His father lit Puka Nacua’s flame, but his mom kept the fire burning
Penina Nacua is simply amazed that her son Puka is on the verge of breaking a pair of NFL rookie records when the Rams close out the regular season at San Francisco on Sunday.
Puka, the former BYU star, can do that if he gains 29 receiving yards and catches four passes against the 49ers.
“You know, he’s not trying to do anything extra. He didn’t go to the NFL hoping he would do XYZ to break records. So, it is exciting. It’s exciting and it makes me proud. I miss that his dad’s not here. I wish my husband was really here, physically, so that he could just hug Puka and just see him in his element now.” — Penina Nacua on her son Puka
So far this season, Nacua has 101 catches for 1,445 receiving yards, 89 rushing yards, and five touchdowns. If he gains 29 yards this weekend he will break Bill Groman’s record for the most receiving yards by a rookie set in 1960; four catches will eclipse Jaylen Waddle’s rookie record of 104 receptions set in 2021.
This past week, Puka was also chosen to play in the Pro Bowl.
Puka Nacua has become a burgeoning brand, a catching machine who breaks tackles and grabs passes with acrobatic aplomb and has captured the imagination of the football world.
It’s a story with a humble beginning, a father’s dream and a mother’s job to make it happen when the dad was no longer there.
Anyone who knows the Nacua family is familiar with the stable of Nacua boys who have excelled at playing football with a passion for the game that came from their father, Lionel, who died 12 years ago.
Puka was just a kid when his dad died, but his father’s love for football stoked a furnace inside of him for playing the game.
Today, his guiding force, his biggest cheerleader, and the pilot who guided him through his teenage years and all the challenges and questions those years present, is his mother, Penina.
She has attended games at SoFi Stadium and been on road trips to games against the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys. She dons her son’s jersey, but is surprised when total strangers approach her and ask if she is Puka’s mother. She’s had it happen in New York and Dallas and it’s always the case at SoFi.
Penina shies from the limelight. When fans tell her how much they love Puka, she doesn’t quite know what to say.
“It really is overwhelming to just see all of the things that he’s doing on a normal football day,” Penina says. “You know, he’s not trying to do anything extra. He didn’t go to the NFL hoping he would do XYZ to break records. So, it is exciting. It’s exciting and it makes me proud. I miss that his dad’s not here. I wish my husband was really here, physically, so that he could just hug Puka and just see him in his element now.”
Related
‘Puka mania’: How this fifth-round pick from BYU has taken the NFL by storm
What gives Puka Nacua the ‘it’ factor? Here’s what his former coach thinks
Sitting in a suite in Giants Stadium this season, a group of young fans came up, tapped on the window and asked to have a picture with her. Penina was surprised.
“I’m nobody, why would you want a picture with me?”
“Because you are Puka’s mom, aren’t you?” Penina recalled of the conversation.
“I didn’t know what to say because I really am just nobody.”
It is rare for a rookie to be given field passes for family members but Puka’s mother has had one. The privilege was taken humbly.
“I don’t like to be like a celebrity because that’s not me at all. Nor is it what I want. I’d rather be hiding inside, you know, inside a room and waiting for the game to be over so that I could run out to see my son, but it’s hard in this game,” she says. “You know, when I want to go hug him or see him, it’s been fun to have the opportunities that I’ve been given when I’ve been able to get on the field.
“It just reminds me of back at Orem High,” she continues. “I could just give him a quick hug and ‘good luck, son,’ you know, and that’s kind of what I’ve been able to do. In some of those games I’ve been able to be on the field and he catches a quick glimpse over at me. It is cool to see so many people wearing jerseys with the last name on them.”
Momma Bear Nacua
Puka’s mother is a highly motivated, intelligent, God-fearing woman of faith, a mother who was forced to become the cornerstone of the family as a single parent. She laughs easily and is kind and loving.
Penina grew up as a child raised by a single mother herself, with help from a pair of aunts and uncles in Redlands, California. She was born in Orange County, California after her mother migrated to the United States from Samoa in 1968. As a teen, her aunts Mareta and Theresa Lata and their husbands Elia and Zachariah, brothers, helped raise her and introduced her to teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I’m grateful for them in giving me the foundation of the gospel, which has helped me face the challenges I’ve had in life of losing my husband and raising these kids on my own.”
She is the breadwinner, housekeeper, nanny, counselor and family psychologist in the Nacua home. She is a tough but gentle woman who exudes love for her children. They know the nest she built is a home they can count on for support and direction.
Her oldest sons Isaiah and Kai played at BYU, where another son, Samson, played with Puka his senior year after transferring from Utah. Puka and Samson were reunited at BYU after Puka transferred from Washington to be close to his ailing grandmother. Both played receiver for the Cougars. The youngest in the family, Tei, is a receiver at Timpview High in Provo and just signed to play at BYU.
Her ecclesiastical leader, Bishop Doug Stone of the Samoan Provo 12th Ward, was a BYU defensive lineman in the early 1990s. While his primary interaction with the Nacua sons has been with the youngest, Tei, his wife is close to Penina.
Bishop Stone describes the Nacuas’ mother as unwavering and passionate, and it shows in how she is around her family. It also shows in her children, how passionate they are with football.
“She goes beyond that as a passionate, cheering mom,” Stone explains. “When I say she is unwavering, I don’t mean that it comes off as being so strong that she has to have it a certain way, but she drives home her point that faith comes first and family is first. It is good to have the football component as well.
“It is tough for those kids having lost a dad, but it is also a mother and wife who lost a husband and a father to help her raise six children. But, she is a strong individual and, like they say in the church, you have to gird up your loins and move forward and that’s what she’s had to do. It has not been an easy path, but she has been able to do it with unwavering faith.”
Stone describes Penina as a “colorful” personality in the congregation. “Everybody loves her. She is very outgoing, kind of like the smile that you see on Puka’s face. It is like that with all her children.”
The Nacua boys are known for their energy and passion and toughness. Golden Holt, Puka’s high school basketball coach at Orem High, declares that what NFL fans are seeing out of No. 17 right now is a result of growing up in a house full of older brothers. “They roughhoused, picked on him and beat the crap out of him. It made him a really tough kid.”
Keeping the dream alive
One Mama Bear Nacua scene will be forever etched in Holt’s mind. He had his Orem High basketball team play a spring practice scrimmage against another local Utah high school in the school’s main gym, complete with officials. In the middle of the game, Puka’s mother came in and went directly onto the floor in the middle of the game and grabbed Puka by the ear and pulled him off the court and out of the building, saying, “Get your butt home, now.”
Holt was stunned.
“I’d never seen anything like that, neither had the officials and I’ve never seen anything like that since,” Holt recalled. “Puka’s mother told him he couldn’t play basketball until he did his homework. To her, foundational things are significant. She demands that the basics be taken care of. She is an absolute rock to that family.
“When Lionel passed away, she became both mother and father to those children and took that role seriously. She is a powerful force for good in the lives of all her kids.”
To have five sons earn Division I scholarships and play football beyond college is rare for any family.
Related
What Puka Nacua needs to do to break these rookie receiving records
Is Puka Nacua on pace to break these NFL rookie single-season receiving records?
Penina says neither she (Samoan) nor her husband (Hawaiian) grew up playing high-level athletics of any kind, although her husband was athletic and did wrestle and loved it. He lived in Anaheim, California, after moving from the Big Island of Hawaii, his home.
Lionel was always excited about how his sons were growing and getting big because he projected them playing football some day, a game he loved.
“His passion for his sons playing football was like above and beyond,” says Penina. “He loved football and I remember him just being in love with his sons because they had this Samoan build, you know. Just seeing them, he was like, ‘My boys are gonna be athletes.’
“Lionel was old school, like they’re gonna be strong. They’re gonna be big. They’re gonna, you know, ball out,” she says. “We always had to just keep them playing in football when we lived (in) Las Vegas. I feel like the children are a mix of the both of us. Polynesian people as boys and kids are pretty much built for football.
“Because of the structure of our families and just how we are as a people, most of them are all linemen or defensive players. Puka is probably one of the first in the NFL to (make a splash) being a receiver. I might be wrong, but I haven’t ever known any Samoan football player that’s been a receiver. They’re usually all on the defensive side of the ball. Right?”
Penina’s Samoan genealogy does include a German bloodline and her mother describes many of her Samoan relatives as being 6-foot-2, 6-4 and 6-6. As Penina traded notes with other families at Orem High and University of Utah football games, she learned she is related to Gabe and Arlene Sewell, parents of three sons playing in the NFL, Penei (Detroit Lions offensive lineman), Nephi (New Orleans Saints linebacker), and Noah (Chicago Bear linebacker).
The father, Gabe Sewell, is related to the Tafua bloodline on his mother’s side. Penina’s mother is Tamalii Tafua, who is related to Utah star defensive lineman Mika Tafua.
Those are some solid athletic genes.
Has fame changed Puka?
The stardom, the records, being the Rams’ all-time leading rookie receiver and now on the brink of breaking two NFL rookie receiving records, has all come fast for Puka.
His soft hands, uncanny balance, ability to judge balls in the air and make athletic plays, and his ability to break tackles has been well documented. He has an elite ability to understand the insides of the game and interpret how plays develop.
People tell him he’s a star. Check that, superstar.
Puka is now getting texts from Hollywood elites, rappers and LeBron James, and he has endorsement deals piling up that will far outweigh his NFL salary as a player. He’s headed to the Pro Bowl with Penei Sewell as a genuine American football star. His jersey sells out all over the country.
Has it changed him?
“He honestly is still the same Puka,” said his mother.
“Yeah, there is a little bit of change, but not the type of change like in a bad way,” she says. “Because you know, he’s trying to learn. I mean, this is a new job for him. Just like any other normal 22-year-old kid who’s getting a job, this is all new. I know it’s a completely different level, but it’s totally new. But he’s pretty much been the same.”
For the mother, his attitude has been normal, but she doesn’t see him every day.
“Still, he’s the same kid I know. When I saw him in New York City, he was holding my hand as we were taking a picture. That’s the kid I know that would be at Orem High, standing at the fence waving to me and I could wave back and say, ‘I love you, son,’ and he’d tell me he loved me. He’s never been shy about just sharing his love or expressing his feelings to me.
“In high school, other moms would always tell me I was so lucky, that he would tell me he loved me. He’s still like that. He’ll call me from the facility at the Rams and he’s not shy about telling me he loves me. I don’t know who he is in front of at that time, other players or coaches in the locker room or if he is getting a massage. He’s like, ‘OK, mom, I gotta go now. I love you.’ So, that’s awesome. I see it with his siblings, too. He’s still the same and it’s the same group of rowdy kids I have.”
As the Rams’ season kicked off, Puka came from nowhere as a fifth-round draft pick and began making plays. Social media began blowing up with mentions of Puka and his plays. Penina doesn’t get on social media other than X. It was all new for her.
However, as this Puka phenomenon began blowing up across the country on TV and ESPN “SportsCenter,” Penina had the presence of mind to speak to Puka as only a mother could.
“I remember texting him and saying, ‘You know, son, I’m so grateful for all the hard work you are doing and I’m so proud of you, but just remember to stay humble because at any time God can take those things away from you if you don’t stay humble.’”
