Clemson’s D.J. Uiagalelei continuing proud tradition of Polynesian quarterbacks (2024)

That will bring further evidence of a departure from the dull old days of the 20th century, when a thoughtless football world saw Polynesian players and went ahead and pigeonholed them as linemen. And it will come one weekend after quite a bonanza, both Uiagalelei-wise and otherwise.

“What you need to understand is this,” said Dave Uiagalelei, the 46-year-old Californian father of D.J. “The past weekend is Tua Tagovailoa [in Miami with the Dolphins], Taulia Tagovailoa [at Maryland] and D.J. That was three quarterbacks. All three debuted [as starters]. It’s a big deal for Polynesian quarterbacks.”

They’ve made a lot of big deals during this evolved football era, as when Tua Tagovailoa entered after halftime to pilot Alabama past Georgia in the 2017-18 College Football Playoff national championship game. Right around that time, Jesse Sapolu, a Samoa-born guard and center who spent 15 NFL seasons (1983-97) with the San Francisco 49ers, spotted and hailed the moment: “For me, it’s about that we are continuing to push the envelope forward. Even with the success I had, I didn’t like the fact that we are just known for linemen when we came from the islands. … A lot of people thought we aren’t strong in the skill positions.”

A generation on from those primordial years, Dave Uiagalelei still ran across such inexplicable rocks while raising a statuesque child. “Growing up, D.J., you see his size, that’s been an issue since youth football,” he said. “Everybody thought he was going to outgrow the position. What bothered me is, why would you say that when you see that arm?”

As D.J. stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 230 pounds in the eighth grade and the offers started coming from UCLA, Southern California, Fresno State and more, Dave said, “The funniest thing was going to the quarterback camps [and hearing], ‘Oh, the D-line camp is that way.’” He said, “It bothered me. I was kind of offended, but at the same time you’ve always got to stay positive.”

Now in one wide splash of a weekend, Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins beat the Rams, Taulia Tagovailoa birthed a stirring breakout against Minnesota, and Uiagalelei steered an older man’s comeback from a 28-10 inconvenience against Boston College. He epitomized Clemson’s fresh national reach, with its capacity to replace the sport’s top star, Trevor Lawrence, whose coronavirus hiatus will continue on the sideline Saturday, with a five-star phenom who stands a please-don’t-make-me-tackle-him 6-4, 250, yet moves like someone smaller.

As that happened, Uiagalelei’s paternal grandparents watched from California, their lives yet two more remarkable story lines stretching eastward from amid the vast Pacific across generations and time zones. Tuleifofoa, D.J.’s grandmother, hails from Samoa, the independent nation of 203,774 slightly smaller than Rhode Island that gained independence from New Zealand on New Year’s Day 1962. David, D.J.’s grandfather, hails from neighboring American Samoa, the territory of 49,437 slightly larger than the District of Columbia that became part of the United States in 1900. (In one of the world’s foremost quirks, the two capitals, Apia and Pago Pago, sit apart from each other by 78 miles yet 25 time zones, meaning that if it’s 9 a.m. on a Thursday in American Samoa, it’s 10 a.m. on Friday in Samoa, so if you have a bad day in Apia but can get to Pago Pago, you can try it again.)

Tuleifofoa began in the coastal village of Faleasiu, David across the way near Pago Pago in Futiga, known as the southernmost town in any U.S. territory (at 14 degrees south latitude). She emigrated to Hawaii as a teenager; he did likewise after high school. They met there, then later raised their children in Southern California.

Now they have this dynamic, electric grandson aged 19, three years older than their other dynamic, electric grandson, a California high school defensive end who stands 6-foot-6 and 250 and already has Clemson fans asking Dad whether Matayo might follow, please. (Noting Matayo’s sprout from 6-0 to 6-6 in recent years, Dave said, “So the one-on-one basketball games changed.”) They have a polyglot grandson who crossed the country for school, who is half-German and half-Black on his mother’s side, whose great-uncle Rolland “Bay” Lawrence played eight seasons (1973-80) at defensive back for the Atlanta Falcons and who shows a refined knowledge of the history of Polynesians in American football.

He said in a video news conference in Clemson this week, “I look up to all the Polynesian quarterbacks that have come before me. I mean, there’s been countless quarterbacks. I know [2014 Heisman Trophy winner] Marcus Mariota is a huge one. I remember watching Oregon. I think my favorite quarterback was Jeremiah Masoli; he was the quarterback at Oregon who came before [Mariota]. But that was my favorite quarterback growing up, probably ever. But I mean, there’s been countless quarterbacks. You have the ‘Throwin’ Samoan, you have all types of people. You have Marques Tuiasosopo, Tua right now, Tua’s younger brother, Taulia. There’s been a lot of Polynesian quarterbacks. George Malauulu.”

In that passage, he had mentioned Jack Thompson, the “Throwin’ Samoan” of the 1970s and 1980s from Washington State, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Tuiasosopo, from the 1990s and 2000s from the University of Washington and then mostly the Oakland Raiders; and Malauulu, from the early 1990s at the University of Arizona. There had always been a trickle and a presence largely on the West Coast, but now it has gushed and sprawled.

“It means a whole lot,” Dave Uiagalelei said, noting a lot of Polynesian friends and relatives who texted him reporting tears. And as it spreads across the land, D.J. Uiagalelei said, “There’s not a lot of Polynesian quarterbacks in the South, and I think being a Polynesian quarterback here at Clemson, probably one of the first Polynesians ever to come to Clemson, to come to the South, besides Tua, so I mean, definitely I think it’s a big thing just to show us Polynesians, we don’t have to play in [only] the Pac-12. We can play different places.”

The further erosion of barriers reinforces something Ma’a Tanuvasa, a former defensive end from the Denver Broncos’ Super Bowl teams of the late 1990s, said right after that Alabama-Georgia game: “It’s only going to get better for kids who are younger than these guys.” He and Sapolu serve on the board of directors of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, formed in 2014 and based in Hawaii, with an inaugural class that included Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo, former Washington Football Team linebacker Kurt Gouveia and late linebacker Junior Seau.

That thing looks like it’s going to get awfully crowded.