Irrelevant Week: Ofahengaue playing his cards

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - As the last pick in the NFL draft and with no

guaranteed salary, Tevita Ofahengaue realizes he faces an uphill battle

this summer in training camp with the Arizona Cardinals.

But Ofahengaue, roasted and toasted as Mr. Irrelevant XXVI Tuesday

night at the All-Star Sports Banquet at the Newport Beach Marriott, is

confident about a playing career in professional football.

The 6-foot-2, 254-pound tight end out of Brigham Young University, who

once painted curbs and sold vacuums to support his family, also worked

out for the Cardinals at fullback during mini-camp.

“I can play anywhere (on the field),” said Ofahengaue, born in Tonga

and raised in Hawaii. “I can even play the (offensive) line ... it’s easy

to pick up 50 pounds where I come from.”

While the odds might not be in Ofahengaue’s favor in terms of cracking

the NFL, he likes the cards in his hand.

“I’m only 26, but I’ve been married 10 years,” he said. “That’s

(beating some) of the biggest odds ever, so I’ll take my chances (in

football).”

Ofahengaue was an all-conference free safety in high school in Hawaii,

but his wife, Carey, was expecting their first child and college football

was not an option. “I had no intention of playing (again),” he said.

Four years later, his brother, Kelepi, and friend, Itula Mili (now of

the Seattle Seahawks), coaxed him into coming out for football at BYU.

Ofahengaue walked on in 1997, earned a scholarship and became a

three-year starter.

“Half the team was already married,” said Ofahengaue, who was married

with two children at the time, but left his job as an airport baggage

handler in Dallas to play at BYU.

Ofahengaue became the 23rd player to receive the coveted Lowsman

Trophy, an award at the opposite end of the college football spectrum

from its more famous counterpart, the Heisman.

The Lowsman Trophy, created in 1979 to be awarded to Mr. Irrelevant,

is a bronze sculpture that depicts a football player dropping a ball.

Each year at the All-Star Sports Banquet, Mr. Irrelevant receives a

replica of the original, which is on display at the University Athletic

Club in Newport Beach.

No matter how Ofahengaue’s NFL career turns out, he’ll have an

education behind him.

After Ofahengaue was born in Tonga, his family moved to New Zealand,

then to Hawaii in 1977 when he was 2 years old, because of his father’s

desire for more education. His father would become a middle school

principal for 17 years.

What Moana Ofahengaue is most proud of is the fact that all six of his

children have college degrees, including one, daughter Halaevalu, who has

a doctorate in social work.

Mr. Irrelevant XXVI, who earned his bachelor’s degree at BYU, is

planning to attend graduate school and earn a masters in special

education.

“He loves kids,” his father said.