# "If you're born in Samoa, you have a 1:20 chance of getting in the NFL." Bullshit statistics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237 "2013-05-24T16:14:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237/21 "2013-05-27T00:23:33Z")
I don’t know about NFL, but I think I’d buy the number for Samoans getting into prowrestling. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237/22 "2013-05-27T14:59:01Z")
Here’s a wiki addressing this very topic [American football in American Samoa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_in_American_Samoa) > [@](#): > > In 2010, the National Football League included a total of 1,696 players. Of those players, 28 of them were from American Samoa.[2] Out of those players, the best-known is Troy Polamalu, a native of Samoa who attended the University of Southern California. He has played for the Pittsburgh Steelers his whole career and has been on two Super Bowl winning teams, in 2006 and 2009.[4] With only 65,000 people living in American Samoa today, it has been said that a Samoan boy is forty times more likely to reach the NFL than a boy born in the United States.[1] University of Washington defensive lineman Tui Alailefaleula, a native of American Samoa, said “It’s the sport we were born to play, football is the game where we can reach our goals and help our families.”[1] ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237/23 "2013-05-27T15:55:10Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Here’s a wiki addressing this very topic > > [American football in American Samoa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_in_American_Samoa) The article was already cited in post #16, and as I mentioned there, doesn’t contain any authoritative cites for the figures it includes. In particular, the statement “28 of them were from American Samoa” is directly contradicted by its own citation. I wouldn’t trust any of that information. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237/24 "2013-05-27T16:35:49Z")
Lemme throw in a bit of stereotype about Samoans. I lived in Hawaii for several years, and heard things like this a lot, and I am under the impression that this is generally meant as a good-natured jab, and that Samoans take it in in a friendly attitude as well: The stereotype is that Samoans are all big husky heavy guys – This would make it sound like they are ideal candidates to be football players. Maybe that’s all there is to it. We had a research lab at the marina, with a big salt-water tank containing some dolphins. Occasionally a dolphin would fall out of the tank onto the surrounding concrete deck. (Thud!) So we’d have to dig a stretcher out of the storage room, wrestle the dolphin onto the stretcher, and lift that up to dump the critter back into the tank. Dolphins are heavy! The standard joke always was: Go out into the marina and round up four husky fisherman to help us – or ONE Samoan. 🙂 My father was a professor at U.H. who taught extension for one semester in American Samoa. He has a similar “stereotype” Samoan story to tell: That, like the stereotype Irishman, they love to get drunk in bars, and get into knock-down bloody brawls – and it’s all in jolly good fun, and after it’s all done and the blood is cleaned up, they’re still good buddies just as always. (I suppose we could call it “recreational brawling”.) Just like a good knock-down brawl ought to be! One of my father’s students (both in Samoa and in Honolulu) was a genuine Samoan High Talking Chief, with an “exotic” Samoan multi-syllable name. IIRC, I met him a few times when I was a teen-ager there. I believe he fit the “big husky guy” stereotype perfectly. I don’t know if he was into brawling, but I suspect that he would have taken it as a good natured standard Samoan jibe. ETA: That HTC apparently is somebody who’s somebody, or else his name is a common one. Googling (both his first and last name), I find a whole lot of references, including a Facebook page. (Well, I assume it’s the same guy anyway.) And I see a number of football players with the same last name too. I’m thinking he must be in his mid-70s now. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237/25 "2013-05-28T04:07:23Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Lemme throw in a bit of stereotype about Samoans. I lived in Hawaii for several years, and heard things like this a lot, and I am under the impression that this is generally meant as a good-natured jab, and that Samoans take it in in a friendly attitude as well: > > The stereotype is that Samoans are all big husky heavy guys – This would make it sound like they are ideal candidates to be football players. Maybe that’s all there is to it. That’s pretty much it, I think. Many Samoans do fit the size stereotype, but I have actually known scrawny-looking Samoans. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237/26 "2013-05-28T15:12:11Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The figure of 30 current players in the NFL is almost certainly wrong. There were 5 players born in Samoa in 2012, and 7 in 2010. Even if we assume that double those numbers of American born Samoans were playing also, that still gives us only 15-20 ethnic Samoans in the NFL. Former football encyclopedia editor checking in… The OP referenced players “born in Samoa” To date, there have been 29 players in the NFL born in American Samoa, 6 from Western Samoa, and 1 from Samoa. There were 5 active during the 2012 season. The whole premise is a fallacy, the idea that it’s unusual for a region that size to produce that number of players. Gary, IN, Tyler , TX, and Albany, NY are all cities with populations under 100,000 that have produce more NFL players than American Samoa. There’s some selection bias here, but there’s also the issue that there will be geographic pockets of excellence in any skill. The Dominican city of San Pedro de Marcoris has produced 80 major league players, and 10 percent of all MLB players come from the DR – both disproportionate numbers. It’s because most of the teams have baseball academies there to train young players, and baseball is a huge focus. Same thing is true of American Football in American Samoa… and Tyler, Texas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-born-in-samoa-you-have-a-1-20-chance-of-getting-in-the-nfl-bullshit-statistics/659237.md?page=1)