Sierra Leone ➡️ @UTKnoxville Edwin Spillman’s journey is one of resilience, sacrifice & hope Saturday, @MartySmithESPN reports on the remarkable story behind the @Vol_Football linebacker 🏈 9a ET | @CollegeGameDay | ESPN

Xavier Gilliam slings the right tackle like a rag doll, nice collapse on the puller then trigger back out by Edwin Spillman

Excellent job setting the edge by Edwin Spillman, strong reanchor by Jordan Norman

Idk that there are any LB rooms in America more consistent or more in sync with their gap integrity than Tennessee. If there are, there aren’t many.

Tennessee LB Edwin Spillman was just 3 years old growing up in Sierra Leone, when his life would take a turn he never thought possible. Now he plays a game he loves for the family in the stands and the family in his heart ❤️ @MartySmithESPN

His name was Abdul Aman Gi Bindu. He was born on November 5, 2005, in a village called Shanghai, in Sierra Leone. His father grew rice and peanuts. One day his father got on a boat with some other farmers and it capsized. He did not survive. That was the whole income for the family. Gone in an afternoon. His mother, Konima, had three boys and no way to feed them. So she did the thing that no parent should ever have to weigh. She put all three of her sons in an orphanage, because she could not keep them alive at home. They were there about a year. Edwin was seven years old. She did not disappear. She found a way to stay in their lives from a country away. "We'd Skype, and she would give me words of encouragement." Then in 2013, a couple from Nashville named Jeremy and Melissa Spillman adopted all three brothers at once. Melissa has been honest about what that felt like. "It just seemed like such a foreign concept to me to adopt three boys." They did it anyway. He remembers landing in America. "Everybody had posters. People were jumping and screaming. It was a surreal moment." He became Edwin Spillman. His brothers became Nate and Bennett. He grew up in Nashville, went to Lipscomb Academy, and played linebacker for Trent Dilfer, who won a Super Bowl at quarterback and now coaches high school kids in Tennessee. Spillman won two state championships there. He finished with 305 tackles and 49 tackles for loss. As a junior alone he had 101 tackles and 14.5 for loss. MaxPreps All-American. The top ranked prospect in the state. He was a four star recruit, and he picked the Tennessee Volunteers over the Ohio State Buckeyes. His brother Nate plays there too. There is one more thing, and it is the hardest part. In 2020, his birth mother died from complications after surgery. Konima gave away her three sons so they could live. She kept calling them from six thousand miles away for seven years. And she did not get to see what any of them turned into. She never saw him play a down of college football. Edwin redshirted in 2024. In 2025 he took over as a starter when Arion Carter got hurt, and he led Tennessee in tackles. Here is what he does with the money he makes off his name now. He sends it to the Wan Fambul Foundation, which works with families in Sierra Leone. The same country. The same situation his mother was in. "Being able to give back and serve has always been heavy on my heart." Tonight, Neyland Stadium hosts the No. 1 Texas Longhorns, and a linebacker born Abdul Aman Gi Bindu will be out there in orange.

So thankful for the opportunity to share Edwin’s story, and our friends at Tennessee for allowing us to do so! Please visit wanfambul.info to see all of the amazing things that the Spillman family are doing in Sierra Leone.