Why I want the Seahawks to win!
Almost everyone knows that Super Bowl XL is coming up this Sunday and although the Patriots will not be going for history (being the only team to win 3 Super Bowls in a row), I will be rooting enthusiastically for one of the team. The Seattle Seahawks have a rookie middle linebacker that is making a bunch noise around the league because his big-play capabilities and great understanding of the game. The player that I am talking is Lofa Tatupu and he is the reason why I want the Seahawks to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
Every Thanksgiving my brother Zac and I go to Wrentham because my father's family has dinner at my cousin Bret Tolivaisa's house. For 2000 dinner, Bret, who was a sophomore quarterback for King Philip Regional High, was telling about one of his teammates, who was just a beast of a player, his name was Lofa Tatupu. Lofa was the starting middle linebacker and quarterback (what a combination of positions) for King Philip. The only reason why Lofa went to King Philip instead of a prep school was that his father, Moses Tatupu (who played for the Patriots and was a great special teams player) was the head coach.
Bret was also telling me about how there were reporters from the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald because he was Division III defensive player of the year. Anyway, most of the reporters came away stunned on how good this Division III player was. What was also fascinating about Lofa was the fact that he was the unquestioned leader of the King Philip football team, mainly because he lead in the two positions were leadership is required. However, Lofa really was not that much of a quarterback, because of the fact whenever "he got rushed, he would tuck it and often there would a receiver down the field who was wide open and his dad would tell him 'throw the ball, Lofa.' However no-one wanted to tackle him because he was just a beast," said Bret. Because of Lofa's desire to run the ball, my cousin ended up having more passing yards than him. Lofa led King Philip to an 8-3 record in a very tough Hockomock league.
Despite his jaw dropping ability, Lofa was not recruited at all by ANY Division I-A college after his senior year, mainly because King Philip was not known as a great football school and it was in Division III, which [coaches from Div. I-A] questioned if Lofa could play against tougher competition. It turned out that all of the Div. I-A coaches were seriously wrong about Lofa's ability. After graduating, Lofa decided to attend the University of Maine.
The next year at my family's Thanksgiving party, Zac asked Bret how Lofa was doing and he said that "he was tearing it up at Maine, I think he's leading the team in tackles and he was named conference rookie of the year." I was amazed because I thought that only hockey players are the only good athletes at Maine. After that year, according to Bret, Lofa told his dad that "this is too easy", so they decided to travel the West Coast to see if anyone was interested.
After the 2001 season, the USC Trojans went 6-6, including a humiliating Las Vegas Bowl loss to Utah; Head Coach Pete Carroll needed some help, especially on defense. USC was an interesting candidate for Lofa because of the fact that his father starred as a Trojan football player himself. As they were visiting USC, the Tatupus met Coach Carroll and the usual coach-recruit talk started. Things at first did not seem hopefully for the Tatupus, although Moses did tell Lofa "I went here, I'll get you in". However once the talk was over, the Tatupus thought that they were going to go to Oregon State (which the next college they were going to visit), until Coach Carroll gave Lofa a commitment letter to play for the Trojans. Lofa signed and he was following in the footsteps of his father.
Since transfers are required to sit out a year (and the fact that Lofa injured him knee), Lofa was redshirted for the 2002 in which USC won the Orange Bowl and quarterback Carson Palmer won the Heisman Trophy. For the 2003 season, I watched the Trojans' season opener against Auburn and when starting line-ups were introduced, I noticed that Lofa Tatupu was starting at middle linebacker. I did not watch much of the game because USC was killing the #4 ranked Tigers (in fact they pitched a shut-out, 23-0), thanks to Lofa's 12 tackles. As the season went on, I noticed that Lofa was a great player maker and always seemed to be around the football. As expected, Bret would not shut-up about how good Lofa was playing when the 2003 dinner came around, saying "he's leading the team in tackles (which had about 6-7 future NFL players) and second on the team with interceptions, he just killing people". Also, my uncle Mike (Bret's dad) predicted that he was going to be drafted as well. For the 2004 Rose Bowl, USC was facing Michigan and I watching Lofa pretty closely and I was impressed again. He had 12 tackles and a 26-yard interception and helped USC, in a big way; win in the Rose Bowl and a share of the National Championship.
In the 2004 season, Lofa was even more impressive as he, again, led the team in tackles with over a hundred and (from what I saw) was doing a great job shredding blocks as USC won the National Championship again and Lofa was named 1st Team All-American. For the two years I watched Lofa play at USC, I figured he was going to be a great pro, however I was unsure if most NFL general managers felt the same way. Going into the draft, Lofa was expected to be a 4th round draft choice mainly because he had a knee problem, he was a bit undersized for a linebacker (he was 5'11" and weighted under 230 lbs.) and played behind a great defensive line. Lofa, himself, thought that was going to be a 3rd round draft choice. However, the Seattle Seahawks did not buy into that junk. In fact the Seahawks were so impressed by his relentless and game-changing play that they traded their second and two fourth rounds picked for Carolina's second round pick which was only nine spots greater than the Seahawks' second. Most of the football world was shocked including me; I thought he should have gone in the first round.
Thanks to Lofa's determination and athleticism, he won the starting middle linebacker job. He started the 2005 as an unknown rookie; by the end of the season he had every NFL insider drooling over him. Because he played in the Pac-10 conference (a big passing conference) and his head coach was a former NFL head coach, he did not have a hard time adjust to NFL pass defensives and he had a pair of hands that many receivers dreamed of possessing. He used his small size as an advantage, as many offensive lineman whiffed when trying to block him, because he was so quick and so small that he was an elusive target for many players. However, the thing that impressed the insiders and myself the most was the fact that he knew enough about the Seahawks' defense that he made all the defensive calls and adjusted all the defensive lineman accordingly, something that is unheard of by a rookie. The most memorable game he played was on Monday Night Football against the Eagles in which he return an interception, 38 yards for a touchdown.
He ended up leading the Seahawks in tackles with 104 and was tied for second in interception with 3 picks. Also, he finished second in the NFL rookie of the year voting (finishing behind San Diego's Shawne Merriman, who I think only won because of the fact that he had a phenomenal game against the Colts when San Diego handed Indianapolis its first loss of the season) and was selected to go the Pro Bowl. In playoffs, Lofa continued to show why he was a great player, by recording 8 tackles against Washington and intercepting a Jake Delhomme pass against Carolina in the NFC title game.
As Super Bowl XL kicks off I hope that Lofa Tatupu plays the kind of a game that I know he can, make big plays, stop Pittsburgh's physical rushing attack, make live for any wide receiver that crosses his zone and perhaps pick-off a Ben Roethlisberger pass. As Bret told me, "when New England went down, King Philip turned into the biggest Seahawks' town." Well, I hope that King Philip will celebrate a third straight Super Bowl victory.
One last fact, Lofa and I share the same birthday, November 15th.