NFL DraftProspect Interviews

2020 NFL Draft Prospect Interview: Jonathan Kanda, TE, Marist College

Marist College tight end Jonathan Kanda is hoping for a huge senior year and I would not doubt it if he has a career year.
  • Name: Jonathan Kanda
  • Height: 6’4”
  • Weight: 235
  • Position: TE
  • College: Marist College
  • Twitter: @jonathanKanda

Tell us about your hometown, and what you love most about it?

•    KINSHASA, Congo. Our culture is what I love the most about it.

List these three in order of importance and why: Film Study, Strength and Conditioning and Practice?

•    Film, Practice and strength & conditioning

What do you worry about, and why?

•    Letting my nation down since they’re all rooting for me

Give me an example of when you failed at something. How did you react and how did you overcome failure?

•    My first two years of playing football were actually really tough on me, the lack of knowledge held me back from being the athlete I wanted to be on the field. So I then bought my first game of Madden and spent nights on YouTube watching Walter Payton highlights as well as other NFL players. After watching their highlights, I would go and replicate it on the field.

What do your teammates say is your best quality?

•    If I was to guess, I would say my sense of family, I treat every teammate of mine as a brother from kicker to QB1

Who is the best player you have ever played against in college?

•    Jamal Agnew

What would your career be if you couldn’t play football?

•    I would open an organization that would facilitate athletes from Congo and across Africa to get a shot to play college sports in America

Room, desk, and car – which do you clean first?

•    Room for sure

If there was a disaster and you could either save three strangers or one family member, which would you choose and why?

•    A family member, because at the end of the day family members are the ones that will love you during good or bad times.

If you could be any television or movie character, who would you be and why?

•    William Wallace, because the story is not fiction and he was a patriot fighting for his loved ones

Tell me about your biggest adversity in life and how you’ve dealt with or overcome it?

•    The language was definitely my biggest adversity so I then started reading a lot and watching tv shows with subtitles

What is your most embarrassing moment?

•    Answering most of the questions I couldn’t understand by saying “My name is Jonathan”

What was the most memorable play of your collegiate career?

•    A pancake block on the edge that led the QB to walk in the end zone untouched

What song best describes your work ethic?

•    Ma destinée by Youssoupha. A French rapper also from the Congo that talks about the daily struggles immigrant kids go through in a new country. By his lyrics, he gives us the strength to keep our heads up and keep going.

What is the most important trait you can have (Physical or Non-Physical) to help you succeed at the next level?

•    I am Congo made, where nothing is given but earned.

If you could bring one person back from the dead for one day, who would it be and why?

•    I believe that everything happens for a reason and there is no place for living creatures to mess with the dead’s

If you were to open a dance club, what would you name it?

•    “Le club des patrons”  bosses club

Who is the most underrated player in the NFL?

•    Doug Baldwin of course!

Would you rather be liked or respected, and why?

•    I’d like to be respected, we live in a world where people would hate you for not conforming to the way they see or do things.

What player who had his career derailed by off-field issues do you feel for the most and why?

•    I do not have a preference, I feel for all of them. It is hard for all of them. Life is like a pen, you can scratch off your mistakes but not erase them.

Do you love to win, or hate to lose?

•    I love to win, Losing sucks but they all come as lessons

Who has been the biggest influence on your life and explain why?

•My parents. They gave up everything they had back in Congo for us to have a better shot in life. I will always be grateful.

Damond Talbot

NFL Draft Diamonds was created to assist the underdogs playing the sport. We call them diamonds in the rough. My name is Damond Talbot, I have worked extremely hard to help hundreds of small school players over the past several years, and will continue my mission. We have several contributors on this site, and if they contribute their name and contact will be in the piece above. You can email me at nfldraftdiamonds@gmail.com

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