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PHILADELPHIA >> The annual Super Bowl party at the Grugier-Hill house in Honolulu this year is off.
For a good reason: The family will be at the game.
They’ll be in chilly Minneapolis to cheer on Hawaii’s own Kamu Grugier-Hill, No. 54 in your program, a special teams demon for the Philadelphia Eagles who occasionally plays linebacker. They’ll be watching the kid who didn’t even start playing football until his junior year at Kamehameha Schools.
But besides his mother, Elina, two brothers and a sister, Grugier-Hill knows he has a huge rooting section in the islands.
“I’m getting a lot of support from back home,” said the 23-year-old Grugier-Hill, the first Hawaii player to participate in a Super Bowl since Seattle center Max Unger in 2014. “One my best friends is (surfer) Zeke Lau and I’ve heard from (UFC champ) Max Holloway.
“Guys like that we really try to ride together because Hawaii’s so small we want to be there for each other.”
Certainly it’s more rewarding for Grugier-Hill than last year’s family bash, where he took a constant ribbing over what might’ve been. That’s because he’d been drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft by none other than the New England Patriots, only to be cut just before the start of the season.
Yes, the same Patriots he’ll be doing battle against on Super Sunday.
“Last year we had a big Super Bowl party at my brother’s house,” recalled the 6-2, 220-pound Grugier-Hill, who recorded 236 tackles and nine sacks at Eastern Illinois.
“Everyone was joking around, ‘You could’ve had a Super Bowl ring.’
“That party’s always been a big thing. So this truly hasn’t even hit me yet, I know when it does I have to be in the moment.”
It’s a moment virtually no one expected to come from these Eagles, who were coming off a 7-9 year in Grugier-Hill’s rookie season. But following Philadelphia’s 30-17 opening-game win in Washington he got the sense this team might be special.
“After that first game I knew we had something,” said Grugier-Hill, who led the Eagles with 19 special teams tackles, making him a Pro Bowl alternate. “I knew we could do damage.
“As the games kept rolling it became more and more clear. Even though we had a bunch of injuries we knew what we could do.”
Living a dream
That’s what’s earned the Eagles a shot at the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which Grugier-Hill says is the dream of any kid who plays football. Only in his case that fantasy was somewhat delayed since he was playing soccer all the while.
“I always loved watching football, but never to a point I knew who was out there,” said Grugier-Hill, who was in first grade when Tom Brady played in his first Super Bowl in 2002. “We’re a really big soccer family.
“I played soccer until my junior year, but all my friends played football. I was the only one who didn’t. After a while they said ‘Dude, why don’t you come out?’
Grugier-Hill (the name is French Polynesian) made enough of an impact in just those two years to earn a scholarship to Eastern, where he was a first team Ohio Valley Conference performer his senior season.
That intrigued the Patriots enough to draft him. Grugier-Hill thought he had made the team until he was told to report to the office. Bill Belichick was waiting for him.
“I was actually pretty surprised I didn’t make the team,” admitted Grugier-Hill, who was snatched off the waiver wire the following day by the Eagles and has been here since. “He called me in and didn’t say much.
“But he’s a pretty good coach. I liked him a lot. He’s not as bad as people think. And Brady’s a good guy, too. Kind of like a father figure.”
While he wasn’t there very long, Grugier-Hill grew to appreciate the Patriots way.
“I can tell you the culture’s completely different,” explained Grugier-Hill. “I think everyone knows how Belichick runs his team.
“They’re just very disciplined. Everything there’s a little more strict. I think his and (Eagles coach Doug Pederson) Doug’s styles are completely different, not to say one works better than the other.
“They have two completely different styles and I love them both.”
Friends and foes
But there will be no love for the Patriots on Feb. 4, even though there will plenty of familiar faces on the other side.
“It’s mind-blowing,” said Grugier-Hill, who was preparing for a playoff game two weeks ago when he received a panic-stricken call from his sister, Laena, in the midst of the recent Hawaii missile scare. It shook him up until she called back to say everything was all right.
“I’m going to be playing a lot of guys I know,” he continued. “I was even going to be roommates with a couple of them.”
Instead he’s an Eagle, who’ll be the first man down on kickoffs and punts, hoping he’s not forced into putting his soccer skills on display again for kickoffs like the night place-kicker Jake Elliott suffered a concussion in Dallas.
“I haven’t practiced it since then,” he admitted. “But sometimes you have to wing it.”
A fitting analogy for the Eagle who’ll be carrying the banner for the Aloha State. That includes one of Hawaii’s — and Philadelphia’s — favorites, Shane Victorino. “When I got drafted by the Patriots he reached out to and gave me his number,” said Grugier-Hill. “He was a big role model for me, the original Flyin’ Hawaiian.”
It was Victorino who played a key role when the 2008 Phillies won the World Series, Philadelphia’s last championship. A decade later they’re hoping another Hawaii athlete also will help get the city over the top.
Then for Kamu Grugier-Hill and Eagles fans everywhere, it will finally be time to get the party started.
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