American Samoa

I am always amazed by how American Samoa is able to produce professional football players. Just consider this snippet of information from a recent NFL.com article:

There were four native-born American Samoans on opening-day rosters in the NFL this season: Bengals defensive tackle Domata Peko, Bengals defensive end Jonathan Fanene, Dolphins defensive tackle Pail Soliai, and 49ers defensive tackle Isaac Sopoaga. Other players of American Samoan descent currently in the NFL include Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupa, Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, Patriots linebacker Junior Seau, and Jets quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo.

Doing a back of the napkin estimate - I'd guess that between those eight players there is a total of about $16 million in salary for next season in the NFL. In these days of skyrocketed pro athlete salaries and contract it is easy to forget just how much money that is. Consider that American Samoa has a population of about 58,000 people and according to the CIA World Handbook the GDP per capita purchasing power is just $5,800 for the average American Samoan. That means that just those eight NFL players make as much comparatively as over 2,700 of their countrymen combined (that's equal to over 15% of the total workforce in American Samoa).

Never mind the economics of the situation. Just consider how unlikely it is that such a small area is able to produce so many great football players. There are 6 high schools on American Samoa. The City of Worcester, Mass has 10 high schools and a population 3 times greater than American Samoa. Yet over the last few years Worcester has produced just one NFL player (Jerry Azumah who technically wasn't even born in Worcester). Never mind the great number of American Samoans who are good enough to play college football each year.

If you know your geography - you know that American Samoa is about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. You would also know that American Samoa is just part of the Samoan Islands. The other "half" of the islands was known as Western Samoa and until independence in 1960 had been administered by New Zealand since World War I (prior to that it was a territory of Germany). What I find amusing is that in 1997 Western Samoa changed its name to just Samoa. This is akin to North Dakota changing its name to just Dakota - a move which of course would not sit well with the fine people of South Dakota. This is the case here where the American Samoans still refer to the other islands as Western Samoa.

Getting back to the sports aspect - combined the Samoan Islands have a population of about 210,000 and as successful as American Samoa has been in producing football players - the Western Samoan islands have been equally successful in producing rugby and cricket players (given the New Zealand cultural influence).

Amazing!