Jets’ Luvu loves getting NFL shot
Frankie Luvu’s sport of choice as a kid was soccer. His first two years of college football came primarily on special teams.
Luvu, an outside linebacker from the tiny South Pacific island of American Samoa, never imagined this kind of future. He saw football as a way to get off the island, not as a potentially profitable career.
“Man, it’s crazy,” Luvu said on Wednesday after the final training camp practice of the summer. “I never thought I would make it this far. It’s just a blessing.”
And yet here he is, an unsigned free agent from Washington State with a shot to stick with the Jets. The 6-foot-3, 236-pound Luvu has enjoyed a strong training camp, flashing the kind of pass-rushing skills the Jets sorely need, the quickness and instincts that led to a breakout senior year in which he had 6.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss.
“I’m trying to help the team in any way I can,” he said. “It’s a big opportunity, but we got [linebackers] Jordan [Jenkins] and Josh [Martin]. They’ve been helping me out a lot, being a mentor.”
There has been a wideopen competition this summer at outside linebacker, and Luvu could prove worthy of being rotated in if he can consistently get to the quarterback. After Jenkins, nobody has emerged as the favorite at the other spot.
“He’s right there with the rest of them,” Todd Bowles said. “These next two weeks will be important for him.”
Luvu doesn’t see it as pressure, though. He’s living out the dream of man kids from his island, a chance to make it in the NFL. The sport is big back home, he said, because of how many Samoans have made it in the league — guys like Domata Peko of the Broncos and Mike Iupati of the Cardinals. It’s seen as the gateway to a better life for young men from American Samoa, which is about 2,600 miles south of Hawaii.
“They kind of built a platform for us to come out here and just follow their footsteps,” Luvu said.
He had good examples to follow. His cousin, Destiny Vaeao, is a defensive tackle for the Eagles, and Luvu trained prior to camp with Hawaiian linebacker Kamalei Correa of the Ravens. Vaeao, two years his elder, also attended Washington State and went undrafted before finding a home with the Eagles, providing Luvu with a blueprint.
“I always though to myself, ‘If he can make it, why can’t I?’ ” Luvu said. “Just have that mentality, go for it.
He’s a few weeks away from making an NFL roster.
“It motivates me more than ever, just waking up and feeling I’m blessed to play this sport,” Luvu said. “I have a ton of friends that want to be in this situation.”