Once a star in Surrey, NFL vet Kongbo signs with BC Lions after 2 Grey Cup wins in Winnipeg

Jonathan Kongbo is coming “home” to play for BC Lions.

The CFL team announced the signing of the Holy Cross graduate on Sunday (May 21).

A six-foot-five defensive lineman, Kongbo has played in the NFL and also won two Grey Cup championships with Winnipeg Blue Bombers in recent years.

Last October he dressed for a pair of games with Denver Broncos after signing a reserve/futures deal in January. In a prime-time game against Indianapolis Colts, the Broncos lost 12-9 in overtime, but Kongbo scored a personal goal of making his NFL debut five games into Denver’s season.

Earlier, on New Year’s Eve in 2019, Kongbo signed with San Francisco 49ers but was waived later that year, after training camp.

Now, at age 27, his new deal here with the Lions signals a return to the CFL for Kongbo, who in 2019 was selected in round one (fifth overall) by Winnipeg in the CFL Draft, following a standout career at the University of Tennessee.

While at Holy Cross, Kongbo was something of an accidental football star, a guy who hadn’t played the game until Grade 12 at the Fleetwood-area Catholic school. He’d been a basketball player at Kitsilano Secondary until transferring to Holy Cross, where the Crusaders’ coaches eventually coaxed him to try football, a game he didn’t embrace at first.

Born in Zaire, Konbgo moved with his family to Canada at age five.

RELATED STORY, from 2019: ‘I know where I belong’: Surrey’s ‘King’ Kongbo stoked about CFL pick but still has NFL dreams.