Island Heritage Shaped Salave'a
by Tom Squires

American Samoa has a slogan posted on its governor's official web site: Where America's Day Ends and Polynesia Begins. Titans defensive tackle Joe Salave'a can't
wait to end his days in American Samoa once again. After all, that's where he began.
"It's not a big place," said Salave'a, who lived on the South Pacific islands until his
teenage years. "American Samoa is a U.S. territory.

That's the eastern part. Eastern Samoa has a population of about 65,000-plus, and it's made up of five small volcanic islands. It's year-round humid because it's right below the equator. It's no bigger than 67 square miles."

Salave'a is like an encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to his homeland, which
is symbolized by a tattoo around his right bicep. He probably knows as much about
what's happening on the islands at this moment as he does what's going on in the
National Football League.

That's how strong his roots are. And it was there in the city of Leone, amid
the forest-clad mountains and picturesque coral reefs, that a standout football player
was born in 1975.

"Growing up in American Samoa, you find ways to fulfill yourself," Salave'a said. "You don't have the luxuries that the kids here on the mainland do. But it was a lot of fun. We played a lot of rugby and cricket, or at least the Western version of cricket. We didn't have programs in schools like Pop Warner football. We had Little League baseball, but not football. So you either played rugby or you didn't play at all. Aside from that, you played dodge ball or marbles or something like that.

"Most of the time you had to be creative. We used to get these aluminum flats that
were used for the roofing and we would nail them together and try to make a boat. We would measure them out to about a forearm length and then take 2x4 stakes, stick them on the end and nail that on. It's amazing what we did when we were young growing up on the island. You were forced to open up your imagination, and we had to invent things to keep us occupied. A lot of people may see that as being low poverty, but we were content with it."

Salave'a is one of the most lighthearted and relaxed personalities in the locker room, despite his tremendous intensity on the field. That character trait links
directly to his youth.

"It was easygoing. It was a laid-back kind of lifestyle," he said. "And you can be assured if you ever go down there, that you don't need to bring any cell phones, pagers or anything like that. When you go to the islands, you're on island time. If you're supposed to be somewhere at 12 o'clock, you don't get there till 2. That's just the way life is."

Life was also without a other entities that most of us don't give a second thought.
There were no playgrounds in American Samoa when Salave'a was growing up. There was a single movie theater, but it only showed Bruce Lee pictures and old karate movies. The transition from customary island homes to modernized, American
homes has occurred over the last couple of decades, but that movement was understandablybehind the times.

"We still have what you would call family housing," Salave'a said. "It's called a family
fale, where we still hold family meetings or village meetings - where the chief will call a meeting. It's the sacred meeting place."

There are many things Salave'a holds sacred about his upbringing, but none more
than the religious beliefs instilled in him by his family. Moving to mainland America and playing in the NFL has not diminished those beliefs in the least, although his job does require a flexible worship schedule.

"The only thing different is maybe not going to church service every Sunday, but
that's due to playing football," he said. "I still have a chance at the hotel the night before the game to have a priest come back and we'll hold a mass service there. It's not the same, but it's a necessity to take a block of one hour and to reflect and give grace and thanks to our Heavenly Father for the things he has provided us.

"During my growing up, that was really honed in. Keeping the Samoan religion is
really the common denominator with me and back home. You belong to some sort of
religious group, and I think that shaped most of my Samoan beliefs. It's God first, and then family second. I cherish that and it shapes the man that I am now."

The man Salave'a is now stands 6-foot-3, 295 pounds, and is regarded as one of the better pass rushers in the league. Last season was his breakthrough year. He registered 43 tackles, 13 quarterback pressures and four sacks in 15 regular-season games, primarily as a backup.

After being selected as the Titans' fourthround draft pick in 1998 out of Arizona, he
had a pair of average seasons while adapting to the pro game. Salave'a was hampered by injuries for a few seasons, but looked good in action during the 2004 season with the Redskins.

Of course, being in a NFL uniform at all is something that never entered his mind until
college.

"I never knew what I was getting myself into until a got to the mainland," he said. "I
had never thought about the NFL. It was a rarity to even see it down there. TV was
something only a select few families had. But to football. When you play rugby with the ball live all the time and you don't wear equipment - that was one of the hardest
things. But the one thing was I always liked going after the ball. So that's what they told me. My (high school) coaches told me go find the ball and don't worry about anything else. I didn't really start learning football until I got to college. That's where I learned the fundamental stuff."

Common sense tells us that Salave'a was a long shot at best. Coming from the islands and learning a new sport, then playing it at the highest level…not likely.
But staying on the islands as the sixth of eight children and making it may have been a longer shot. His parents understood as much.

"With my dad being a teacher and mom being a nurse, in the early days, they knew
what was better for us," Salave'a said. "That was the main reason for leaving home. We knew they would let us. We were an active family household. Pops and mom knew by coming to the mainland and living with extended families and playing sports, that would give me a chance to get a scholarship. And that's what happened. I came over here and went to high school in San Diego in 1989, got lucky and got a scholarship to Arizona. "The rest is history."

Actually, it's the present and the future. Salave'a, now considered a hero to children
in his native homeland, returns there twice a year. This year he held his fourth annual football camp in American Samoa and Hawaii during the offseason. He has also started the Joe Salave'a Foundation, which benefits more than 700 Samoan kids annually.

"When all is said and done," he said, "I'm going to be back home."