Emmanuel Acho: Backup linebacker, primo word nerd

EAGLES special teams ace Chris Maragos had just been told that he had a doppelganger driving around South Philadelphia. Maragos replied, "What's that mean?" Emmanuel Acho never even looked up from his smartphone. "Means the guy looks like you, dude," Acho explained.

Maragos rubbed his shaved head and raised his eyebrows. He was as impressed with Acho's vocabulary as he was with having a double.

Acho is just full of surprises. The Eagles cut him on final cut day after each of the past two training camps. Both times, Acho wound up on the active roster before midseason.

This year they'd stashed him on the practice squad after the cut. They signed him to the roster when backup linebacker Najee Goode was injured in the first game of the season. Then, when starting inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks injured his calf in Game 2, Acho took over and shared the starting job with Casey Matthews. He had eight tackles against the Rams and 49ers.

Even before this great good fortune found him, Acho was a humble, happy man, imbued with his parents' benevolence. Acho told Marcus Hayes that he is not as smart as his brother Sam, who plays for the Cardinals, but he might have the better vocabulary.

Q How did you know what doppelganger means, and who is yours?

It was a Facebook thing for a while, back in '08 or '09. People would make their doppelganger their profile picture for a week.

Mine would be my brother, Sam. There's [also] a dude who plays now for the University of Texas who might be mine: Miles Onyegbule. Even Coach [Charlie] Strong used to get us confused.

Q Your dad, Sonny, is a psychologist. You have your sports management degree and you're working on a master's in sports psychology. How close are you, and why?

It's a 30-credit-hour program at Texas. I've got about 15 hours down. The NFL pays for up to $15,000 for post-graduate work, but only 2 percent of players capitalize. I figured I might as well capitalize on it while I can.

It already has helped me. Positive self-talk, words of affirmation - I've already used so many techniques that I've learned in class. A lot of people use them subconsciously. I just realize the title for what I was already doing: goal-setting, goal-monitoring, how you set your standards, making your goals attainable.

Q Your mother, Christie, is a nurse practitioner, as is your eldest sibling, Chichi. Your other older sister, Stephanie, is a Ph.D. candidate at Texas Tech. Who's the smartest of the Achos?

That's tough. It's probably between Sam and my sister Chichi. I would take my dad or Chichi if we were stranded on an island. Not Sam. Sam's book-smart. He's a book genius. I'd take my dad, because he's already come to America with nothing and made it.

Q Before you were even born, your parents, from Nigeria, were giving back to their homeland. Does that make you proud?

Oh, yeah. About 25 years ago they started an organization called Living Hope Ministries. We go back to Africa every year with a group of about 40 people from all over the U.S. - medical people, lay people - and do medical work for free. They know where they came from. I think I calculated that we did $1.28 million worth of free service over the 10-day stretch we were there this past summer. And, honestly, to spread the gospel.

We're a strong Christian family. My dad's a pastor, and he started a church called the Living Hope Bible Fellowship in Richardson, outside of Dallas.

Q You say Sam's smarter than you. If Sam and you were to play Scrabble, who would win? Scrabble? With real words? He would probably win.

Wait, you know what? I've played it on my phone a lot. I know all the cheat words, like "qi." So, I would probably win. There's probably an "xi" as well, but "X" is only worth 8 points. "Q" is worth 10.

Q Your parents emigrated in the late 1970s and realized the American dream. Does "Acho" have a meaning?

Actually, it was "Iheanacho." My dad Americanized it when he came here. I don't know what it means.

Q You've got to be kidding.

[Loosely, it means, "What we are looking for."]