Sione Leti Talanoa Hufanga, an American football safety for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL), was born on February 1, 2000. In the fifth round of the 2021 NFL draft, the 49ers selected him while he was a college football player at USC.
Hufanga was a student at Corvallis, Oregon’s Crescent Valley High School.[1] He was a quarterback, wide receiver, and safety. He won the 2017 Polynesian High School National Player of the Year award as a senior. In 2018, he participated in the U.S. Army All-American Game.[2] Hufanga made a college football commitment to play at the University of Southern California (USC).
Hufanga participated in eight games with five starts as a true freshman at USC in 2018 before sustaining a broken collarbone that ended his season.[6] He totaled 51 tackles by the end of the season. He started all ten of the games he participated in as a sophomore in 2019 and finished with 90 tackles and 3.5 sacks.[7] In 2020, Hufanga made a comeback to USC, starting his junior season.[8][9] He was chosen to share the 2020 Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award with Zach Wilson, the quarterback for BYU.[10] Hufanga was a consensus All-American for the 2020 campaign.[11] Furthermore, he was named the Pac-12 Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year.
The San Francisco 49ers selected Hufanga with the 180th pick overall in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft.[15] On May 13, 2021, he signed a four-year rookie contract.[16]
Hufanga made three starts and appeared in 15 games in his first season.[17] He recovered and returned a blocked punt for a crucial score in the 49ers’ 13–10 victory over the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.[18][19]
He had a 52-yard pick-six in the 24–9 victory against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 4 of the 2022 season.[20] For the 49ers in the 2022 season, he started all 17 games during the regular season and all three postseason contests. In all, he recorded 97 tackles, 4 interceptions, and 9 passes.