Puka Nacua’s football career began with voluntary backyard beat-downs.
Washington’s highly decorated wide receiver signee was 5 years old, living in Las Vegas with his parents and older brothers. The Nacuas were insatiably competitive; at night, they would set up a spotlight in front of the house and play basketball for hours on end.
On sticky, sizzling summer days, they would strap on football pads and run Oklahoma drills, wherein two brave battering rams line up across from each other and collide until one inevitably crumbles. These were car crashes, head-on collisions repeated (and repeated, and repeated) in the “yard” — which was more mud than grass — behind the Nacuas’ house.