r/sports • u/Desperate-Emu4297 Detroit Lions • 1d ago
Football Hawai'i kicker Kansei Matsuzawa learned how to kick a football from YouTube videos because no one where he lived knew how. He attended community college in Ohio despite not knowing English and got the coaches to take a chance on him. He just kicked the game winning FG for Hawai'i to beat Stanford.
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u/levianthony 1d ago edited 10h ago
He hit 4 FG’s in that game. Hawai’i QB played a great game but this kicker had a dominating performance.
Edit: My apologies, it was 3 FG. My take still stands.
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u/FanohgeChamoru 1d ago
“Kicker because quarterbacks need heroes too.”
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u/cubecasts 19h ago
this is why I hate when fantasy leagues get rid of kickers
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u/AnnenbergTrojan Los Angeles Rams 11h ago
Unabashed garbage. I remember one year when I won a week because I had a kicker on MNF who hit a game-winning 46-yarder, giving me the four points I needed to win.
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u/Clobber420 13h ago
Mine dropped the kicker and added another QB slot. I only lasted a year with that. Just not as fun, imo.
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u/pm_me_WAIT_NO_DONT 1d ago
That would make no sense based on a score of 23. That would mean they scored 11 points without field goals. Either he scored 3 FG with 2 TDs, or he scored 5 FGs with a TD + 2 pt conversion.
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u/fReddit7777 1d ago
Sorry to be "that guy" but I think you forgot about the possibility of 4 FGs + 1 TD + 2 Safeties.
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u/mattrg777 22h ago
Or 4 FGs and 9 Safeties.
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u/TDenverFan Denver Broncos 12h ago
You are correct. He went 3/3 on FGs (long of 40) and 2/2 on XPs/
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
Kicking is such a cool, unique position in the sporting world. I can't think of any other position in professional sports in which you're essentially playing an entirely different game than your teammates, while also holding immense pressure and importance to guarantee points for your team, especially in clutch situations.
College fans tend to appreciate it more because the disparity between (great, good, bad, and awful) becomes much more prevalent compared to the NFL. I hope this young man can continue having a successful career.
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u/-Maim- 1d ago
Goalie?
Both soccer and hockey.
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
I was thinking about goalie for both sports, and there's definitely a reasonable argument to be made. However, for both positions, you're still involved in the play at all times, both in tracking plays into your defensive zone, and often having to make plays out of the back.
Soccer keepers especially actually do the majority of their work in terms of ball management and passes out of the backend. Hockey goalies usually have less responsibility here, but at high levels it is often required for you to at least be comfortable in playing the puck and comfortable coming out of your crease to alleviate pressure on your defense.
Kickers, on the other hand, are out there for one reason and one reason only... to kick it through the uprights. Kickoffs too, but that's much less impactful than their primary purpose.
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u/Dutchmang Green Bay Packers 1d ago
(Former) Hockey goalie here. I was trying to pigeonhole myself into the OP’s description for self-esteem pts, but FG kicking truly fits better
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
Eh, you guys still have one of the weirdest jobs in sports as well. You're usually stuck back there, watching play unfold for 50-70% of the time, not exactly doing much, UNTIL you're expected to stand up and do your job with a very limited failure rate the other 30-50% of the time.
I play center and defense and have always developed a good relationship with goalies precisely because they see the game so much differently from every other player on the ice. Good ones will tell you how you could have made a better defensive play to help them as play unfolds in the neutral zone, or crossing the blue line. It's a unique position that certainly is similar to a kicker, but they offer more impact throughout other aspects of their game compared to a kicker.
If there was a specific rule set for hockey in which penalty shots and shootouts each came with designated "scorers" and "keepers" it would be the closest comparison I could find for hockey. It's a unique situation outside of the game, yet incredibly impactful in it's outcome, and requires you to operate differently from what a normal game situation would require you to.
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u/Phone_User_1044 Cardiff Blues 1d ago
Not American so a bit confused, a FG kicker won't do anything else in the entire game? They purely come on to kick and won't be expected to run or tackle anyone? In rugby you have fly halves (different names sometimes used but they play at 10), they are normally responsible for attempting penalty kicks, drop goal attempts and are usually the primary person who will kick in open field play to gain ground and stuff. In rugby though every player will be expected to be involved in the game- the fly half is mostly focused on the kicking game but is also expected to help run the attack patterns or be a link in defence, do FG kickers not do that?
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
Yes, you would be 99% correct. Kickers and punters essentially just boot the ball and bounce.
Occasionally, on special teams (term for when kickers and punters are on the field), they will contribute with a last resort tackle, or even block if it's a trick play offensively, but they're largely there for only one purpose.
As in to why that is... well, American Football is just an offshoot of Rugby itself. Over the years of the game, they slowly allowed changes such as "snaps" instead of "scrums", "downs" instead of constant possesion, the "forward pass" which allowed players to throw the ball forward rather than run and pass back like modern rugby.
In the earlier days of the game, most players would play on both sides of the field, offensively and defensively, and often as kickers and punters as well. Legendary players such as Jim Thorpe did this, and were testaments to athletic ability. As the game increased in popularity and complexity, the game shifted into a more niche format, where you played a specific role and position on only one side of the ball. The games rules endorsed this because it led to a higher quality product.
As a result, the game operated today, including punters and kickers in their own roles (which are very important) are the result of the history of the game evolving over the course of 150 years, with most of that development withing the first 50 or so.
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u/JRockPSU Washington Capitals 18h ago
I’ll never forget when our former kicker Joey Julius absolutely drilled the returner https://youtu.be/z-4C5qswyys?si=BR4HXdBgojUeOMni
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u/dacomell 16h ago
That kicker looks big enough to be at least a linebacker... Or a QB for Kentucky (RIP Jared Lorenzen)
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u/DJFreezyFish 1d ago
Lacrosse goalies are probably the best fit, at least that I know. There’s less frequent action than hockey goalies, often less time of possession than soccer goalies, and ball handling is very different with a goalie stick than a normal one.
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u/trixel121 22h ago
you still use a stick tho.
who else kicks the ball in football? you need to find team mates who totally do different things.
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u/_J3W3LS_ 21h ago
Less frequent action in field maybe, but box lacrosse goalies get hammered. Not uncommon to see 40-50 shots on net in a game.
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u/cptpedantic 1d ago
hockey goalies are at least in and around the flow of the game
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u/PlaidPilot 1d ago
Hockey goalies are usually crazy...
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
Hockey goalies are typically "peculiar" likely due to all that time they have to sit around "philosophizing" in their crease when play is down at the other end of the ice. If you do that long enough on or off the ice with enough time on your hands, you'll likely start to find your mind drifting towards weird threads and ideas you never thought were possible, before overanalyzing why the hell you'd even THINK of something like that in the first place, then wondering how weird it is that you're just standing there in sweat soaked pads, almost hoping that your team starts to suck more, because it's the 3rd period and you've only seen like 7 shots, and then OH SHIT TWO ON ONE COMING THE OTHER WAY... GOTTA COME OUT AND CUT THE ANGLE, WHERE'S MY DEFEN... fuck me they scored.
I personally think outdoor Lacrosse goalies are the actual craziest fucks out there. Hockey goalies are padded up head to toe and outside of a rare awkward shot won't feel anything making saves, but those fuckers??? They wear shin bruises like wrestlers rock cauliflower ears. Not for me.
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u/daCweature 18h ago
I'm a hockey goalie and there's no way in HELL I'd ever want to try stopping that insanely hard lacrosse ball with the measly little pads you're allowed to wear
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u/Dr_Marxist 9h ago
You hit it dead. Goalies are weird for this exact reason.
It's not that they look at a disc of basically rock-hard frozen rubber going 100+ mph and are like "I want that to hit me regularly" it's that they spend a huge amount of time alone. Just sitting, paying attention, and analyzing the game. But also daydreaming. I mean good goaltenders are always yelling at the team and communicating, but that phrase of "find your mind drifting towards weird threads and ideas you never thought were possible" chimes.
Also I have two autistic friends who are great goalies, for whatever that's worth.
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u/Morrandir 1d ago
The coxswain in rowing is also totally different and still very important.
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u/AlexG55 7h ago edited 6h ago
I was going to say this, but rowing isn't professional outside a few national teams that have government/lottery funding. And international rowing is on straight buoyed 2000m courses where the cox is less important- obviously they're still important for strategy and motivation, but it's not that hard to keep a boat straight.
The cox has a much bigger role in something like the Boat Race or a Tideway Head, where a bad line around Fulham will lose you a full minute compared to a good one.
I think the biggest challenge for a cox may well be the Cambridge Bumps course- particularly in a three-boat sandwich around the lower end of the M1 division (have experienced this as a rower and umpire). It's a narrow river, with very tight corners, you're going flat out in close proximity to other boats, and there may be unpredictable hazards around the bends.
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
Fully agree with you there. Being a professional punter is really the dream job. Some say backup QB, but you're still doing a shit ton of extra film prep and work there. That is not an easy job by any means and you're always on call. Whereas punting gets you a crisp $1 million a year at the minumum today, limited pressure, and really hard to fuck up where fans will hate or threaten you (Matt Dodge is the only exception I personally know of, and I hope he's doing well now). It's the equivalent of being comfortable with a nice salary and job you're comfortable with, without having to deal with any extra stressors that often come along with higher level roles.
I would never have the mental stability to survive as a kicker. Too much pressure, too hard on myself, and would likely shank kicks under pressure similarly to how I fumbled numerous opportunities with attractive women in my early dating life because of overthinking.
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u/WentzToWawa 1d ago
Have fun being the guy responsible for catching the snap while on a knee, spinning the laces out, and planting the ball on every FG/XP unless you know Doug Flutie.
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u/pillarsofsteaze 1d ago
I helped the chargers punting coach remodel his bathroom. He said coaching punter was way harder than coaching kickers. Most punters are amazing athletes. Our high school punter was a three sport athlete that was amazing at football, baseball and basketball. He was also good at bar fighting, golf, etc. The dude was a freak but punting was what he did best while being a lazy stoner.
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
If I could punt for 6-7 years and hire a proper financial advisor, there isn't even a need for me to be coaching. That's something around $6-8 million net. Even with tax, that's enough money to properly live on incredibly comfortably for the rest of your life, barring something catastrophic personally or socially.
But if I did blow a little too much of that money as a happy go lucky young man out of college enjoying hypothetical wealth I'll never actually get to experience, I would pivot into coaching/clinics. That paired with whatever left in the bank should carry a comfortable lifestyle.
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u/swolebird 1d ago
I can't think of any other position in professional sports in which you're essentially playing an entirely different game than your teammates, while also holding immense pressure and importance to guarantee points for your team, especially in clutch situations.
Seeker in Quidditch duh
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u/zennok 1d ago
I think American football is the only major sport with different lineups for different phases of the game period
On that note, really makes you wonder how the hell bad kickers exist in the NFL. Unlike freethrows that people may not necessarily practice, that's literally all you're good for, and people still fail by that metric
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u/Terribly_Good 1d ago
Almost all of the starting kickers in the NFL have the foot to nail a 55+ yard FG, but it's all the stuff besides physical ability that also factor into it.
•Is it an outside stadium? Wind blowing against you? Is it cold? kicking that ball in cold weather is like kicking a rock.
•Has it been raining? The ball is gonna be slippery. Can your holder adjust it in time to face the laces out? What about your footing on a rainy field
•What's the turf like? You practice on hybrid turf at your home stadium, but this is all artificial. Your plant leg is sliding more than usual.
•The other team is coming right at you, full force. Not only the added pressure, but now you've gotta sail it over both teams lines. You've gotta give it a higher arc to clear the defense. It can't go as far, and is more unpredictable
•The game is on the line. You've never been under this much pressure as a kicker. You're just a dude who was playing soccer in college a couple years ago. Alright time to go
•Did the other team call a timeout to "ice" you in a crucial situation? Time to go again
It's stuff like this that keeps older/weaker kickers relevant. They might not have the juice for consistent 50+ FG's, but they're mentally sound enough to be almost automatic from 40 yards or less.
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u/ocarina_21 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 14h ago
Yes the mental component of kicking is so huge. They can be an absolute stud, reliable at any distance. Miss one at a crucial time and never be the same.
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u/ixinar 12h ago
Billy Cundiff you fucking fuck... I hate you to this day.
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u/blindexhibitionist 11h ago
Can you show me on this Mike Vanderjagt doll where the bad man hurt you?
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u/backcountry_bandit 1d ago
Pitching is similar
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u/iia_2085 1d ago
The difference is that there are more than a dozen pitchers on a professional baseball roster. An nfl team has one kicker, they’re the only person for the job.
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 1d ago
Al Michaels: "Well, after a strong first half with two long field goals, Jake Moody's night is done. Kyle Shanahan and the 9ers are going to the pen with the recently signed Adam Vinateri, who came out of retirement for these exact moments!"
Kirk Herbstreit: "He's certainly kicked a beauty, but it's clear his leg was tiring out, and I think bringing in the vet here for a clutch situation Moody has struggled with in the past is the right move"
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u/crystal_buckeye 17h ago
I think pit crew members on nascar teams is a good equivalent. You have a specific job that only you or one other person does (tire carrier, jack man, fuel guy, tire changer) and you only do it a couple times a race. If youre good you can maybe gain your driver a few spots but if youre bad you could cost your team a good finish. And there's high pressure pits at the end of the race that could be the difference in a win/top 10 or falling way back.
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u/defnotajournalist 21h ago
I agree it’s the most unique position in sports. As far as being on an island in a weird and important situation for your team, closers in baseball are sort of similar. You don’t play all game, now come in ice cold at the very end and be lights out. If you succeed we win, if you fail we lose. Go.
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u/rjross0623 Tottenham Hotspur 20h ago
Kickers, goalies, punters have the loneliest and most criticized job on the teams. They can be pretty darn quirky. They can also be the difference maker. Be kind to your goalies and kickers. They have feelings too.
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u/doghaircut 15h ago
I think the only other comparison, and it's not as good, is track and field, especially the "field" part. Most of those events have little crossover. Of them, pole vaulters are probably the most specialized. Someone probably doesn't do more than two field events at the higher levels. Runners could have more, but even they start to specialize at the higher levels.
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u/throwaway4231throw 1d ago
Stanford football is so bad these days. Remember when they went to the Rose Bowl 3 times in a 4 year span?
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u/-_-0_0-_0 1d ago
Kinda had Andrew Luck as QB and Jim Harbaugh as HC so...
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u/Introverted_Extrovrt 7h ago
IIRC Luck is now the Sports GM or something like that
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u/HereInTheCut 1d ago
It feels like a million years since Toby Gerhart and CMC were Heisman contenders there.
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u/tampaempath 1d ago
They also had Jim Harbaugh as HC and David Shaw was doing a good job keeping things going... for a while, anyway, until he ran out of Harbaugh's players. After Christian McCaffery and Bryce Love left, it was all downhill from there.
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u/1haiku4u 21h ago
Transfer portal and NIL haven’t helped at a school with extremely high academic standards that doesn’t support their football team like other schools do.
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u/RandallOfLegend 1d ago
Title is a little misleading. He's from Japan which is why people in his area were unfamiliar with football.
A person might infer that somehow the people of Hawaii have college football team but no knowledge of kicking.
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u/kickinbucket 21h ago
"This kid from the United States doesn't know a lick of English." was a pretty surprising statement to me.
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u/Just-aquick-question 16h ago
Apparently you’ve never met someone from Baton Rouge
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u/Ed-alicious 21h ago
Also, rugby is pretty big in Japan so there absolutely would have been people around who would have been able to teach him. They make it sound like he's from some isolated island somewhere but, as far as I can tell, he's from Tokyo!
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u/superfiercelink 16h ago
Here's an interesting fact too. College football has been growing in Japan. Obviously it is still niche, but growing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_collegiate_American_football_programs
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u/broncosandwrestling Denver Broncos 14h ago
On a sports subreddit, though? When someone says "the Denver quarterback" do you think they mean a QB from Denver or Bo Nix?
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u/Dustingettinschwifty 1d ago
You never would have known it watching the broadcast… just kidding, dude said it like 10 times in the last 5 minutes of the game
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u/dogquote 1d ago
I feel very ignorant, but.what language did he speak? Hawaiian?
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u/Knikkey 1d ago
Japanese. He’s from Japan, not Hawaii. Hawaii is part of the US and English is the primary language. Very few people speak Hawaiian.
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u/The_El_Captain 1d ago
Title gore. Most readers will see the title and assume the guy is Hawaiian, not that he plays for a team called Hawaii.
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u/Good-Walrus-1183 20h ago
More to the point than how many people speak Hawaiian in Hawaii, is how many native hawaiians speak no english at all. I would assume the answer is zero.
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u/BornImbalanced 17h ago
Technically, more than zero. There's a tiny island named Ni'ihau (pop. < 100) where Hawaiian is the primary language, and some of the older residents have never learned English.
But yeah, effectively zero.
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u/Good-Walrus-1183 8h ago
So like maybe on the order of 10. Sure, whatever. Population of hawaii is 1.4M. The point is, the parent commenter's remark that very few people speak hawaiian is irrelevant. There are tens of thousands of hawaiian speakers. Which is few, but not few enough that one of them couldn't be a football player who went to hawaii. I knew plenty of hawaiians when I went to school in seattle. some of them even spoke hawaiian. But they all also spoke english.
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u/Over-Analyzed 1d ago
True it’s a small amount compared to other languages; as it’s only in Hawaii. But it’s not like there’s only 100 (some estimates say 20,000. I suspect it’s more). I mean it’s certainly growing. There’s a huge resurgence in Hawaiian culture. Chief of War is strictly in Olelo Hawaii. Kaina Makua, the guy who plays Kamehameha would only communicate with fellow cast members in Olelo.
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u/Jonjoloe 1d ago edited 1d ago
Chief of War is not solely in Olelo Hawai'i. Most of the characters are currently speaking English after the first two episodes.
But yes, there is a resurgence and Hawaiian language and culture after being largely banned. It's currently the 5th ranked language spoken in Hawai'i excluding English with ~6% of the population speaking it according to a survey in 2016 (so the number of speakers may be higher now).
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u/Over-Analyzed 1d ago
I’m familiar with its resurgence as someone born and raised in Lahaina. That matters to me a lot.
My apologies. I was under the belief the entire series would be in Olelo.
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u/Jonjoloe 1d ago
No reason to be sorry. I didn't know the story about Kaina Mauka, so thanks for sharing!
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u/Over-Analyzed 1d ago
Kaina Makua is even better than that! Aside from the fact that Jason Momoa literally hired him by meeting him. Kaina runs his own Lo’i (Taro farm). He coaches a Canoe club on Kauai. His crew? The division he personally paddled in? His crew got Second at the State Championship Canoe Regatta!
Funny thing, I did not realize he was cheering close to my canoe club’s tent. 🤣. My canoe club was set up near the Flags.
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u/Lost_Drunken_Sailor 1d ago
Thanks for asking. People post the dumbest titles on Reddit.
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u/worksnake 21h ago
The strategy is to post a bad/inaccurate/false title that feels good or that expresses a popular sentiment, and act like the people correcting it in the comments are soulless pedants or worse.
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u/Boggie135 23h ago
He speaks Japanese, the title implies he's from Hawaii and people there don't speak English and don't know football. Your confusion is warranted
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u/Gaimcap 1d ago
The Hawaiian language was basically outlawed for almost 100 years, until the late 1980’s.
It was nearly considered a dead language at one point.
I think my grandmother (who just turned 100) knows how to speaks it. I remember she mentioned they used to beat the crap out of you if you were ever caught speaking it at school. I know for sure none of my uncles do. My cousin (in his 30’s) at least knows some words.
There’s a This American Life podcast episode about the revival of the language if you’re interested.
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u/Over-Analyzed 1d ago
Not Olelo (Hawaiian) but Japanese. And no worries, no shame in asking a question. 🤙🏻
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u/PhotochadA2358 1d ago
That girl under the goalpost on her phone like the game winner just didn’t land at her feet lmao.
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u/Boggie135 23h ago
The title implies that he's from Hawaii and people there didn't know anything about football. He's from Japan
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u/geoffreyisagiraffe 1d ago
Part of me loves this. Cynical me believes this is getting pushed as YouTube ad. Its on multiple subreddits and the announcers said it the whole game like an ad.
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u/TDenverFan Denver Broncos 12h ago
I think it's just a wild enough story that it's fun to share. He grew up in Tokyo, saw an NFL game while visiting the states, and decided to learn how to kick back in Japan. He then goes to community college in rural Ohio (a town of 5,000 people) without speaking any English just to get to play college football, and then transferred to Hawaii, who play in the highest division of college football.
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u/Colodavis 18h ago
Stanford lost to Hawai'i, hahahahahahaha. O, man. Good work, Hawai'i. I saw the fair catch at the one highlight and thought the game was over. So, so funny.
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u/Unknown_Beast88 17h ago
Truly awesome story.Guy learns to kick from watching Youtube vids and practices in the park.Gets a few tryouts from minor colleges until Hawaii gives him an offer.He accepts that offer and helps Hawaii get their first win against Stanford.This is why i love College Football when i hear stories like that.
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u/TDenverFan Denver Broncos 12h ago
He was the kicker at a community college prior to Hawaii. Which honestly makes the story more impressive - he went from Tokyo to a town of 5,000 in rural Ohio.
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u/pbugg2 1d ago
That’s an awesome story but what a horrible game
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u/cavaleir Cleveland Cavaliers 1d ago
Fuck that, it was sloppy but Alejado toughing it out to get the W was awesome.
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u/Newplasticactionhero 20h ago
At first I was like “how does someone from Hawaii not know English?” But then I re-read his name and did some research. Just trying to imagine how trained himself in Japan. This story has to be made into a movie.
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u/Advanced-Blackberry 20h ago
Here I thought he grew up in Hawaii but didn’t know English. Then I reread his name.
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u/Flat-While2521 19h ago
Annoys me just a little that the commentators couldn’t just say his name - he was always “the kicker”
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u/Averagetarnished 19h ago
And he did it despite the fact that the offensive line screwed up and let a dude right past them
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u/Sirprophog 15h ago
To be clear that ohio school he attended was small and rural — it’s described more as a summer camp than a real college.
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u/UMadCuzUWorkFastFood 13h ago
bro the announcer was tryharding the pronunciation of Hawaii sooooooo bad
HUH VYE EEE
Relax guy
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u/iamthecheesethatsbig 1d ago
This is the kind of stuff sports was made for.