MOBILE, Alabama—Utah S Sione Vaki is a unique player in this year’s draft for multiple reasons. He only played two years of college football because of a promise he made to his late mother to honor his faith and go on a two-year mission after high school. He went to Tonga before COVID-19 forced him to return to the U.S. and he ended up in West Valley City, Utah to finish his mission.
“It was just God’s way of telling me that I needed to be in Utah,” Vaki told me after the first Senior Bowl practice. “All the habits that I got here with studying and adapting to different cultures, I got from the mission and being able to be open to other people.