American Samoans

[bigunreal]

With all the attention being paid to the Steelers' Troy Polamahu, I
started thinking about the number of Samoan players in the NFL. Isn't
this a very, very small ethnic group that seems incredibly
overrepresented in the NFL? Does anyone know exactly how many Samoans
there are? I think we can compare them to major league baseball players
from the Dominican Republic, another very, very small population group
that somehow has an ability to produce many, many allegedly great
baseball players. I would bet that right now there are more
Samoan than white defensive starters in the NFL. Considering their
respective numbers, it's almost impossible that could happen randomly.
Has anyone else thought about this subject?

 

[GWTJ]

The Broncos were on their own 2 yard line and threw a swing pass to Mike Anderson. Polamalu came flying up from his pass coverage and dropped Anderson, almost for a safety. It was one of the best defensive plays I have ever seen.

 

[Southern Knight]

You can thank the self-righteous Mormons at Utah and BYU for the boatloads of Samoans in the NFL. (Note: the term "American Samoa" is a sick joke - Samoans are Polynesians that have absolutely nothing in common, racially or culturally, with real Americans).

A major tenet in mormon doctrine is that Indians are the descendants of ancient Hebrews that floated across the Atlantic Ocean several thousand years ago. Somehow, they also believe that Samoans are descended from those crafty sea-faring Hebrews (who, by the way, had no sea-faring history or technology at that time). So BYU and Utah load up their rosters with Samoans, Fijians, native Hawaiians, and other Polynesians who then find their way to the NFL. (Mormons also believe that those people will literally become white if they become Mormons).

Here's another thing: Samoans are among the most ignorant people you'll ever meet. Gee, I wonder how they're able to maintain eligibility at the college level?

By the way, great analogy to Dominicans in baseball -- I think the same forces are at work.

 

[Colonel Callan]

Big Unreal, comparing the Samoan "situation" to what baseball has been
doing with Dominicans (and "Hispanics" in general) is on the money.
Look at the attention ol' Troy has been getting. He has been playing well,
but are we to think there are so few white players like this as to the
reason being Samoans are just another group that is more talented than
white? Samoans are on average large - but also very slow on average.
Slow physically and I'd have to say mentally much of the time. Non-white
players get a pass generally when it comes to a choice between them and
a white player - even a white player who might be a bit better. The media
loves to play them up when they do well, although they don't usually
get the attention a black athlete will. If a black player were peaking right
now like Polamalu we'd see his highlights leading off every playoff report
for weeks on end. Edited by: Colonel Callan

 

[GWTJ]

The announcers were saying that Polamalu plays 4 different positions during the course of a game and has to learn all the assignments for those 4 positions. They said he studies more than anyone on the defense. I really don't know enough about Samoans, in general, but Polamalu seems to have a head on his shoulders.

 

[backrow]

i know one thing for a fact: both Polamalu and Tatupu deserve every bit of attention and praise they receive... both are great young defensive players and their respective defenses unspoken leaders

 

[Don Wassall]

Polamalu is thriving in the role created for him in Pittsburgh's defense. He also does seem to be a high quality person. But I've also seen lots of clippings from Salt Lake City and the very serious problems the city ishaving with the Pacific Islanders they love to bring in to BYU and the state of Utah, including a bad gang problem.


Polamalu was a first round draft choice who struggled quite a bit his first season but is now a star. A few years before the Steelers had drafted white safety Scott Shields in the second round. Shields was 6-4 and fast, an amazing size/speed combo for a safety, but struggled in his rookie season, though he also had 4 picks and flashed his potential. But unlike Polamalu he wasn't given any other opportunities. In fact he was widely ridiculed in the media and made the scapegoat for the awful black cornerbacks the Steelers were then playing. The fans of course followed on cue and Shields was run out of town the next season and finished in the NFL.Edited by: Don Wassall

 

[guest301]

GWTJ...you are right Troy does have a good head on his shouder and in my opinion is a outstanding athlete and individual. But the reason he is so popular is the wild long hair he has flowing out of the back of his helmet and how it just bounces around while he is flying around making tackles. I was watching the pitt- denver game yesterday with my girlfriends father and all he could talk about was Polamalu and his hair and how entertaining he was to watch. That's why white athletes should get rid of the "bald guy skinhead look" emulating black athletes for some reason and go for more of the william wallace"braveheart" look and attract more attention to ourselves. Some of the time it's hard to figure out if a light skinned person is white or not because the hair is so short.

 

[White Shogun]

I agree with you, backrow. Both of those guys are great players and deserve all the acclaim they are receiving right now. Tatupu is a ROOKIE who has been put in charge of the Seattle defense and calls their plays in the huddle. That says a lot about him, but it also speaks volumes about the rest of the Seattle defense, if you get my drift.

Southern Knight, you post is full of errors about both Mormon doctrine and how American Samoans got their name. American Samoa is the actual name of the group of the islands they're from, its an American territory. So everyone from that Island would be called an "American Samoan," whether they were of pacific islander heritage or not.

Their may be some people who believe the nonsense you posted, but none of what you wrote is official Mormon doctrine. If you, or anyone else, would care to take this thread on a religious turn, I'd be glad to point you in the right direction.

 

[Colonel Callan]

Don, there are a lot of Samoans out here in the Carson area. They do
cause quite a bit of trouble in terms of gangs and assaults. Many of them
seem to identify with blacks, although I can remember a few incidents in
which the Samoans were having problems with the blacks in Carson and
Gardena. Yes, Troy is playing well right now - I thought the officials
jobbed him during the Indy game, but I would bet my yearly income that
there are many whites with the talent displayed by Polamalu who do not
get the chance. I think most of us know this. You were correct in
pointing out Polamalu's early troubles and the organization letting him
"grow". This seems to be a courtesy extended expressly to non-whites,
especially blacks. Whites have to succeed from the start or that's it. That
is, if they get a chance in the first place. Edited by: Colonel Callan

 

[Guest]

Troy is one of the most humble and kind players in the NFL. This girl I know in Pittsburgh who loves the Steelers said Polamalu is very into his Catholic faith and is just a man of faith in general off the field. He is a class guy all the way.

 

[White Shogun]

I know a lot of you guys do not like any non-white athletes. Thats fine. But you can't blame all the non-white players in the league for the caste system. Some of them are going to inevitably be good people. It is not the fault of a guy like Polamalu that he gets more opportunity to develop than a white player of equal (or better) skill. Its the fault of the coaches and the GM's and the owners and the militant blacks in the locker room that force white players to excel immediately or be booted from the team, not guys like Polamalu or Dat Nguyen or even Jerome Bettis or Hines Ward, like Don mentioned.

If a guy is a good player and of good character, I don't see any reason to root against him. Yes, I'd like to see more white players get a shot and more white players actually on the field, but likewise until that happens I'd much rather watch Polamalu and Ward and Bettis than Michael Vick, Terrell Owens, Ray Lewis, and Jamal Lewis and all those like them.

Until things change, if you don't want to watch any of these guys, you'd probably be better served if you just stopped watching sports altogether. Edited by: White Shogun

 

[guest301]

I agree with everything White Shogun just posted. I can't improve on it, so I won't try. Some poster the other day mentioned something about being tired of seeing Jerome Bettis family, why would that be. Jerome Bettis is a hard working pleasant guy who by all accounts is a wonderful person. Why be tired of his family if it's for NO other reason than the color of his skin. Antonio davis's wife is another matter!

 

[Colonel Callan]

I don't think it's so much some guys dislike non-white athletes as that
they realize that the system is in fact giving them breaks, giving them
every opportunity to succeed while putting up huge roadblocks for
whites; organizational , societal, psychological, you name it. It is quite
irritating. If a white player were say in Troy's shoes, performing in the
same fashion in the playoffs, would he receive the same adulation? Of
course not. This isn't only true of the NFL, it's the entire spectrum of
sports in the US and much of the West these days. If they could, they'd
purge every white from every position, but then it would become very
hard to sell tickets to NFL games. So they let a few good white guys
through.

I know nothing of Troy as a person, but I stand by my comments on
Samoans in general, after having gone to school with them, etc. Visit
Carson, or the South Bay area and watch what goes on. As a group, they
are ill tempered and real troublemakers. And they travel in packs. Any
honest person from S. California can tell you the same thing.

 

[bigunreal]

White Shogun,



I don't think any reasonable person blames an individual for taking
advantage of a special opportunity. I don't blame any black athlete for
the Caste System, and I woudn't expect any of them to talk about how
unfair it ts towards white players. The only thing I object to as far
as black players are concerned is their horrendous behavior, and the
disastrous impact that has had on our culture. I don't blame any Samoan
for the fact they have become second-hand beneficiaries of the Caste
System. My point was- there are obviously a whole lot of players now in
the NFL who belong to this really, really small population group. When
you have what appears to be more players starting on defenses in the
NFL who come from this small group of islands, than come from the huge
white population of the United States itself, then that cannot possibly
be accdiental. No way. It seems to me that this kind of thing would be
even harder for those who run the NFL to explain than the huge
overrepresentation of blacks in the league. If you, or anyone else,
like the Steelers, and think all their players are great, that's fine.
Personally, I don't think any of these nearly all-black teams should
have the support of intelligent people (I know, I do have a fondness
for Indianapolis, but it's really just because they are the best of a
sorry lot, imho). Just look at Cowher; that manicial "intense"
expression of his, sometimes without his front teeth in. He looks like
a neanderthal, and his pro- wrestling-like voice isn't much better. No
way can I believe that guy is some kind of genius. How many people
outside of pro sports could show that lunatic, angry face of his in
public and remain free to roam the streets? These guys, including the
white coaches, get away with stuff that would get the rest of us fired,
if not institutionalized.

BTW, what makes the Samoan presence in the league even more
unbelievable is the fact they almost all play defense. No QBs, WRs,TEs
(except Itula Mili, perhaps) or RBs. A few blocking FBs, a few
offensive linemen, no kickers or punters. I guess their football
skills are truly specialized. How do they get all these great defenders
on the island, without any apparently great offensive players?

 

[Guest]

I do not hate on all of those who play sports that are of a different color. Some I do but more or less because of their attitudes and actions and the fact that whites are being held back because of their race. The derelict athleres i cant stand but I still enjoy watching sports. Especially football because I follow all the white players extremly closely and really enjoy their sucesses. Their are good and bad in every race...for all the bad samoan neighborhoods you can look to rural areas with poor whites who are not represenative of our race. Their are good and bad with every race but in athletics we hurt ourselves as we all know.

 

[White Shogun]

There is one half-Samoan at quarterback, Marques Tuiasasopo, and a running back, Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala. There are a few offensive and defensive linemen in addition to the safeties and linebackers that are prominent right now.

One obvious reason that these guys are being recruited is that the couple of them that have made it, have made it good. The NFL is a copycat league; when black quarterbacks were coming into vogue, everyone had to jump on the bandwagon. (See Jerry Jones & Quincy Carter, et al.) The same thing may be occuring with Samoans. They're naturally large people, and stereotyped as strong and ferocious, true or not. I don't believe that there is a concerted effort to recruit Samoans to deliberate supplant white players; there is a deliberate effort to recruit Samoans because scouts and GMs believe, rightly or wrongly, that they as a rule are great football players.

Palomalu, in addition to being a good football player, attracts attention to himself with his long hair. Other members have pointed out here that he is more noticeable than other players because there is no doubt he is on the play because of his hair. It gives visual meaning to that favorite phrase of announcers, "He flies around the field." Maybe you guys are right, we should leave the shaved head look and go for the Jake Plummer aka Grizzly Adams look.

If you, or anyone else, like the Steelers, and think all their players are great, that's fine.

And finally, let's not get carried away. Noticing that Bettis and Hines Ward seem to be okay guys is in no way an endorsement of the rest of the Steelers. I didn't say that, nor would I. Does Joey Porter ring a bell?

In closing, there is an ESPN article titled exactly as bigunreal wrote in the opening post, "The Dominican Republic of the NFL." You can read it here, if you're interested.

 

[White Shogun]

Here is another article about BYU and recruitment of Samoans, that (more or less) supports Southern Knights argument.

BYU & Samoans

 

[Don Wassall]

Just look at Cowher; that manicial "intense" expression of his, sometimes without his front teeth in. He looks like a neanderthal, and his pro- wrestling-like voice isn't much better. No
way can I believe that guy is some kind of genius. How many people outside of pro sports could show that lunatic, angry face of his in public and remain free to roam the streets? These guys, including the
white coaches, get away with stuff that would get the rest of us fired, if not institutionalized.

That's some funny stuff. I remember a "60 Seconds with Jimmy Kimmel" during halftime of one of the Monday night games this past season when Kimmel superimposed some of Cowher's super-angry looks on various things like the Cowher family Christmas card.

I doubt any of us here can understand the mentality behind football coaches who either willingly support or just go along with the notion that their teams must be dominated by players with rap sheets, that these individuals are naturally superior to intelligent, unselfish, hard-working, athletic whites at every position except possibly quarterback. But then again, this entire society seems to have been taken over by incomprehensible notions.

 

[backrow]

I know a lot of you guys do not like any non-white athletes. Thats fine. But you can't blame all the non-white players in the league for the caste system. Some of them are going to inevitably be good people. It is not the fault of a guy like Polamalu that he gets more opportunity to develop than a white player of equal (or better) skill. Its the fault of the coaches and the GM's and the owners and the militant blacks in the locker room that force white players to excel immediately or be booted from the team, not guys like Polamalu or Dat Nguyen or even Jerome Bettis or Hines Ward, like Don mentioned.

If a guy is a good player and of good character, I don't see any reason to root against him. Yes, I'd like to see more white players get a shot and more white players actually on the field, but likewise until that happens I'd much rather watch Polamalu and Ward and Bettis than Michael Vick, Terrell Owens, Ray Lewis, and Jamal Lewis and all those like them.

Until things change, if you don't want to watch any of these guys, you'd probably be better served if you just stopped watching sports altogether.

so true... Polamalu is a great student of the game, he spends twice as much time as other defensive players watching quarterback tendencies, the way he throws, how the runningback reacts in any given situation, tight ends give aways that ball is coming towards them, etc.
he had problems in his first season as far as coverage went and he improved upon it greatly...
plus a lot of Samoan players got short end of the stick as well, Tuiasosopu never really got a chance for Raiders, even being very athletic didn't help him much...
his brother Zack, good fullback never made it to NFL...
Chris Fuamatu (Hawaian)never really got a chance to run the ball in NFL just like so many white power runningbacks...
there are a lot of parallels with white players and Troy and Lofa are two guys that play other positions than Samoans are pegged to play (which is offensive or defensive line mostly)... within two, three years we might have pur own young players that receive the same praise with Hawk, Greenway, Posluszny, Zbikowski making it to the NFL ranks
on the sidenote Tatupu deserved DROY much more than Merriman who is a hard hitter and good pass rusher but not near as complete player as Lofa who helped Seahawks defense in a huge way

 

[foreverfree]

That's why white athletes should get rid of the "bald guy skinhead look" emulating black athletes for some reason and go for more of the william wallace"braveheart" look and attract more attention to ourselves.

I've never seen "Braveheart".

Fill me in.

John

 

[guest301]

You have to see the move Foreverfree. It's a required movie for every white man to watch! LOL....It would be well worth 3 hours of your time to watch it.

 

[Gary]

In the World's Strongest Man Contest-The men from Iceland ALWAYS beat Samoans. So why not recruit Icelanders? I can tell you they make better citizens, won't have street gangs and are a lot stronger!!

 

[White_Savage]

Gary:
Right on about the Icelandic commentary. Though Iceland is alot larger island and will have more genetic variation...

Though with Samoan players, I admit part of me is tempted to say "Not black...good".

The thing to remember about Samoa, it's an island. A definite genetic bottleneck. Probably only the biggest guys got most of the chicks in a very isolated enviroment for thousands of years. You could isolate Whites on a tiny island, with only World's Strongest Man competitors as forefathers, and get similar results (Assuming suffecient food resources to support massive body size in the male population.) And people would say "Those Thule Islanders, they're ALL huge and good football players."

Skipping out on agricultural civillization entirely, the Middle Passage and possible breeding programs during 300 years of slavery represent genetic bottlenecks of their own. Which is why we as a people shouldn't entirely dismiss the idea of some sort of voluntary eugenics organization.

 

[Gary]

White Savage good comments, there are more Samoans in the world then Icelanders-roughly 375,000 to 300,000. The Icelanders are direct desendants of the Vikings! Two men Jon Pal Sigmarsson and Magnus Ver Magnusson have won the World's Strongest Man Contest 8 times-4 times each!!This is a Fantastic Record considering the small population of roughly 150,000 men[if half are men of the 300,000]and taking into consideration the even smaller part of that male population are prime age males[not to young/not to old].
What would happen to college/pro football if some schools tapped into Iceland for recruits instead of Samoa?
These modern day Vikings are bigger, stronger, smarter then any Pacific Ocean group. Samoans tend to be big and fat while Icelanders tend to be far more muscular.