Mosi Tatupu, RIP

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/extra_points/2010/02/mosi_tatupu_die.html


Former Patriots special teams guy. Coached some high school and college ball in the Boston area.
I had a Mosi's Mooses hat when I was in college.

 

Not just a "former Patriots special teams guy." The college football NFL's Special Teams Player of the Year Award is named after him. He's also the father of Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu.

But his greatest claim to fame might have been that "Mosi Tatupu! Mosi Tatupu!" is what the natives on Ape Island were chanting during a Halloween/King Kong parody episode of The Simpsons from the mid-90s. (The Simpsons' writing staff in those days was loaded with former Harvard Lampoon writers/Patriots fans)

 

Thanks. I tend to understate things sometimes.

 

Slight correction: The Mosi Tatupu Award is a college, not NFL, award.

 

Tatupu also was pretty solid at running back for a couple of seasons for the Patriots.

RIP.

 

Sad. This means nothing in big picture, but Mosi was part of an improbable Tecmo title for my cousin, during a 24-hour marathon season we went through in college. He had the patriots, who were horrendous, but got on a late-season roll and won the Super Bowl, beating the Giants for the title. And Tatupu had a couple of big runs in the winning effort.

 

I remember Mosi Tatupu as a player. I thought about him every time I'd watch a Seahawks game where Lofa Tatupu was playing linebacker.

This sucks. RIP.

 

For some reason, I've always associated him with the Lisa Olson controversy, but I get him confused with Zeke Mowatt. RIP Tatupu, sorry I got you confused with Mowatt.

 

Any additional info on cause of death? I hate these stories where a relatively young person dies and the report says 'unknown causes.' Unknown to whom? Someone knows.

 

He was our buzzword once on a Vegas trip. Whenever we needed a good card or a lucky roll, we would say "Mosi Tatupu ... Mosi Tatupu ..."

 

He also deserves recognition as a one of the pioneers in the Samoan invasion of American Football.

When Mosi came along, the idea of a Samoan playing football was a novelty, now American Samoa has more per capita NFLers than any place on earth. Not a bad trend to start.