"Who?"
Tavai is not a name that many fans -- especially Lions fans -- recognize, having played his college football six time zones away.
Though not much is known about Tavai, the selection left Lions fans on Twitter puzzled, and many angry.
pic.twitter.com/0gmqxOHAaa
— Ryan Jones (@rjonesgr)
April 27, 2019 pic.twitter.com/4LBA9qouOV
— John Marsh (@JMarsh_1989)
April 27, 2019 Wut https://t.co/aOlJ1v95RZ
— Brett Whitefield (@PFF_Brett)
April 27, 2019 “What”“Who”“Huh”“Wut”—all of Lions Twitter
— Ty Schalter (@tyschalter)
April 27, 2019 I just arrived home from my hour + commute home to find out about the @Lions pick of Jahlani Tavai and decided to hit Twitter to see how many tweets I had to get through before I saw the “Greedy was available and we picked this unknown...” tweet. For the record it was 20.
— Michael Tedesco (@MTedesco)
April 27, 2019 While everyone is still trying to figure out the surprising pick and getting to know who Tavai is, it's fair to say the pick was quite a surprise. Tavai was projected to be taken on the third day of the draft, with some sites projecting him as late as the 6th round. Tavai told reports in a conference call at the Lions facilities Friday night his agent told him he would be picked on the second or third day, and he wasn't even sure where he would go.
"Right now, I'm just really happy and really thankful for the opportunity that coach Patricia and the staff gave me," Tavai said.
Tavai, of Inglewood, California, says his biggest hobby outside of football has been rugby. He said he traveled the world while playing for the U.S. National Team, but always knew his focus would be football, especially when he got the lone scholarship offer from Hawaii.
