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Red Raider Family Set To Follow Chicago Bears’ Season

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Although Donald Tanoai always looks forward to his daily evening phone call from his son, Al Afalava, he finally got the news he’d been waiting for last week.

“I said to him, ‘Are you gonna make it?‘“said Tanoai, “and he said ‘Dad, I think I’m going to make it.’”

That was in reference to a roster spot with the Chicago Bears, the team that drafted the former Red Raider stand-out in the sixth round of the NFL draft last spring.

“He was on his way to the airport to pick up his wife and kids who had come from Oregon,” Tanoai added. “That’s been the plan - for him to make sure he made the roster, and then to look for an apartment.”

Judgment day was to come last Saturday for NFL hopefuls considered on the bubble for finding roster spots. Afalava may have been among that group on paper three months ago, but his steady play had already thrust him into Chicago’s plans for 2009 and he was at a safe distance from any talk of being cut.

With his hard-hitting style, Afalava already has become a fan favorite at Soldier Field. He recorded six tackles in his first NFL preseason game versus Buffalo Aug. 15.

As the Bears head into Sunday’s nationally televised opener with much-hated rival Green Bay (3:20 p.m., NBC), Afalava figures to see plenty of action - in part because of his natural instincts and because the Bears’ secondary has been the hardest hit by injuries. Assuming that the team is able to play Danieal Manning at free safety as planned, Afalava will vie with veteran Kevin Payne for time at strong safety.

Called “one of the team’s hardest workers"by teammate Lyle Moevao while the two played at Oregon State,Afalava had a workman-like mentality long before college.

“He’s a good kid,” said Tanoai.“This kid used to just go to school, go to practice and come home. He didn’t go anywhere. He just stayed at home all the time.”

Tanoai, who is a prison guard, always has kept his son grounded and was quick with advice. It was he who suggested the switch from running back to safety when his son was a junior, although he had carried the ball since his Pop Warner days.

“Kahuku always has, like, 10 running backs, so I talked to him and to the coach about moving to safety,” Tanoai said. “He always liked to hit, and I thought ‘This is the position for him.’ His third year at Kahuku, he didn’t want to play football at all. He was two weeks late (in joining the team). He wanted to concentrate on basketball.

“I had to talk to him,” he added.“If he wanted to go to the next level, football is where the scholarships are, and I told him that basketball wasn’t going to take him anywhere. We didn’t have the money to send him to college without it (a scholarship).”

Afalava enjoyed two fine seasons with Kahuku at strong safety, helping to lead the team to the state title in 2003, and had an immediate impact at Oregon State, where he was a two-time All-Pac 10 selection and where he started 37 games in his four years.

Not all of the headlines were positive, however. In February 2008, Afalava was charged with DUI after a one-car accident. He didn’t make his nightly phone call home that night, or the next night, or the next.

“It took him three days,“his father recalled. “I told him, ‘You’re just lucky I wasn’t there with you when it happened.’ I think the accident, and becoming a father, really opened his eyes. If he had kept doing that, he might not be in the NFL now. People make mistakes, and you just have to move on. He has.”

When the Bears played at Denver Aug. 30, it was the first time Chicago had been on television in Hawaii in 2009. Tanoai and relatives gathered to watch the game in Laie.He’s already sized up the Bears’ schedule to find that most of their games will be accessible to viewers in Hawaii. He and wife Teresa plan to see three games in person this season, beginning with Chicago’s Sept. 27 game against the Seahawks in Seattle. The Tanoais also will go to San Francisco for the 49ers in November and make their first-ever trip to Chicago the following month to watch the Bears against Minnesota.

“I can’t wait to go and watch my first NFL game,” Tanoai said.“I hope he can go all the way and not get hurt.”