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.

That darn football team that shall remain nameless

HERE'S THE GREAT commercial that aired during the NBA championship game on Tuesday (June 10).

If the National Basketball League can force Donald Sterling to sell the Cliippers after his racist rant was made public, the National Football League (NFL) can do no less.

The owners of the Washington DC NFL franchise fall back on "tradition" for ignoring the public pleas to change the name to something besides the racial slur that has been compared to the N-word.
Imagine a team named the Gooks, or the Slopes, Kikes, Wetbacks, or any number of racial insults. There would be unquestioned outrage, right?

The hollow argument of "tradition" falls apart when you consider that it was tradition that allowed southern schools to use the Confederate flag as its logo; tradition that kept blacks from playing on baseball teams with whites; tradition that kept country clubs lily-white; tradition kept women in the kitchen and blacks in the back of the bus, tradition allowed segregated schools and poll taxes to prevent African Americans from voting.

While many of those "traditions" have fallen by the wayside one-by-one, the current owners of the Washington team remain steadfast in their knuckle-headed refusal to join the 21st Century.

In the hullabaloo that followed Sterling's diatribe, it is almost forgotten the actions of the team's corporate sponsors. They didn't want to be associated with a racist and they began withdrawing their financial support. That may have been what really forced the NBA to act as it did.

Moral outrage is fine and can be a powerful force, but it is the threat of losing almighty dollars that may have forced the NBA to do the right thing. Maybe that same thing can happen if enough people tell the sponsors of the Washington franchise -- Nike, the brewers and the automakers -- that they disapprove of their association with a team named after a racial slur.