Max Iheanachor might not wear his emotions on his sleeve, but he wears his journey all over his body.
Every tattoo on Iheanachor's towering frame tells a story. And given Iheanachor's long road to the NFL, it's a good thing he has a 6-foot-6, 321-pound offensive tackle-sized canvas. Most prominent is the religious imagery and scripture across his sternum, covering his chest and his heart, which is where it starts and ends for the Steelers' 2026 first-round pick, No. 21 overall.
"I just look at it as God's plan," Iheanachor said. "He writes the story for us and we just live it. I'm just waking up every day, being grateful no matter what."
For the culture
Under the cross, Iheanachor's abdomen reads NAIJA with a backdrop of palm trees. That's short for Nigeria, Iheanachor's home country, halfway across the world from where his family would settle in the United States.
Long before that, though, Iheanachor was growing up in Anambra, a state in the southern part of the country. The Iheanachors lived in Onitsha, the most populous city in Anambra, but Max's mother was from a smaller town called Umueri, while his father hailed from a different state entirely, Imo.
Iheanachor's grandparents still lived in villages, where he and his younger brother and two sisters would go visit every year for a few weeks during Christmas break. They'd hang out with their cousins, run around with the local kids and head to the rivers and lakes to go swimming.
"Some of the stuff you see online is not all true," Iheanachor said of Nigeria. "There are cities out there, as well as the villages. Mainly, I was a city kid, but I was all around."
For the NFL Draft broadcast, Iheanachor proudly announced himself in Igbo, one of many languages spoken in Nigeria. He didn't know where he'd end up when that night began, but he knows his roots are in West Africa, where football couldn't be farther from his mind.
In his social media profiles, Iheanachor has an emoji with the green-and-white flag representing his homeland. In Igbo, his surname means what everyone seeks.
"I want to be the person from Nigeria, born and raised, who came out here and was able to go back and give people opportunities," he said after his Igbo introduction on national television. "Who wouldn't love an opportunity to come to America and chase greatness. I mean, why not?"
During the pre-draft process, Iheanachor added more ink. Now, right above his ode to Nigeria, he has the NFL shield.
As he takes his early steps as a Steeler, fresh off OTAs and his first minicamp, the two symbols are intertwined. The dream and the origin are one.
"He's primed. He's ready," said fellow Steelers tackle Dylan Cook. "There are a couple of things he can work on, but he's a quick learner and he's eager to learn. He's going to be a really good player."
To live and thrive in L.A.
On his left bicep, Iheanachor has 424 in bold numbers. That's the area code for where his family moved to in California, from the west coast of Africa to the west coast of the United States, and from palm trees to more palm trees.
But for Iheanachor, it wasn't straight into Compton. His family's first entry point was actually Atlanta, where they lived for several months before moving to southern California. Iheanachor feels that he owes much to the Los Angeles area, though. Had they stayed in Atlanta, perhaps he would've picked up football sooner, but perhaps he never would've connected with the sport at all.
"Honestly, I feel like L.A. shaped me," he said. "Nigeria, that's what I claim, but what I got to see in L.A., it's part of who I am."
And it wasn't always pretty. Iheanachor and his siblings had watched American movies growing up, but that couldn't adequately prepare them for such a day-to-day transition.
But Iheanachor made it clear there's more to South Central Los Angeles than what's portrayed in music and movies. He even admitted to initially being a bit judgmental of his new surroundings.
"There's also stuff you don't see, that people don't talk about. It has its good and bad," Iheanachor said. "I just learned to treat everybody the same way, with respect, and try not to judge just because I come from a different background."
Iheanachor's parents prioritized education and he enrolled at King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science in Willowbrook, a neighborhood a few miles northwest of Compton. King/Drew didn't even have a football program at the time, which was just fine for a big kid whose first love was soccer, with basketball pushing into the picture.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it wiped out what would've been Iheanachor's senior season on the hardwood. But it opened up a new avenue.
"I don't know his full story, but from what I've heard, he's only been playing football for a few years," Cook said. "That's crazy. Good for him."
Soaking it all in
The full story can't fit on just one arm. On his left, Iheanachor has one of his most recent tattoos, the day he first gave football a try.
It's in roman numerals, VII • XII • MMXX, which equates to July 12, 2020. But that was Iheanachor just scratching the surface. On his right bicep, it reads JUCO PRODUCT, and on the forearm, there's the Arizona State mascot with the number 58, which he wore for the Sun Devils.
East Los Angeles, a two-year college in Monterey Park better known as ELAC, was ground zero for Iheanachor's meteoric rise. Iheanachor was so physically impressive that his AAU basketball coach, Cory DeSanti, convinced him to put down the round ball and pursue a bright future in football. Iheanachor was so naturally gifted that DeSanti's high school friend Bobby Godinez, the head coach at ELAC, saw it too.
The development Iheanachor went through there has been well-documented. It took one year of practicing, then one season of starting, and Iheanachor turned his unmistakable attributes into a big-time college prospect. DeSanti tried to bolster his recruitment and even made a post on X from Dec. 7, 2022, that has aged beautifully.
"Coach take a look at this one," DeSanti wrote to Deion Sanders at Colorado. "Only been playing 2 years … he was a basketball player converted to a tackle, has tremendous feet and hands, will play on Sundays."
Iheanachor ended up signing with Arizona State in the Big 12, a full scholarship in a power conference off of one season playing the sport. Sundays are right around the corner now, and Iheanachor inches closer to proving right DeSanti, Godinez and a slew of coaches who worked with him over the past five years.
Just last week at OTAs, Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy placed an emphasis on putting young players in the spotlight on the field. That meant plenty of chances for Iheanachor to sharpen his skills ahead of training camp.
"He's really talented," said outside linebacker Nick Herbig. "A guy that size who can move, has good hands — I've said this before but I think playing tackle in the NFL as a rookie is one of the hardest things to do. It's just a different game. It's a man's game in there. It's just a different level of intensity and I think he's handled it really well."
Herbig has "high hopes" for Iheanachor. Add him to the list.
When the Steelers hit Chuck Noll Field at Saint Vincent College, Iheanachor will get the chance to block Herbig and T.J. Watt and Jack Sawyer each day. Offensive line coaches James Campen and Jahri Evans will be the latest in the line of people who have helped Iheanachor go from his humble beginnings to the NFL.
The other offensive linemen will lend a hand, as well. Center Zach Frazier had a group of teammates including Iheanachor and Herbig join him back in West Virginia for his youth football camp, plus a sweet trip to Dairy Creme Corner in his hometown of Fairmont.
For a 22-year-old who has ambitions of staging his own camp for kids someday, Iheanachor enjoyed seeing how Frazier did it. He also called it "amazing" how he was only a little more than an hour from UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, but it felt like a whole other side of the country.
Iheanachor can now include Pittsburgh, and soon Latrobe, in the many map dots that brought him from there to here. Just call them Max dots. It takes a village, and in his case, villages.
"Going from Atlanta to L.A., I was like, 'OK, this is a lot different.' Everywhere is different," Iheanachor said. "Arizona is different. Pittsburgh is different. Everybody has their different cultures. Everybody's got different journeys, different lives, so it's just following God's plan at the end of the day."
