| No. 30, 44 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Running back | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | (1955-04-26)April 26, 1955 Pago Pago, American Samoa | ||||||||
| Died | February 23, 2010(2010-02-23) (aged 54) Attleboro, Massachusetts, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||
| Weight | 227 lb (103 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Punahou School(Honolulu, Hawaii) | ||||||||
| College | USC | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1978: 8th round, 216th overall pick | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
Playing | |||||||||
Coaching | |||||||||
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| Awards and highlights | |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Mosiula Faasuka Tatupu (April 26, 1955 – February 23, 2010) was an American professionalfootball player who was arunning back for 14 seasons in theNational Football League (NFL). He playedcollege football at theUniversity of Southern California (USC). He played in the NFL as a running back and onspecial teams withNew England Patriots from 1978 to 1990 and theLos Angeles Rams in 1991. He was elected to thePro Bowl in 1986.[1] He became a football coach after his playing career.
Tatupu was a standout player atPunahou School inHonolulu, where he set manyHawaii state rushing records.[2] He graduated in 1974.[3][4]
Tatupu attended theUniversity of Southern California, playing in the 1978 Hula Bowl and finished his career with 223 rushing attempts for 1277 yards (5.73 yards per attempt avg.). The Mosi Tatupu Award 
, given annually to the College Football Special Teams Player of the Year by the Maui Quarterback Club and the Hula Bowl, bears his name.
Drafted in eighth round with the 215th overall pick of the1978 NFL draft by theNew England Patriots, Tatupu played fullback and became an ace on special teams. He rushed the ball 612 times for 2,415 yards and 18 touchdowns; in the 1983 season he led the league with 5.5 rushing yards per attempt. He caught 96 passes for 843 yards and two touchdowns for his career. His season high for rushing yards came in 1983 with 578 rushing yards and four touchdowns, while in 1984 he set a personal best with 16 catches for 159 yards. In 1987 against theLos Angeles Raiders, Tatupu threw a 15-yard touchdown toTony Collins. However, the Patriots were terrible late in his career (they went 1–15 in his final season) and his playing time was sharply reduced in his final three years with the team; in one instance,Chris Berman mined humor from a New England loss by showing all 8 receptions by Tatupu in the game, because none of the catches produced a touchdown or even a first down.
Tatupu was used mostly on special teams kick coverage. He had seven kick returns for 56 yards in his career.
Tatupu was the head coach atKing Philip Regional High School inWrentham, Massachusetts from 1995 to 2001, compiled a record of 29–43 in seven seasons.[5] Former New England Patriots center,Pete Brock, was one of his assistant coaches. Tatupu was the running backs coach atCurry College, anNCAA Division III school inMilton, Massachusetts, from 2002 to 2007, serving under head coachSteve Nelson, a former teammate of Tatupu on the Patriots.
Tatupu died inPlainville, Massachusetts on February 23, 2010.[6][7][8][9] The cause of death was a heart attack. In 2014, using brain tissue preserved from his 2010 autopsy, he was posthumously diagnosed withchronic traumatic encephalopathy by the CTE Center atBoston University School of Medicine.[10] He is one of at least 345NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head.[11][12]
Tatupu's son,Lofa Tatupu, played linebacker at USC and for theSeattle Seahawks.[13] Lofa was a teammate ofMatt Hasselbeck, the son of Mosi's former Patriots teammate,Don Hasselbeck. His nephew,Joe Tuipala, was also an NFL linebacker from 1999 to 2005.
In the Halloween 1992 episode ofThe Simpsons entitled "Treehouse of Horror III", Tatupu's name is used during the "King Homer" segment, which parodies the 1933 filmKing Kong. During the segment, the chief of Ape Island is shown to say "Mosi Tatupu, Mosi Tatupu", which in their language means "the blue-haired woman will make a fine sacrifice"—the "blue-haired woman" beingMarge Simpson, who is playingFay Wray's Ann Darrow toHomer'sKing Kong.
One of the most popular players to play for the New England Patriots, Tatupu had his own section of fans atFoxboro Stadium, "Mosi's Mooses," who all adornedmoose heads and chanted his name throughout the game.
.