1. Vai Sikahema was born on 29 August 1962 and is a Tongan broadcaster and former professional American football player.
19 Facts About Vai Sikahema
1. 2.
Vai Sikahema played as a running back and return specialist in the National Football League.
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Vai Sikahema has served as a general authority seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2021.
4.
Vai Sikahema played college football for the Brigham Young University Cougars, and was selected by the St Louis Cardinals in the tenth round of the 1986 NFL draft.
5.
Vai Sikahema played for the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles before retiring after the 1993 season.
6.
In 1980, Vai Sikahema enrolled at BYU, where he played for the football team.
7.
Vai Sikahema played one more season after that, serving mainly as a return specialist, before leaving school for two years to serve as an LDS Church missionary in South Dakota.
8.
Vai Sikahema was drafted in the tenth round by the St Louis Cardinals in the 1986 NFL Draft, becoming the first Tongan to play in the NFL.
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Vai Sikahema worked there for 26 years, before retiring in 2020.
10.
In March 2010, Vai Sikahema joined with The Philadelphia Inquirer sports writer John Gonzalez as the hosts of the Early Midday Show on Philadelphia radio station WPEN-FM 97.5 the Fanatic.
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Vai Sikahema was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame on 22 November 2013.
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Vai Sikahema has contributed a column, generally related to religion rather than sports topics, to the Deseret News.
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Vai Sikahema is an older cousin of fellow Tongan NFL player Deuce Lutui, who played guard for the Arizona Cardinals.
14.
In May 2008, Vai Sikahema accepted an open challenge from former baseball player Jose Canseco to fight him in a celebrity boxing match for $25,000.
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Canseco claims to have earned black belts in Kung Fu, Taekwondo, and has experience in Muay Thai, while Vai Sikahema, who grew up wanting to be a professional boxer, had fought 80 amateur bouts while younger.
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Vai Sikahema won by knockout in the first round and donated the $5,000 purse to the family of Sergeant Stephen Liczbinski, a fallen officer of the Philadelphia Police Department.
17.
Vai Sikahema has been a resident of Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey together with his wife, the former Keala Heder, and four children.
18.
Vai Sikahema served for a year as an area seventy in the LDS Church, until he was sustained as a general authority seventy during the church's April 2021 general conference.
19.
Vai Sikahema previously served as a stake president from 2014 to 2019, when he was called as an area seventy.