UH suspends football players after arrests
COURTESY HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT
Kennedy Tulimasealii, left, and Ka‘aumoana Gifford
The University of Hawaii announced the suspension of defensive tackles Kennedy Tulimasealii and Ka‘aumoana Gifford today pending disposition of their cases.
Following this morning’s practice, head coach Nick Rolovich announced their suspensions from football-related activities in the wake of their arrests Tuesday on misdemeanor charges.
They may attend classes, participate in study hall, and remain on scholarship, but are not allowed to participate in the remainder of spring practice or other team functions.
Rolovich said “further decisions” will be made after more information is collected.
Tulimasealii was arrested on accusations that included two counts of domestic abuse, one count each of harassment and resisting arrest and two outstanding warrants.
Gifford is accused of obstruction for allegedly attempting to prevent the arrest of Tulimasealii.
Tulimasealii will be arraigned on domestic abuse charges on April 26.
Tulimasealii and Gifford have May 10 court dates for the other charges.
“It’s not our job to talk about innocent or guilty,” Rolovich said. “It’s our job to grow these young men as good as we can. There (are) a lot of people (who have) jobs that will deal with that that are better than us at that.”
Tulimasealii was an all-Mountain West Conference selection in 2015, and Gifford started four games.
98 responses to “UH suspends football players after arrests”
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I don’t want to think about this fiasco any longer for fear I might get a heart attack.
If their scholarships are still good, they should strive to get their degree’s. Don’t let the scholarship’s go to waste. Better opportunities with a college degree.
Trouble is, they are not real students. They are not interested in being real students.
Allie-SHUT UP IF YOU DON’T KNOW THEM PERSONALLY!!
So, you know them personally or do you assume this of any athlete?
Allie, is fafa troll with hauna breath that lives under a bridge near Chinatown. She has nothing positive going on with her life, so she takes great satisfaction in making uneducated comments that have no basis in reality. She needs to go back to turning tricks…
Why do all you clowns continue to even respond to the old bag??? Ignore it.
what goes around comes around. allie will get hers one day.
Shut the hell up.
Trouble is, Allie is not a real student either.
Tulimasealii is majoring in Sociology. Gifford is undecided on his major. We have a lot of social science and humanities majors on the football team, and this mirrors a lot of other football programs around the country. Translation: probably not very useful degrees without a PhD. The UH football ohana will take care of these guys getting jobs for years to come.
allie, your boat is full.
Agree with allie. Most of the football team are there because of football and not academic intelligence. Many, many smart people don’t get scholarships and have to find the money or not go to college. 99 per cent of these jokers never get to the NFL and we constantly see their names in the news as beating up their girlfriends, killings, or other mischief. Get over the football excuse, it’s just a game. But I will guess that the prosecutor will drop most of the charges and probation will be made or the whole thing will disappear on purpose.
mctruck so tell me do you know what Kennedy’s major is at U.H., do you actually see Kennedy graduating and working here in Hawaii with whatever degree he has when he has the body, potential and skill to make it in the NFL, anyone else the football team would close the door if they even tried to ask for a tryout.
Yeah, Sociology!, are you trying to belittle these football players’ overall abilities?
Unfortunately, if they are deemed guilty, indeed, and cannot participate in f-ball anymore, then poof go the scholarships.
Boy did allie get you boys again, funny.
Good sound decision by Rolo. Hopefully, they are receiving counseling and working out to get in shape for the upcoming season. Best of luck to both of them!
Except it really wasn’t Rolovich’s call no matter how anyone wants to spin it. At the end of the day, the UH system has done a far better job keeping their Richardson School of Law graduates working than they do with the other 99.5% of their students leaving with degrees…
Nice try, but have you actually read the Student Rule Book about the rules and regulations regarding what they can and cannot do, if the head chancellor deems that these two players cannot return to the football team then they should follow the law of the book regardless how good of a football player you are, are you telling me it is okay to beat up someone and not get punished for it, if coach Rolo does reinstate these two football players he is sending us a message that it is okay to beat up someone and get arrested, I am pretty confident that he isn’t that type of a person.
They are being held to a higher standard than even our elected officials, policemen, teachers…Yes it is a privilege, yes there are rules but young people make bad decisions sometimes. Hopefully, they can redeem themselves with time and get back to the field. Maybe Kennedy and his girlfriend can say they were just “playing”? I mean it works for others in the community.
Worked for major Borges. Up to a point.
I agree. The university considers its student-athletes to be role models not only at the University but for the community at large.
,
If they are found guilty, then they have a lot of explaining to do and they need to work at redeeming themselves. Anything short of that is unacceptable for a student-athlete.
In as much as we would like to blame the players for not being good citizen, it is the coaches responsibilities to communicate to the player the importance of following the law and the student code of conduct. If the coaches did communicate, they apparently did not do a good job. My expectation is when you get paid $400K plus you should be held accountable even though you did not commit the crime. This is what happen when you promote an offensive coordinator with no HC experience. Where was the compliance officers in this? I remember DM said he promoted AP because the administration did not support her. Well, I guess nothing has change with that position.
ah yes…blame the coaches. Any more lame excuses?
This wins for the most ign0rant post of the day! Congrats on your mental ineptitude!!
Makule808…what a tool.
Baloney. Student athletes need to be accountable. They’re adults.
Ho Makule you losing your mind old man what the H you talking about?
Makule why blame the coaches what about the mother, father, brother, sister, grandma and grandpa? Hah? Or is that your next blog. You are the winner of this round.
Agree. With two outstanding warrants. Somebody dropped the ball.
Geezus, makule808, show some common sense, … putting some of the blame on the coaches or other adults….gimme a break….from the get go Coach Rolo informed the players their responsibility and how much it is a privilege playing for uh and to say the coaches or complaince officer is to blame is just ridiculous….
Let the courts decide. If they’re found innocent how can you not allow them back on the team. Look at HPD, they get these cops on film and they are found not guilty of abuse. They only playing around.
What I’d like to know is, “Who does their hair?”
Sara Palin
lol
ha,ha.
evil hillary
donald tramp?
bwahahaha…probably one of the best posts I’ve read all week!
Yobo one Korean lady in downtown.
Too late for tears, Kennedy. Both of you better get your lives in order if you want the public’s respect and forgiveness. If was up to me you would lose your scholarships as well.
I thought he was crying too due to the arrest. But it’s probably because of the pepper spray.
At first glance, he does appear to be remorseful for what he did. If he was crying only because of the pepper spray, his facial expressions would have appeared more angry than sad. And besides, doesn’t the side effects of pepper spray, including being uncontrollably teary eyed, wear off after 15 minutes or so? Doubt they took that mug shot within a 15 minute time window of him being sprayed. Just my two cents.
The only person that I’ve seen that took a really good mug shot was Rod Tam. Could have used that one on on Facebook.
There’s no crying in football!
he was pepper sprayed in his eyes.
Waaahhhh
The UH football program must take a strong stance against domestic abuse and there must be a heavier punishment if those charges stick.
In our day this brought shame to the family! A magnitude of disaster worse that being thrown in jail! Auwe!!
Regarding: “Gifford is accused of obstruction for allegedly attempting to prevent the arrest of Tulimasealii.”
LOL… not the sharpest mind, huh ?
The very best result would have been a DELAY in arresting Kennedy.
There would be zero chance of PREVENTING his arrest.
Wake up and use your coconut.
What I want to know is what were the two outstanding warrants for?
Sounds like trouble was brewing.
Whatever personal issue Kennedy Tulimaseali is going through to get himself suspended, he has let down young kids in Hawaii aspiring to be defensive player for a football player someday. He has not shown the leadership and character off the field that should have.
He was selected first team defensive in the Mountain West Conference in 2015. A picture of an early NFL draft when Tulimaseali graduates from the Manoa Campus. Apparently he is not taking his football career seriously.
Personally I believe the suspension is only for all of spring football and will return in the fall. His down a notch by missing spring football practice. It will be a devastating blow to our Warrior Defense if he is release from School.
Drugs brah drugs. How else can anyone throw their future out the window like that?
Two more future furniture haulers for any local moving company. Strong arms, heavy body, empty heads-just the qualification required. Hawaii has plenty of these jocks
maybe…but both are headed for likely prison stays first
Let’s hope not. Maybe they learned a lesson from this incident. Moral of the story…when your friend is getting arrested, let the cops take him/her. Save your energy for passing the hat and collecting bail buck$.
Looks like they were forced to arrest him. He wouldn’t cooperate with them.
really? a young man was murdered by a convicted felon who had been arrested 58 times. these guys ain’t and shouldn’t go to jail for such manini stuff. i think that unfortunately, KT’s career as a UH player is over. Gifford will probably be reinstated after a multi game suspension. bad for them and for UH. now his girlfriend is saying he shouldn’t have been arrested. too late. if i was KT, i would dump her right now for ruining his life.
Yup, see what happens when he brings her home. Cops in Waianae better be ready..to deal with is mother.
If he beat her up very badly then the police should be investigating.
She only got scratches from him cause he was defending himself from her.
Stevedore…bet they can crack pins that hold cable securing containers in one move. No need think, just crack pins and move to next pin and get paid well.
Union stevedores for Matson
That’s a good one! Do commercial with Coach Chow.
When the ego or pride abandons a person it equates to loss of opportunities for greater rewards. There is no simple reasons for why these young men acted the way they did. Worry about how they will be able to straighten themselves out. Hopefully, they will learn from this misstep.
Ditto.
If Kennedy is smart he should forgo his senior year and try out for the NFL as a walk-on for any team that wants him, we already know someone like Kennedy is a rare find to U.H. and the chances of U.H. trying to find another football player like him here in Hawaii to play for U.H. is very, very rare indeed, and even if he doesn’t make it in the NFL he can always find work at Matson working as a Steveadore
Yup.
agree
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Nope, not s baseball player.
“It’s not our job to talk about innocent or guilty,” Rolovich said. “It’s our job to grow these young men as good as we can. There (are) a lot of people (who have) jobs that will deal with that that are better than us at that.”
i.e. we will need to hire really expensive attorneys to figure out the mess…something not available to every student at the UH
UH doesn’t supply attorneys for students, athletes or not.
Kennedy is nothing but a coward. He only picks on everyone who is smaller then him.
@ google – I don’t think Kennedy really wanted to hurt her. He shouldn’t have touched her though that’s true. Coward part? Maybe you should go find out for sure from him and let us know.
I think Google is a coward to be posting that online instead of confronting who he thinks is a coward, but one coward confronting another coward may be a cowardly proposition.
From what can be gleaned from the news reports, it does not appear Gifford did much of anything and he was just trying to help his friend and teammate.
Charging him with Obstruction is in a lot of cases can even result from simply asking police why the person is being arrested.
Tulimasealii on the other hand, needs to grow up and learn from this incident. Do not know the situation between himself and his girlfriend but it was reported in the news that
police had been there on several other occasions. If so, he and his girlfriend both need to examine their apparent rocky relationship.
While I do not know the details of the case besides what the SA has published, it doesn’t appear that Gifford got into a physical confrontation with the first responders or he would have been charged with assaulting a police officer, which is a very serious crime. That being said, with someone as physically imposing as Gifford who is powerfully built and stands 6-foot-4 and weighs around 285 pounds, just standing between Tulimasealii and the police could be perceived as a threat. So my word of advice is to stand down when police are in hot pursuit of a suspect–especially if you are as big as Gifford is.
Correction: According to a Hawaii News Now article written by Lynn Kawano, sources say Gifford pushed one of the officers.
yes, backed up by his girlfriend…. Made comment to media that’s what football players do…..what a dummy….she gotta be local….she needs to keep her mouth shut. Case is now a high profile case being investigated by police and the prosecutors office…. and Michael Green is in the mix. Going be very expensive for both players, he is not cheap. Made comment on ESPN, 1420 the other day, NCAA will be watching UH very closely… anything offered free could be viewed ad s gift.
hey! aren’t they presumed innocent until proven guilty? isn’t the team supposed to support their team members? what CRIME did they commit? bet this will never happen again…
how about some anger management training instead?
Would a third string UH player from the mainland get as much press coverage, as big a picture, the “lead” story over this type of incident, compared to a guy like Tulimasealii? Probably not I would bet. This is big news because the kid is part of UH, really good, highly recruited, and local. How does this impact the thought processes of good, local football players thinking about going to UH? What does the future hold for young Tulimasealii after all this coverage, whether or not he is acquitted?
that female may decide not to testify.
No impact on recruiting a good local player to UH. If a kid from Hawaii who is a 5 or 4 star athlete did something like this on the mainland do you think it would be covered up? OK, maybe at Tennessee.
What a mess, it didn’t have to be this way.
Probably took 50 “midget cops” to arrest both of them.
Yes, and I guess that if you needed help as a crime victim you’d welcome ONE “midget cop” to come toyour rescue right?
Ugh.
Different culture. Was only one love tap.
You can take the kid out of Waianae but you can’t take the Waianae out of the kid…..
Unbelievable as.anine comments from some of you such as the Waianae reference and the midgets. What happened was not right but hanging these young men to dry is pathetic. None of you really knows what really happened.
You are living in Fantasy Land….I guess you think that their immediate suspension from the team is “asanine”. Guilty until proven innocent! Wanna bet?
Not a nice way to start for Rolo but he cannot control the stupidity of his players.
One important issue about Kennedy being arrested. I believe they mention a female was involved. Was she assaulted (not sexually) in that apartment. If that was true, it would be a bad start for Kennedy future with an NFL team – should he himself is serious about his football career.
The NFL takes it very very seriously if you assault a female or worse yet, your own wife. Remember the Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Price where a video camera caught him slugging his girl friend (now his wife) in the elevator. The Baltimore Ravens immediately released him. That was a couple of years ago. Correct me if I am wrong, so far no NFL team wants a person of this character on their team.
Unless Kennedy grows up and mature, he is wasting a good potential NFL career next year. That’s my opinion
Time for the SA reporters to move on and write about the other UH football players, making things happen now at spring practice.
maybe his girlfriend should be evaluated for anger/management issues, after all, it takes two to fight and she was fighting with him. what he did was wrong but in unstable people provocation will unleash the violence, it is a reflex action no thinking involved.