Fouimalo "Fou" Fonoti (born November 15, 1991) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

who is currently a free agent. Fonoti first enrolled at

Cerritos College Cerritos College is a public community college in Norwalk, California. It offers degrees and certificates in 87 areas of study in nine divisions. History The college was founded in 1955. It was named after Rancho Los Cerritos, a local r ...

before transferring to

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. He has also been a member of the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

Early years

Fonoti played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

Mayfair High School Mayfair High School is a middle and high school in the Bellflower Unified School District in the city of Lakewood, California. The school first opened in 1959. The student population is approximately 3616 in grades 7 through 12. Mayfair serves ...

Lakewood, California Lakewood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 80,048 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is bordered by Long Beach on the west and south, Bellflower, California, Bellflower on the north, C ...

. He was invited to play in two postseason all-star games after his senior season and was named to the

Long Beach Press-Telegram The ''Press-Telegram'' is a paid daily newspaper published in Long Beach, California. Coverage area for the ''Press-Telegram'' includes Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Compton, Downey, Hawaiian Gardens, Lynw ...

Dream Team. He was also a second-team all-state selection and garnered

Suburban League The Suburban League is an Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) athletics league made up of 15 high schools from Cuyahoga, Medina, Portage, and Summit counties in Northeast Ohio. It was formed in 1949 and expanded into two divisions in 20 ...

Offensive Lineman of the Year accolades his senior season in 2008. Fonoti earned All-

CIF Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries. Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in competit ...

and first-team all-league honors while being recognized on the Alga Foundation All-Star Team his junior year. He was also voted into the Lakewood Youth Hall of Fame.

College career

Fonoti first played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

. He played in eleven games, starting ten, his freshman year in 2009 and earned second-team all-conference honors. He garnered All-California Region IV and First-team All-National Division Northern Conference recognition in 2010. Fonoti helped the Cerritos Falcons to an 18-5 record during his two years with the team. He earned JCFootball.com/JC Grid-Wire and

Super Prep ''Super Prep'' is a sports magazine based in Laguna Beach, California, published in since 1985. It was founded and is published by Allen Wallace, a lawyer. Its main focus is to provide recruiting information on high school football players. In 19 ...

JUCO All-American honors. He was also named a California Community College Football Coaches Association All-American. Fonoti was rated as the fourth best JUCO offensive lineman and the 32nd best overall JUCO player by SuperPrep. Fonoti then transferred to play for the

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the school colors are green and wh ...

under

Mark Dantonio Mark Justin Dantonio (born March 9, 1956) is a former American football coach and player. He most recently served as the head football coach at Michigan State University, a position he had held from 2007 to 2019, presiding over one of the most ...

, where he was a three-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

. He started the last eleven games of the 2011 season at right tackle. He totaled 31 knockdowns and played 659 snaps without allowing a sack. Fonoti played 136 snaps in the first two games of 2012 and was credited with seven knockdowns before breaking his foot in practice prior to the Notre Dame game in Week 3, causing him to miss the rest of the season. He was then medically

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

. He received the MSU Football Player Association's Community Service & Outreach Award in 2012. Fonoti played in all fourteen games, starting the last eleven games of the season, for the Spartans his senior year in 2013 and earned honorable mention All-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

honors after recording 45 knockdowns. Fonoti was also nominated for the

Allstate The Allstate Corporation is an American insurance company, headquartered in Northfield Township, Illinois, near Northbrook since 1967. Founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., it was spun off in 1993 but still partially owned by S ...

Good Works Team for his community service work in 2013. He played in 30 games, starting 24 at right tackle, during his time at Michigan State.

Professional career

Fonoti signed with the

on May 10, 2014 after going undrafted in the

2014 NFL Draft The 2014 NFL draft was the 79th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players to the league. The draft, officially the "Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall in New Y ...

. He was waived/injured by the team on July 29 after suffering a season-ending leg injury during practice on July 27, 2014. He was placed on injured reserve on July 30, 2014. Fonoti was released by the 49ers on April 30, 2015. Fonoti was signed to the

' practice roster in September 2015. He was promoted to the active roster on October 21, 2015. He played in one game for the team during the 2015 season. Fonoti was released by the Argonauts on June 19, 2016.

Personal life

Fonoti is the cousin of football players Tupe Peko and

Domata Peko Domata Uluaifaasau Peko Sr (born November 27, 1984) is an American football nose tackle who is a free agent. Peko was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Pago Pago, American Samoa. He played college football at Michigan State and was drafted by th ...

. Fou's cousin Christian Matau plays football for the

East Carolina Pirates The East Carolina Pirates are the athletic teams that represent East Carolina University (ECU), located in Greenville, North Carolina. All varsity-level sports teams participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division ...

References

External links

* *
Fou Fonoti
at

Fou Fonoti
college football stats at

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC, is an American company which operates several sports-related websites, including Sports-Reference.com, Baseball-Reference.com for baseball, Basketball-Reference.com for basketball, Hockey-Reference.com for ice hockey, Pro- ...

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Fou Fonoti
at Just Sports Stats {{DEFAULTSORT:Fonoti, Fou Living people 1991 births American football offensive linemen Canadian football offensive linemen American players of Canadian football Cerritos Falcons football players Michigan State Spartans football players San Francisco 49ers players Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California Toronto Argonauts players Players of American football from California People from Lakewood, California American sportspeople of Samoan descent