Since the 1970s, a “Polynesian Pipeline” has brought football players from American Sāmoa to Hawaii and the mainland United States to play at the collegiate and professional levels. In Gridiron Capital Lisa Uperesa charts the cultural and social dynamics that have made football so central to Samoan communities. For Samoan athletes, football is not just an opportunity for upward mobility; it is a way to contribute to, support, and represent their family, village, and nation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and media analysis, Uperesa shows how the Samoan ascendancy in football is underpinned by the legacies of US empire and a set of imperial formations that mark Indigenous Pacific peoples as racialized subjects of US economic aid and development. Samoan players succeed by becoming entrepreneurs: building and commodifying their bodies and brands to enhance their football stock and market value. Uperesa offers insights into the social and physical costs of pursuing a football career, the structures that compel Pacific Islander youth toward athletic labor, and the possibilities for safeguarding their health and wellbeing in the future.

Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient

Lisa Uperesa is Senior Lecturer in Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland.

Preface  ix
Acknowledgments  xv
Introduction. Fabled Futures and Gridiron Dreams  1
1. Malaga: Forging New Pathways in Sport and Beyond  23
2. Football, Tautua, and Faʻasāmoa  48
3. Producing the Gridiron Warrior  71
4. Gridiron Capital  103
5. “Faʻmālosi!”: Strength, Injury, and Sacrifice  123
Conclusion. Niu Futures  151
Glossary  155
Notes  159
Bibliography  185
Index  211