's pastor was alluding to her family and sermons, and
she was afraid her husband was getting used for his
money and his status by this pastor who was miles
away and commanding so much of his time. It felt
like her life as she knew it was slipping away,
and Kaber was growing into someone she didn't recognize anymore.
(31:45):
And it wasn't just her. Their friends were worried too.
They missed that goofy, nerdy, fun guy that they'd hang
out with. They couldn't relate to the version of Kabir,
who seemed tougher on his kids and more isolated than
ever before. But nothing seemed to make difference. All of
that religious fervor that fathered Jim described earlier, it was
now focused on straightway and there was no changing Kaber's mind.
(32:09):
He was on a new path and he was ready
to bring his wife and kids along with him. But
Eileen wasn't so sure she wanted to go. There was
a pre vacation buzz of excitement in the air at Praiseland.
Eileen was getting everything ready for that trip to Washington,
(32:30):
d C. But Kabir wasn't. Last minute, he had changed
the plan.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
He says, We're not going to go to Washington, d C.
We're going to go to Tennessee. Oh, Michael's in Tennessee.
And that's when he says, oh, it's downing stream with ministries.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
After all she had seen and heard and all the
research she had done, after she had walked in on
Cabir blatantly ignoring their agreement about what they would and
wouldn't expose their kids to Eileen finally hit a breaking point.
She told him she pleaded with him not to take
the family to ten See. He could see how upset
she was, so reluctantly he agreed, but not for long.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And then the next day it's like, Eileen, I'm taking
the two oldest. And then the next day is Eileen,
I'm taking all the kids with or without you. Then
there was no way I was going to leave my
kids with him, Like if they were going to go,
I was.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Going to go.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And this is when she started squirrelling away their clothes,
stacking them up in big laundry baskets that could be
your thought were destined for Tennessee, but Eileen had other plans.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I knew that he was going to be an Appleton,
which was thirty minutes away, and he had a meeting there.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Eileen had this small window of time. Kabir was at
a meeting and it was a Wednesday. Every Wednesday, Eileen
would take the kids out for ice cream with a
group of moms and their kids. So it was this
perfect opportunity she could leave for the ice cream date
like everything was normal, But it wasn't a normal day.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
It was around eleven o'clock, where I'm like, okay, guys,
lott up, let's go. I told my two oldest so
one was fifteen and when the other one was thirteen,
I said, hey, guys, you needed your watches here because
they had GPS on it. I also had to leave
my phone. I already get a you know, one of
those like whatever can they call the trackphone.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Only Eileen's closest confidants knew her destination. When Kabir got home,
all he would find was a letter from his wife
saying she hadn't kidnapped the kids, but that she wouldn't
put them in a dangerous situation by bringing them to straightway.
She piled her kids in the car with all their
clothes and laundry baskets and started to drive.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
I just remember like bursting into tears, and I had
not done that so long. You're in that mode of
just protecting your kids and get everything situated.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Even as she was driving away, Eileen kept thinking.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
He's going to come back to senses, and obviously that
never happened.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Eileen had come to the difficult realization that her life
would probably never be the same again. It was Kabir
who had changed, but it was Eileen who had to
deal with the fallout. And it turns out this was
just the beginning. Pastor Dowell and Straightway Truth Ministry had
influence on other NFL players too, and so many others.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Right at the end of the summer, and they're like,
it's like, hey, it's sister Lisa, go ahead and move
on down there. And we're like, oh, okay, that's that's
pretty cool.
Speaker 9 (35:15):
There isn't a whole lot to say about him other
than they're called a cult and that scares the shit
out of people.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
I'm sorry, it does. It does.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
That's next time on Spiraled. Spiraled is a production of
Sports Illustrated Studios, I Heart Podcasts and One on One
(35:44):
Studios podcast The show was reported by me Kaylen Taylor,
with additional reporting by senior producer Buffy Gorilla. Writing service
provided by Buffy Gorilla and Jen Kinney, sound design, mixing
and mastering by Charlie Kaier. Sarah Sneath is our fact checker,
Scott Stone is our executive producer, and Daniel Waxman is
Director of Podcast Development and podcast Production Manager at One
(36:05):
on One Studios. At iHeart Podcasts, Shaun Tuton is our
Executive producer. Special thank you to Michelle Newman, David Glasser,
and David Hudgin from One on One Studios. For more
shows from iHeart Podcasts, go visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Kalyn Kahler
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