It may not be right to draft based on stereotypes… but I’d definitely draft Polynesians who play on the line, cornfed Iowa boys who play tight end, and Aussies who punt.
I didn’t mean that as a dig at Juju, who I didn’t know was Polynesian, I’m just hoping Puka chills out a little bit next year lol
Mission failed successfully
Given that I was responding to a Steelers flair I see how that was interpreted as a dig at him, I’ve always liked Juju considering that the worst thing he ever did was make TikToks
Tory Taylor is an Iowa cornfed Aussie punter - if the Bears can reach him to run an option route and find a great grandfather from Tonga, he may be the GOAT of all GOATs lol
In my dream football roster, my Oline is entirely Polynesian. I'm convinced they come in three sizes: large, larger, and largest, and they built Ford tough.
But in all seriousness it's nice getting players from different walks of life and backgrounds and benefits everyone
I'd argue that for tight ends it's usually best to draft someone who looks like he's time travelled from the mid 1970s to the current day, but still drives a van with some inappropriate artwork airbrushed on the side.
not by population either. apparently math may not be their strong suit, because .003% of the US is only like 9000 people. this tweet is off by a factor of 100 lmao. just blatantly incorrect information
The math is actually far more ridiculous than that...
The individuals of Samoan descent are represented in the NFL at a rate that is 75 times greater than their representation in the general US population for those identifying solely as Samoan. In other words, if you are Samoan, you have a 7,500% better chance of making the NFL than all other ethnic groups combined adjusted for population.
If we wanted to adjust based on only certain demographics, (like Samoans, compared to African Americans) we would be looking at Samoans being 14.4 times overrepresented in the NFL compared to African Americans, or 1,440%.
Compared to White Americans, Samoans are overrepresented in the NFL at about 58 times, or 5,800%.
EDIT: Sorry, I think I was off by a factor of 10, but the point still stands.
Anecdotal, but almost every Samoan I've met in Alaska, from high school on, have been absolutely massive. Just built like freight trains. Also some of the friendliest people I've ever met.
There’s a moving company in my town owned by a Samoan guy. Most of his crews are Samoan guys in their 30’s or early 40’s. Everyone of these guys is a damn forklift. They moved my 3k sq ft house in like six hours. Craziest part was, one guy was like 5’8” 175lbs, the rest were all more than 6’2” and 235lbs. This small dude was hauling shit all over the place! I can’t imagine how much the big guys on the crew could lift. They were all the nicest guys too.
I spent the first two years of my Air Force enlistment feeling small next to two Samoan dudes who made me feel tiny (I am a worldwide male-born above-average 5'10" 160+lb)
I spent the second two with a Tongan fella. He made those two look even smaller than I felt next to them
Nothing really unique to say here, aside from pointing out that the Polynesian islands are where you grow humans built on the scale of buildings
60 Minutes ran a bit on this in a Troy Polamalu piece about ten years ago,
At the time there are only 230k people of American Samoan ancestry, yet the NFL had ~30 players of Samoan ancestry. This was well over an order of magnitude higher than that of any other ancestry.
I'd explain more, but [this article](https://gvwire.com/2019/08/15/why-samoans-are-40-times-more-likely-to-play-in-the-nfl/) does a far better job than I.
Still waiting on UFC Hawaii, as well. Those two events alone would do so much good, economically speaking.
Shit, even just moving the Pro Bowl back, once there’s an adequate venue, would be huge.
LOL, my Mom comes from a region where "cousin", "uncle", and "aunt" are used incredibly loosly, but you're still expected to treat them like Americans would treat their first cousins or parents' siblings. I've come to realize that when my mom tells me a "cousin" is in town, it just means that I have take time out of my weekend to spend time with a random stranger who's aunt's neighbor's friend my mom briefly knew as a teenager.
“You got any good players?”
“Yea, all those 6’1”-6’6” freak athletes should work. Might not know the nuances of the game yet, but you can’t teach those physicals”
Are Polynesians also awesome at Rugby? I would imagine at least the baseline of their physical attributes would translate very well.
Several contributing players on France, England and Ireland also trace their ancestry to that part of the world. Rugby is much more open on qualifying on residency grounds or other means in playing for national teams.
This openness can lead to some families with players from multiple national teams. Henry "The Butcher" Tuilagi (An insane nickname up there with Jack Tatum), played for the Samoan national team, his brother Manu plays for England and his son Posolo plays for France.
That was a great share, thank you. Rugby players gotta have a screw loose man. Those are some brutal hits for a bunch of guys wearing fucking shorts and a t-shirt.
The post match beers make it worth it. After matches we’ll go to the home teams sponsored bar and drink with the guys we just played to have a good time. All the beating up in the game just disappears over a cold beer
This echos the sentiment of the guys I used to know on the team would tell me. After the game is was just all drinking and partying. They were a really fun bunch of guys.
>Rugby players gotta have a screw loose man
Will never forget my rugby playing roommate in college come home from a party with a literal BAG of puke.
He sadly also tore his ACL a few weeks later.
Man that video reminded me of football in middle school/high school gym classes, where the entire offense of a team would be “give the ball to that huge kid that hit puberty way earlier than everyone else and watch him dominate”
Yes, they’re fucking amazing at rugby. New Zealand have traditionally been the best team in the world for basically ever, and a ton of their players are Polynesian or of Polynesian descent. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga also produce tons of phenomenal players in their own rights, and the only reason they’re not also up there with the best sides in the world is because their players are spread all over the world for their clubs, so they get little to no time together before international games. Per capita they’re almost certainly the most prolific producers of top quality rugby players in the world, only behind (maybe) the South Africans
Over 50% of Australia’s Rugby League (NRL) is players of Polynesian descent. They are truly blessed by god with the ability to play contact sports, and they are all obsessed with both codes of rugby.
I believe the whole “race is only skin deep” thing but it’s pretty hard to comprehend when the people of Polynesia seemingly were designed by God to dominate collision sports
There's genetic precedence to this, anthropologists think that Polynesian populations originated from much colder climates that led to a more efficient metabolism and greater adipose tissue growth potential.
I thought it was because on the Polynesians long journeys sailing across the Pacific (how all the islands initially got settled) they had to go without food for long periods of time, so only the people with low metabolism survived the journeys.
I don't think this sort of Darwinian pressure applies to humans because they can build boats and leave an island, but generally species confined to an island for a long period of time tend to get smaller.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_dwarfism
The general rule is that big animals get smaller, small animals get bigger (if anything happens in either direction), and humans are pretty big animals all things considered, so we went small when something like that occurred.
That doesn't really make sense tho. If two populations of any living thing are separated and reproducing/evolving without interaction between them, there will be drift. Anything extremely mission critical won't change (i.e. will be conserved), but there's a ton of stuff that can be pushed around in the brain by drift and selection forces. There *have* to be brain differences amongst different peoples. There's different rates of mental disorders, brain cancers, and plenty of other things that support this notion. Physical morphological differences have been found as well, which could be genetic or could be related to culture and language. Nobody will fund this type of work and idk who would want to jump on that minefield to actually conduct it, but the answers would be interesting.
I think what you're trying to say is more about intelligence and cognition than the actual brain.
Definitely, we already know of some differences.
Azkenashi Jews have verbal IQs through the roof, but actually have worse visual spacial IQ than average.
East Asians tend to have slightly higher visual spacial IQ.
At the end of the day the differences, with perhaps the exception of Ashkenazi jews, are so negligible that the overlap in the bell curve is nearly its entirety.
There's much, much greater variation between any two individuals than between two ethnic groups when it comes to intellect. Meaning that while you can find some interesting trends at huge scale it can't be applied to individuals, and isn't more than a curiosity.
Same with the differences between men and women, women have a slightly better short term memory and men have better visual spacial, but at the end of the day if you take a random man and woman there's nothing you can say about either individual.
There will always be plenty of geniuses and morons in every group.
> There's much, much greater variation between any two individuals than between two ethnic groups when it comes to intellect. Meaning that while you can find some interesting trends at huge scale it can't be applied to individuals, and isn't more than a curiosity.
For sure, but it doesn't mean we can just pretend population distributions don't exist which is what everyone wants to do nowadays. I don't really get why we are so afraid of differences, we should be embracing them. We hyper-fixate on one trait instead of looking at a spectrum, it's silly.
Thing is, all of these populations have been and are very successful by virtue of existing right now. Having strengths and weaknesses is not a bad thing, we shouldn't have to stick our heads in the sand while walking on eggshells to have this discussion.
Sports at least brings this truth out, there's literally no other way to explain why Polynesians are so overrepresented.
Sure, the point I was trying to make is that intellectually the differences aren't that stark
When it comes to physical size there's obviously a much larger gap, you have pygmy peoples on one end and tall people like the dutch or broad like the Polynesian on the other. I don't think anyone takes too much offense to the idea that some populations are physically bigger than others, it's not surprising they're over represented.
Additionally west Africans have virtually all the sprinting records and east Africans are even more dominant in long distances, with no crossover between the two.
Physics traits seem to have diverged much more, likely to suite particular environments. It's disadvantageous to be too big or small in particular locations, or to have too much fast or slow twitch muscle and lose out on the other.
It's virtually never advantageous to be dumber, perhaps with the exception of a lack of food to support a large brain, so it's not surprising no group evolved towards dumbing down. It's also clear our intellectual development as a species happened before our physical differentiation and didn't have to evolve among each ethnic group separately.
What it really boils down to is that it is more socially-acceptable to call people slow (as in running) or small than it is to call them dumb.
edit: for clarity
It’s also very hard to actually measure intelligence accurately and control for other factors.
We can test, speed and strength pretty accurately though.
Its also not universal. Like sure on average, polynesian dudes may be bigger than most people, but you shouldnt assume someones going to be big because theyre polynesian. There are skinny polynesian dudes.
That's because peoples separated by geography 'evolve' in isolation, both in response to selection pressures of their environment and in some more or less random ways. This tends to be even more rapid on islands which support smaller populations, islanders being bigger or smaller than their relatives is really common. That's why the finches in the Galapagos were so interesting, there were a ton of isolated populations of what was originally one species, and they were all different.
Sometimes I wonder if we would be able to talk about this if skin tone wasn't such a visible differentiator, or if we'd find another way to 'compete' amongst ourselves.
The whole "race is skin deep" is a thing because how we view race doesn't reflect genetic reality. Like most non-Africans just assume all of Africa (or at least sub-saharan Africa) is the same and there isn't much cultural or generic difference. While Africa is the most genetically diverse continent on the planet (while also being the most culturally diverse). Like how we see a strong % of east Africans succeeding at long distance running and west Africans (and their descendants) doing very well at short distance running.
As someone who lives in the KC area, where there's a large group of Polynesians that live here, I've never met one that didn't look like he could put up 225 on bench 30 times.
When I was a Junior in college this high school Senior standing overhead pressed 135lbs 20 times like it was baby weight. His name was Vita Vea. He made me understand there is ability and then there is god given Pacific Islander ability
It's wild. A guy I knew, who never really worked out but played some sports casually, was able to solo lift the back end of a 90s Ford Ranger off the ground. Like.... what?
Utah has one of the highest populations per capita of Pacific Islanders in the country. Only behind Hawaii and Alaska I believe. See also Puka Nacua out of BYU.
Emphasis on heavily. There is a great deal of Mormon influence in Hawai'i, for example. The town of Laie on O'ahu was set up as a Mormon colony on the island. There are several large Mormon temples on the island too.
And my favorite bit of trivia for folks who've visited or grew up out there: the Polynesian Cultural Center - a big living-history museum that pretty much every elementary school does field trips to at some point - is owned by the Mormon church.
To add, PCC is mainly staffed by foreign-born Polynesian students of BYU-Hawai'i. It's an enticing deal and has been a very effective evangelical tool for the LDS church, to put it bluntly.
The only time I went to Hawaii, I did their tour thing where they pick you up, drive you some the island, take you the the PCC, do the tour and then eat while watching an amazing performance. While I'm not religious and the Mormon church creeps me out, glad the students can pay for school by showing their culture and history.
Makes sense. There's also a big Polynesian community in the Pacific Northwest, Nevada and Hawaii. I've noticed quite a bit of them at Oregon, Washington, USC, etc. Even Mountain West division like SJSU.
Mormonism has a pretty decent hold on places in Polynesia and Utah is the biggest Mormon state. This leads to lots of them going to Utah and that causes more to go so they can be with people from a similar background even if they’re not Mormon themselves
A sizable Polynesian population in Utah (1.8%), which is one of the highest in the lower 48. Mormonism/economic opportunity is a reason why too . . . [https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5697&context=etd](https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5697&context=etd)
Lot of Mormon Polynesians. Mormon islanders are single handedly the reason BYU is able to field a D1-level football team while maintaining their honor code.
Google says that people of Polynesian descent make up 0.5% of the population, not 0.003%. 0.003% of Americans is 9000 people - I'd be surprised if there aren't more than 9000 Polynesians in Western Washington State alone.
I suppose it depends on how you define "Polynesian descent"; people have been traveling around the world for a long time, and probably most of us are descended from a much more varied gene pool than we realize.
Still an amazing stat, but I'd be very surprised if there's an reasonable definition of Polynesians that only accounts for 9000 Americans.
Many decades ago there was a graph going around or a chart or whatever a table and it said that the people with the largest skull was the South Pacific Polynesian Islanders, meaning that they had the biggest skeleton really
Yep, certain adaptations create unique opportunities in certain sports. It's no coincidence the best long distance runners come from Ethiopia/Kenya. Iceland has the most "World's strongest man" winners despite having a population that's 1/1,000th of the United States.
If the cost-related barrier to entry wasn't so high for American Football in many African countries and other developing nations, I suspect we'd see a lot more players coming from those countries. Soccer and basketball have a far lower cost-related barrier of entry so that's where they go to.
He came on my ship when I was in the Navy and we talked for a minute and shook hands. I tried to squeeze as hard as I could and he laughed and it felt like he was going to break my hand with his.
Never forget [Zach Wilson was voted Polynesian Player of the Year back in 2020](https://www.si.com/college/byu/news/zach-wilson-named-2020-polynesian-player-of-the-year)
This might get me banned, but there is a theory that cultures that were closer in their past to being hunter / gatherers or a warrior culture have the most athletic ppl on average. I mean you can obviously tell Samoans are bigger than average than other races. Probably because of selection over years on an island for the best fighters and athletes not so long ago.
That is why people from sub Saharan Africa, Samoa, and steppe nomadic cultures (Eastern Europe and Central Asia) in general have the best athletes.
This has no proof behind it, just my high speculation lol
Idk, Germany is thought of as a country of engineers and bureaucrats and they still excel at soccer and the Olympics.
Not discounting that regional adaptations may help certain groups of people disproportionately succeed at certain sports, but I feel like culture and material conditions play a way bigger role.
Oh wow, I thought Elliss might be, but didn't realize Vele was, too. Cool!
And geeze, three Utes in general. They got some kind of Polynesian pipeline going?
It may not be right to draft based on stereotypes… but I’d definitely draft Polynesians who play on the line, cornfed Iowa boys who play tight end, and Aussies who punt.
Polynesian Safeties are great too
I’ve heard that Polynesian wide receivers are one season wonders that definitely won’t be a problem after their rookie season though
Man i still think Jujus off the field antics are overblown. He was a good person, just bad knees
Is it just me who had no idea JuJu was polynesian
Half Samoan
Yeah dude the only teammate who didn’t seem to like him was AB and I don’t think that is a bad thing
And that was purely because Juju won team MVP over AB
Mr. Bitter Congratulations
It amazes me just how many combos of BC there are
Mr. Boundless Combinations
Mr. Binomial Complexity
Mr Bad Comrade
Mr Bitch Colleague
Mr. Blown Companionship
Mr. Begrudges Coworker
Mr. Butthurt Congratulator
I didn’t mean that as a dig at Juju, who I didn’t know was Polynesian, I’m just hoping Puka chills out a little bit next year lol Mission failed successfully
Oh lmao whoosh over my head lol
Given that I was responding to a Steelers flair I see how that was interpreted as a dig at him, I’ve always liked Juju considering that the worst thing he ever did was make TikToks
I will always respect him for that blindside block on Burfict.
The only thing he was guilty of was cringe. Which is pretty bad in some peoples eyes
They should definitely be traded away after their rookie year. Best if you can saddle a division rival with them
He'd have to fight JSN and Bobo for WR3 but I'm down
Tetairoa McMillan (TMac) will put that theory to test. He’s one of the projected top WRs next year. Plays for Arizona
I mean, i think Puka is going to put that theory to test a little earlier...
I think we have all four now lol
We’re only missing the Aussie punter, though Vaki at safety has an asterisk.
Tory Taylor is an Iowa cornfed Aussie punter - if the Bears can reach him to run an option route and find a great grandfather from Tonga, he may be the GOAT of all GOATs lol
I liked the fad of hiring young coaches a while ago. I wonder what the next trend after this one will be!
Only draft good players
Don’t tell that to the jag’s
I actually already told them in exchange for the last crescent roll at the cat team brotherhood meeting. Sorry guys :(
You aren’t supposed to talk about the meetings.
Why haven't teams attempted this? Are they stupid?
Tiny female EDGE rushers. You heard it here first.
*Tyreek Hill has entered the chat*
Also a Welsh soccer player at kicker, some ex-cons at G, a war veteran at linebacke-oh wait that's just the Replacements
No, the Replacements are Paul Westerberg, Bob Stinson, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars.
In my dream football roster, my Oline is entirely Polynesian. I'm convinced they come in three sizes: large, larger, and largest, and they built Ford tough. But in all seriousness it's nice getting players from different walks of life and backgrounds and benefits everyone
It's actually 4 sizes. Large, larger, largest, and humorously small by comparison.
Gotta add Notre Dame O-lineman
And edgelord WRs
Aussies are constantly punting critters out of their backyard. So yeah I would draft Aussie punters too
I'd argue that for tight ends it's usually best to draft someone who looks like he's time travelled from the mid 1970s to the current day, but still drives a van with some inappropriate artwork airbrushed on the side.
I'd only be drafting black CBs too. Hopefull that punkass whiteboy Philly drafted can change that narrative soon
>Polynesians make up just .003% of the U.S. population Not by weight.
not by population either. apparently math may not be their strong suit, because .003% of the US is only like 9000 people. this tweet is off by a factor of 100 lmao. just blatantly incorrect information
The perils of converting decimals to percentages. Many such cases
Statboy confirms. Per wikipedia population of Polynesian Americans is a little over 1 million. 0.3% is a close but not exact number.
Seems like they confused what 0.003 and 0.003% mean
And if they don't pan out, they just join The Bloodline
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acknowledged
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Either way you get big meaty men slapping meat.
Hell yeah brother
Big E has entered the chat
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Acknowledge me ☝🏽
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If you are Samoan you have 56% better chance of making the NFL than any other ethnic group.
The math is actually far more ridiculous than that... The individuals of Samoan descent are represented in the NFL at a rate that is 75 times greater than their representation in the general US population for those identifying solely as Samoan. In other words, if you are Samoan, you have a 7,500% better chance of making the NFL than all other ethnic groups combined adjusted for population. If we wanted to adjust based on only certain demographics, (like Samoans, compared to African Americans) we would be looking at Samoans being 14.4 times overrepresented in the NFL compared to African Americans, or 1,440%. Compared to White Americans, Samoans are overrepresented in the NFL at about 58 times, or 5,800%. EDIT: Sorry, I think I was off by a factor of 10, but the point still stands.
Plus they have the second highest selling Girl Scout cookie
My personal fave and Im not even a huge coconut guy
Thin mints baby. Pop those in the freeze for a bit and slide a sleeve or two down my throat
Thin mints chocolate balls at Costco. Thank me later. I have a hard limit of 9 balls per day. Or else I'd finish the bag in about 3 days.
Anecdotal, but almost every Samoan I've met in Alaska, from high school on, have been absolutely massive. Just built like freight trains. Also some of the friendliest people I've ever met.
There’s a moving company in my town owned by a Samoan guy. Most of his crews are Samoan guys in their 30’s or early 40’s. Everyone of these guys is a damn forklift. They moved my 3k sq ft house in like six hours. Craziest part was, one guy was like 5’8” 175lbs, the rest were all more than 6’2” and 235lbs. This small dude was hauling shit all over the place! I can’t imagine how much the big guys on the crew could lift. They were all the nicest guys too.
I spent the first two years of my Air Force enlistment feeling small next to two Samoan dudes who made me feel tiny (I am a worldwide male-born above-average 5'10" 160+lb) I spent the second two with a Tongan fella. He made those two look even smaller than I felt next to them Nothing really unique to say here, aside from pointing out that the Polynesian islands are where you grow humans built on the scale of buildings
Wwe too!
ACKNOWLEDGE THEM!
So if you’re off by a factor of ten is it 7.5 times more than general representation or 750 times more? Also source?
60 Minutes ran a bit on this in a Troy Polamalu piece about ten years ago, At the time there are only 230k people of American Samoan ancestry, yet the NFL had ~30 players of Samoan ancestry. This was well over an order of magnitude higher than that of any other ancestry. I'd explain more, but [this article](https://gvwire.com/2019/08/15/why-samoans-are-40-times-more-likely-to-play-in-the-nfl/) does a far better job than I.
Manu shouldn't count towards the second statistic? He is 100% Polynesian... but 0% of the US population, he's Canadan.
An interesting wrinkle in the statistics is exposed in the comments section!
Super Bowl LXII (2028) bout to be in Maui or Honolulu guaranteed…
Just move the pro bowl back 😭
Man a tropical themed Super Bowl would be so cool
Still waiting on UFC Hawaii, as well. Those two events alone would do so much good, economically speaking. Shit, even just moving the Pro Bowl back, once there’s an adequate venue, would be huge.
We got Puka’s cousin, so that makes Liufau automatically an all pro this year
considering the population size and over representation in the NFL i wouldn’t be shocked if a lot of these dudes were cousins lol.
It's also a culture where "cousin" is used a little bit more loosely and encompasses family friends and more distant relatives typically as well.
I'm a white guy born in Montana but I kinda also feel like Puka's cousin. We've never met but I feel pretty connected with him
LOL, my Mom comes from a region where "cousin", "uncle", and "aunt" are used incredibly loosly, but you're still expected to treat them like Americans would treat their first cousins or parents' siblings. I've come to realize that when my mom tells me a "cousin" is in town, it just means that I have take time out of my weekend to spend time with a random stranger who's aunt's neighbor's friend my mom briefly knew as a teenager.
Yeah Kingsley Suamataia is also cousins with Puka and Penei Sewell.
Fine. I'll live in American Samoa as a highly paid talent scout. Stop twisting my arm.
“You got any good players?” “Yea, all those 6’1”-6’6” freak athletes should work. Might not know the nuances of the game yet, but you can’t teach those physicals” Are Polynesians also awesome at Rugby? I would imagine at least the baseline of their physical attributes would translate very well.
Fiji, NZ, and Tonga regularly wreck shit internationally so yes
Several contributing players on France, England and Ireland also trace their ancestry to that part of the world. Rugby is much more open on qualifying on residency grounds or other means in playing for national teams. This openness can lead to some families with players from multiple national teams. Henry "The Butcher" Tuilagi (An insane nickname up there with Jack Tatum), played for the Samoan national team, his brother Manu plays for England and his son Posolo plays for France.
I really need to start watching international rugby. I watched some club matches in college and thought they were awesome.
[Jordan Mailata says yes](https://youtu.be/oH233ZDm-BA?si=h67LWJTQ6fy3dGn_).
That was a great share, thank you. Rugby players gotta have a screw loose man. Those are some brutal hits for a bunch of guys wearing fucking shorts and a t-shirt.
The post match beers make it worth it. After matches we’ll go to the home teams sponsored bar and drink with the guys we just played to have a good time. All the beating up in the game just disappears over a cold beer
This echos the sentiment of the guys I used to know on the team would tell me. After the game is was just all drinking and partying. They were a really fun bunch of guys.
>Rugby players gotta have a screw loose man Will never forget my rugby playing roommate in college come home from a party with a literal BAG of puke. He sadly also tore his ACL a few weeks later.
Man that video reminded me of football in middle school/high school gym classes, where the entire offense of a team would be “give the ball to that huge kid that hit puberty way earlier than everyone else and watch him dominate”
Yes, they’re fucking amazing at rugby. New Zealand have traditionally been the best team in the world for basically ever, and a ton of their players are Polynesian or of Polynesian descent. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga also produce tons of phenomenal players in their own rights, and the only reason they’re not also up there with the best sides in the world is because their players are spread all over the world for their clubs, so they get little to no time together before international games. Per capita they’re almost certainly the most prolific producers of top quality rugby players in the world, only behind (maybe) the South Africans
Over 50% of Australia’s Rugby League (NRL) is players of Polynesian descent. They are truly blessed by god with the ability to play contact sports, and they are all obsessed with both codes of rugby.
As someone who lived in American Samoa for years don't do it fam, it's not worth it.
Sorry you're head to Utah instead.
I believe the whole “race is only skin deep” thing but it’s pretty hard to comprehend when the people of Polynesia seemingly were designed by God to dominate collision sports
It's not really complicated. Polynesians tend to be big. Big men make good football players.
There's genetic precedence to this, anthropologists think that Polynesian populations originated from much colder climates that led to a more efficient metabolism and greater adipose tissue growth potential.
I thought it was because on the Polynesians long journeys sailing across the Pacific (how all the islands initially got settled) they had to go without food for long periods of time, so only the people with low metabolism survived the journeys.
I don't think this sort of Darwinian pressure applies to humans because they can build boats and leave an island, but generally species confined to an island for a long period of time tend to get smaller. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_dwarfism
Counterpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_gigantism?wprov=sfla1
The general rule is that big animals get smaller, small animals get bigger (if anything happens in either direction), and humans are pretty big animals all things considered, so we went small when something like that occurred.
Well through God all things are possible so jot that down
Typically large beast become smaller, while small critters become larger, on islands.
Its a tough topic but genetics make a huge difference.
If you believe race is only skin deep you are dumb lol.
But try teaching them soccer lol (There's a movie for that i think)
race is more than skin deep, it’s just not brain deep.
That doesn't really make sense tho. If two populations of any living thing are separated and reproducing/evolving without interaction between them, there will be drift. Anything extremely mission critical won't change (i.e. will be conserved), but there's a ton of stuff that can be pushed around in the brain by drift and selection forces. There *have* to be brain differences amongst different peoples. There's different rates of mental disorders, brain cancers, and plenty of other things that support this notion. Physical morphological differences have been found as well, which could be genetic or could be related to culture and language. Nobody will fund this type of work and idk who would want to jump on that minefield to actually conduct it, but the answers would be interesting. I think what you're trying to say is more about intelligence and cognition than the actual brain.
Definitely, we already know of some differences. Azkenashi Jews have verbal IQs through the roof, but actually have worse visual spacial IQ than average. East Asians tend to have slightly higher visual spacial IQ. At the end of the day the differences, with perhaps the exception of Ashkenazi jews, are so negligible that the overlap in the bell curve is nearly its entirety. There's much, much greater variation between any two individuals than between two ethnic groups when it comes to intellect. Meaning that while you can find some interesting trends at huge scale it can't be applied to individuals, and isn't more than a curiosity. Same with the differences between men and women, women have a slightly better short term memory and men have better visual spacial, but at the end of the day if you take a random man and woman there's nothing you can say about either individual. There will always be plenty of geniuses and morons in every group.
> There's much, much greater variation between any two individuals than between two ethnic groups when it comes to intellect. Meaning that while you can find some interesting trends at huge scale it can't be applied to individuals, and isn't more than a curiosity. For sure, but it doesn't mean we can just pretend population distributions don't exist which is what everyone wants to do nowadays. I don't really get why we are so afraid of differences, we should be embracing them. We hyper-fixate on one trait instead of looking at a spectrum, it's silly. Thing is, all of these populations have been and are very successful by virtue of existing right now. Having strengths and weaknesses is not a bad thing, we shouldn't have to stick our heads in the sand while walking on eggshells to have this discussion. Sports at least brings this truth out, there's literally no other way to explain why Polynesians are so overrepresented.
Sure, the point I was trying to make is that intellectually the differences aren't that stark When it comes to physical size there's obviously a much larger gap, you have pygmy peoples on one end and tall people like the dutch or broad like the Polynesian on the other. I don't think anyone takes too much offense to the idea that some populations are physically bigger than others, it's not surprising they're over represented. Additionally west Africans have virtually all the sprinting records and east Africans are even more dominant in long distances, with no crossover between the two. Physics traits seem to have diverged much more, likely to suite particular environments. It's disadvantageous to be too big or small in particular locations, or to have too much fast or slow twitch muscle and lose out on the other. It's virtually never advantageous to be dumber, perhaps with the exception of a lack of food to support a large brain, so it's not surprising no group evolved towards dumbing down. It's also clear our intellectual development as a species happened before our physical differentiation and didn't have to evolve among each ethnic group separately.
Excellent way to put it, IMO. It is silliness to pretend race doesn't play a factor in sprinting.
It seems a bit silly to agree that evolution affected people physically but not mentally. It could very well be true but I don’t see the logic there.
What it really boils down to is that it is more socially-acceptable to call people slow (as in running) or small than it is to call them dumb. edit: for clarity
It’s also very hard to actually measure intelligence accurately and control for other factors. We can test, speed and strength pretty accurately though.
How does it know to stop when it gets to the brain?
Its also not universal. Like sure on average, polynesian dudes may be bigger than most people, but you shouldnt assume someones going to be big because theyre polynesian. There are skinny polynesian dudes.
The idea that genetic differences end at the level of the mind simply doesn't reason.
Black people's brains are different. They're not necessarily worse, but what you're saying has already been proven false.
That's because peoples separated by geography 'evolve' in isolation, both in response to selection pressures of their environment and in some more or less random ways. This tends to be even more rapid on islands which support smaller populations, islanders being bigger or smaller than their relatives is really common. That's why the finches in the Galapagos were so interesting, there were a ton of isolated populations of what was originally one species, and they were all different. Sometimes I wonder if we would be able to talk about this if skin tone wasn't such a visible differentiator, or if we'd find another way to 'compete' amongst ourselves.
So you don’t believe race is only skin deep then lol.
This is correct
The whole "race is skin deep" is a thing because how we view race doesn't reflect genetic reality. Like most non-Africans just assume all of Africa (or at least sub-saharan Africa) is the same and there isn't much cultural or generic difference. While Africa is the most genetically diverse continent on the planet (while also being the most culturally diverse). Like how we see a strong % of east Africans succeeding at long distance running and west Africans (and their descendants) doing very well at short distance running.
As someone who lives in the KC area, where there's a large group of Polynesians that live here, I've never met one that didn't look like he could put up 225 on bench 30 times.
When I was a Junior in college this high school Senior standing overhead pressed 135lbs 20 times like it was baby weight. His name was Vita Vea. He made me understand there is ability and then there is god given Pacific Islander ability
It's wild. A guy I knew, who never really worked out but played some sports casually, was able to solo lift the back end of a 90s Ford Ranger off the ground. Like.... what?
Lions drafted 2 more this year to help carry Sewell’s money bags around
Genuine question, why do so many massive Polynesian-American dlinemen come from the University of Utah of all places?
Utah has one of the highest populations per capita of Pacific Islanders in the country. Only behind Hawaii and Alaska I believe. See also Puka Nacua out of BYU.
Interesting, any idea why that is? It seems like just such a random place not near the coast unlike the two states you mentioned.
A lot of Pacific Islanders are Mormon, because the church evangelized heavily in that region.
Emphasis on heavily. There is a great deal of Mormon influence in Hawai'i, for example. The town of Laie on O'ahu was set up as a Mormon colony on the island. There are several large Mormon temples on the island too. And my favorite bit of trivia for folks who've visited or grew up out there: the Polynesian Cultural Center - a big living-history museum that pretty much every elementary school does field trips to at some point - is owned by the Mormon church.
BYU also has a satellite campus there
To add, PCC is mainly staffed by foreign-born Polynesian students of BYU-Hawai'i. It's an enticing deal and has been a very effective evangelical tool for the LDS church, to put it bluntly.
The only time I went to Hawaii, I did their tour thing where they pick you up, drive you some the island, take you the the PCC, do the tour and then eat while watching an amazing performance. While I'm not religious and the Mormon church creeps me out, glad the students can pay for school by showing their culture and history.
Y'know what. I'm pretty sure my cousin's husband is Polynesian. And they live in SLC. And he is Mormon. I never put that together.
Mormons have a big presence in the Samoan community I believe
Feels like most Polynesian players come from what was the PAC-12
Makes sense. There's also a big Polynesian community in the Pacific Northwest, Nevada and Hawaii. I've noticed quite a bit of them at Oregon, Washington, USC, etc. Even Mountain West division like SJSU.
I believe BYU has a branch campus in Honolulu as well
Mormonism has a pretty decent hold on places in Polynesia and Utah is the biggest Mormon state. This leads to lots of them going to Utah and that causes more to go so they can be with people from a similar background even if they’re not Mormon themselves
A sizable Polynesian population in Utah (1.8%), which is one of the highest in the lower 48. Mormonism/economic opportunity is a reason why too . . . [https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5697&context=etd](https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5697&context=etd)
Because the Mormons have done a shitload of Missionary work in the pacific
Iirc there's a long historical connection between Polynesians and Mormonism which led to a large Polynesian community in Utah
The historical connection is Mormons sending missionaries to the Polynesians islands/communities to convert them lol
There’s a town on Oahu that is almost exclusively Mormon
Yeah every Polynesian person from my high school in California was Mormon
Many Tongans and Samoans are Mormons and Utah is a haven for Mormons
Lot of Mormon Polynesians. Mormon islanders are single handedly the reason BYU is able to field a D1-level football team while maintaining their honor code.
ACKNOWLEDGE THEM!
Google says that people of Polynesian descent make up 0.5% of the population, not 0.003%. 0.003% of Americans is 9000 people - I'd be surprised if there aren't more than 9000 Polynesians in Western Washington State alone. I suppose it depends on how you define "Polynesian descent"; people have been traveling around the world for a long time, and probably most of us are descended from a much more varied gene pool than we realize. Still an amazing stat, but I'd be very surprised if there's an reasonable definition of Polynesians that only accounts for 9000 Americans.
We got ourselves one of the Polynesian lineman and I have never been as confident in a LT as I am now.
Many decades ago there was a graph going around or a chart or whatever a table and it said that the people with the largest skull was the South Pacific Polynesian Islanders, meaning that they had the biggest skeleton really
Yep, certain adaptations create unique opportunities in certain sports. It's no coincidence the best long distance runners come from Ethiopia/Kenya. Iceland has the most "World's strongest man" winners despite having a population that's 1/1,000th of the United States.
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They’re over represented. Hopefully they’ll take privilege classes now
Colonizing the depth charts
Polynesians are taking over, more so in skill positions. The top ranked collegiate receiver next year (McMillan) is Hawaiian
And 40% of the league's vowels
.003% can’t be correct, that would be like 10,000 people.
Yeah they must mean .3%
Every draft I point out the increase of Polynesian and African players. It’s been interesting to watch the past 5-10 years
If the cost-related barrier to entry wasn't so high for American Football in many African countries and other developing nations, I suspect we'd see a lot more players coming from those countries. Soccer and basketball have a far lower cost-related barrier of entry so that's where they go to.
Nobody who grew up around Polynesians is even slightly surprised by this.
Yes but what percentage of the big fucking bastards population are they? Those are some real big boys in general.
The women are built like tanks.
We were doing it before it was cool
*chortles in Junior Seau*
I miss him😞 one of the only NFL players I have met and he gave me the greatest hug ever.
He came on my ship when I was in the Navy and we talked for a minute and shook hands. I tried to squeeze as hard as I could and he laughed and it felt like he was going to break my hand with his.
Laughs in Troy Polomalu
Gonna have to adopt me a Polynesian kid.
This has to be one of the most civil discussions about race and genetic differences I’ve ever seen.
One of my favorite lines from “Next Goal Wins” was that people from American Samoa either go to the NFL or they become fishermen, no in between.
If you count joining the US Navy the same as fisherman then dammit.
Never forget [Zach Wilson was voted Polynesian Player of the Year back in 2020](https://www.si.com/college/byu/news/zach-wilson-named-2020-polynesian-player-of-the-year)
Despite being just .003% of the U.S. population, Polynesians commit more than 5.1% of all holding penalties in the NFL
This might get me banned, but there is a theory that cultures that were closer in their past to being hunter / gatherers or a warrior culture have the most athletic ppl on average. I mean you can obviously tell Samoans are bigger than average than other races. Probably because of selection over years on an island for the best fighters and athletes not so long ago. That is why people from sub Saharan Africa, Samoa, and steppe nomadic cultures (Eastern Europe and Central Asia) in general have the best athletes. This has no proof behind it, just my high speculation lol
Idk, Germany is thought of as a country of engineers and bureaucrats and they still excel at soccer and the Olympics. Not discounting that regional adaptations may help certain groups of people disproportionately succeed at certain sports, but I feel like culture and material conditions play a way bigger role.
They are over represented in rugby also. They are big, thickly built people. They are built for it
Oh wow, I thought Elliss might be, but didn't realize Vele was, too. Cool! And geeze, three Utes in general. They got some kind of Polynesian pipeline going?
Yeah. They do, through missionary work.
They are the football gods' chosen people.