Two Filipino Americans drafted by NFL teams

Filipino Americans Keith Ismael , left, and Curtis Weaver will play in the National Football League.

In the final day of the National Football League draft, two Filipino American college players were selected by professional football teams.

San Diego State center Keith Ismael was chosen with the 11th pick of the fifth round (156th overall) by the Washington DC's professional football team while Boise State defensive lineman Curtis Weaver was selected eight picks later (164th overall) by the Miami Dolphins.

SAN DIEGO STATE

Center Keith Ismael is a new offensive lineman for the pro football team for Washington D.C.

"Football is in my blood," Ismael told the local media shortly after being drafted. "It definitely drove my passion. It wasn't the determining factor in me playing the sport when I was young, but it definitely helps to come from a football family. It's just given me a lot of insight. I have a lot of resources, a lot of family that have played that have given me knowledge over the years, just how to play the game and the right way to approach it."

Ismael's father, George Ismael, played at Florida A&M, while one of his uncles played defensive end at Oregon and another uncle, Tavita Pritchard, played quarterback at Stanford.

The 6-foot-3, 309 pound Ismael was drafted as a center but can play all three interior line positions and potentially be a starter in his rookie year. He grew up in Southern California attended Cathedral High School in San Diego. His mother is a Filipino American.

He was a three-time Mountain West selection in three seasons playing for the Aztecs. His father George also played college football for Florida A&M.

BOISE STATE

One of the draft's best college pass rushers Curtis Weaver was drafted by the Miami Dolphins.

The 6-foot-3, 265 pound Weaver, whose mother Carla is Filipina, grew up in Long Beach, California and went to St. Anthony High.

The pass rusher was projected as a first-round pick, but he ended up having to wait until the final day of the draft to hear his name called by the Dolphins.

“This is a classic case of bad body, good player,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said on the broadcast. “He’s not going to wow you when you see him, but what he does have is a knack for getting to the quarterback. Not a real explosive first step, but he’s got this wiggle and ability to bend once he gets to the very top of his rush. ... And he’s an outstanding finisher.”

Weaver was named the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Year and was a two-time MWC selection. He also holds the MWC record for career sacks.

There have been several Filipino Americans to play professional football. Perhaps most notable was quarterback Roman Gabriel who played for the Los Angeles Rams (1962-1972) and Philadelphia Eagles (1073-1977). The most recent FilAm player was wide receiver Doug Baldwin who retired from the Seattle Seahawks last year.

In the first day of the draft, University of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, a Samoan American raised in Hawaii, was picked fifth overall by the Miami Dolphins.

Trump favors the white guy over the first Asian American No. 1 draft pick

Draft pick No. 2, Nick Bosa, left, was congratulated by Trump. The No. 1 pick, Murray was ignored.

Leave it to Donald Trump to make the NFL draft about himself and his base.

Apparently, winning the Heisman Trophy, the award given to the best college football player, getting drafted in pro-football AND major league baseball or being the first Asian American to be taken No. 1 in the NFL draft was good enough for Trump to send Kyler Murray a congratulatory message

Instead, Trump opted to tweet congratulations to the No. 2 pick, defensive end Nick Bosa, who is white, and passed over the Arizona Cardinal's choice, Murray, who is part Korean and part African American.

"Congratulations to Nick Bosa on being picked number two in the NFL Draft. You will be a great player for years to come, maybe one of the best. Big Talent! San Francisco will embrace you but most importantly, always stay true to yourself. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump tweeted, completely ignoring Murray's accomplishments.

Bosa voiced his support for Trump on social media years ago. However, more recently he had been critical on numerous occasions of Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protests. He even went after Black excellence in various tweets, calling Beyonce and Jay-Z’s music “trash” and describing Black Panther as the “worst Marvel movie” ever. All tweets about Kaepernick and attacks on Black celebrities have been deleted from Bosa’s Twitter account. 

The fact that the offensive tweets were deleted indicates Bosa and 49ers are aware the public relations challenge for the team in the liberal San Francisco Bay Area.

In his first press conference in front of reporters who cover the 49ers, Bosa apologized for his past remarks, attributing them to his younger self. 

"I'm sorry if I hurt anybody," Bosa said. "I definitely didn't intend for that to be the case. I think me being here (San Francisco) is even better for me as a person, because I don't think there's anywhere, any city, that you could really be in that would help you grow as much as this one will. I'm going to be surrounded with people of all different kinds, so I'm going to grow as a person. I'm going to be on my own. I'm going to grow up, I'm gonna learn a lot of new things. It's exciting."

Talking about Kaepernick, who started kneeling during the National Anthem in protest of the unequal treatment of people of color by the judiciaal system.

"No, It wasn't directed toward that. It's not like I'm saying his stance and what he was doing -- that's not what I was talking about at all," said Bosa. "It was just a specific thing that happened, and me, as a young kid, a thought popping into my head and, boom, decided to tweet it out. Bad decision. I respect what he's done. If it empowers anybody, then he's doing a good thing. I apologize for that."

Forgotten in the Twitter storm generated by Trump's diss is U. of Oklahoma quarterback Murray, who has thus far kept his political views to himself. Drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, Murray's father is African American and his mother is half Korean.

Ignored by Trump, Murray has attracted the attention of basketball legend LeBron James. Murray has come to an agreement with James' production company for a documentary about Murray's journey to becoming a professional football player. 

After winning the Heisman Trophy last year, he did apologize for homophobic rermarks he tweeted in 2012.

“I apologize for the tweets that have come to light tonight from when I was 14 and 15. I used a poor choice of word that doesn’t reflect who I am or what I believe. I did not intend to single out any individual or group.”

To the credit of both young men, they owned up to their past mistakes and apologized. That is more than can be said about Trump, who hasn't apologized for ignoring Murray, the first player chosen in the NFL draft.

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Historic NFL draft: Asian American is No. 1 pick

Kyler Murray's mother congratulates her son.

UPDATED April 27, 2:30 a.m. to incude Taylor Rapp's draft status.

When the Arizona Cardinals selected Kyler Murray as the No. 1 pick in the National Football League draft Thursday evening, the team made history by with the Asian American quarterback.

His father, Kevin Murray, is African American but his mother, Misun (Missy) Murray is half Korean. Kyler’s mother is used to people noting the differences in appeerance between her and her son. 

“I know a lot of people are like, ‘What is he?'” said Murray. quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners. “I get asked that a lot myself. So we do subtle things to represent that.”

In late 2018, Murray wore a black dragon-imprinted kimono jacket. He wore that traditional Japanese jacket knowing that people would notice the choice because of his Asian features. Here’s how Missy explained it to the press:

“When we saw the jacket it was like, ‘Gotta have it,’” Missy said. “Cause we’re all about representing our Asian culture. That subtle statement ... came across as kind of a strong statement, but it’s awesome.”

Murray has had quite a year, first getting drafted by the Oakland Athletics and then  winning the Heisman Trophy as the best college football player in the country. As an athlete, Murray faced the dilemma of having to choose between football or baseball for a prefessional career.

By choosing football, he will likely get a contract from the Cardinals higher than the $4.8 million contract that he signed for the A's.

Another Asian American player, Taylor Rapp, a Chinese American safety from University of Washington was drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Rams.

“There’s not a lot of Asian Americans in sport,” he said in his installment of the "Rolling With The Rookies" video series sponsored by Hyundai. “In football there’s none.

“My mission is to inspire Asian American kids who don’t have someone to look up to. I want to be that role model that they can be inspired by.”

“There was really no one that I could really look up to in football specifically,” he said.

Taylor Rapp and his mother

Evidently, Rapp didn't do his homework. Although there have not been many other Asian American to play in the NFL, there have been a handful. He need only look at his hometown team, the Seattle Seahawks, who have Filipino American Doug Baldwin, an all-pro wide receiver.

Rapp's statements also drew a polite understated response from the Pittsburgh Steelers' Superbowl champion Hines Ward, who’s also of Asian descent.

Korean American Ward, who dealt with his share of racism during his time in the NFL, had some uplifting words for Rapp in a video.

“I know you’ve heard it before: ’Asians can’t play football,’” Ward says in the video. “I still remember the first time I heard it. But I learned something too. those words can be a gift. You can feed off that energy. Turn that hate into wins.”

Ward concludes: “So Asians can’t play football, huh? I’d say we’re pretty darn good.”

Rapp humbly tweeted:

Rapp's teammate on the UW Huskies is Cambodian American Jojo MacIntosh is also hoping to picked up in the later rounds of the NFL draft.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Views From the Edge will post a separate article when Taylor Rapp is drafted.

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