No team loves Hawaii like the Pittsburgh Steelers. Though I’m sure there hasn’t been an actual effort to find players from the island of 1.44 million, they’ve collected the largest pool of them in the league.
On the team’s 90-man roster right now sits five Hawaii natives. There’s the Herbig brothers, Nate and Nick. There’s Isaac Seumalo, Breiden Fehoko, and the newest addition, wide receiver Roman Wilson from Kihei, who attended the same high school as the Herbig’s.
Of their current 87-man roster, that means nearly six percent of them are from the island.
How does that compare to the rest of the NFL? Pro Football Reference has a list of Hawaii-born players. They show 12 of them playing in games last season. Non-Steelers include former Steeler Tyson Alualu, QB Tua Tagovailoa, and DL DeForest Buckner. Adding in Fehoko – who technically didn’t appear in a game last year but spent time on the Steelers’ 53-man roster, that’s 13 of them on rosters last season.
How about the rookie class? I don’t have an exhaustive list, but using Dane Brugler’s draft guide that lists the hometowns of hundreds of players, there were five of them. Three of them were drafted: New York Giants LB Darius Muasau, Dallas Cowboys LB Marist Liufau, and the Steelers’ Roman Wilson. One other, Tua’s brother Taulia Tagovailoa, was invited to a rookie minicamp on a tryout basis, while another, LB Zion Tupuola-Fetui, appears unsigned and uninvited to the best of my knowledge despite initial reports he was going to Carolina.
So, let’s assume 15 Hawaii-born players appear in games next year. The current ones minus Alualu, again a free agent whose career may truly be done this time, and the three drafted rookies. That means one-third of them could come from Pittsburgh should Fehoko land on the 53-man roster in some capacity.
As is my usual question, what does this matter? I offer my usual answer. Not much. But it’s a fun factoid to examine post-draft. The Steelers love their Hawaiians. And I bet Hawaii loves Pittsburgh.
