Apisaloma Donald "Pisa" Tinoisamoa (; born July 15, 1981) is a former

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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

. He was drafted by the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

in the second round of the

2003 NFL Draft The 2003 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936 NF ...

. He 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 ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Early years

Tinoisamoa attended Vista High School in

Vista, California Vista (; Spanish for "view") is a city in San Diego County, California. Vista is a medium-sized city within the San Diego-Carlsbad, CA Metropolitan Area and has a population of 101,638. Vista's sphere of influence also includes portions of un ...

. In football, he was a three-time All-Palomar League, a three-time All-CIF pick, an All-American pick as a senior, and a three-time All-State selection and an All-American running back. His 1996, '97, and '98 Panther football teams won the Palomar League and CIF titles. As a senior, Tinoisamoa recorded 75 tackles (12 for loss), six sacks, and three fumble recoveries (one for a score) and offensively, rushed for 1,600 yards and 23 touchdowns and he became the first-ever player ever in San Diego County history to make First-team All-CIF on both offense and defense.

College career

At the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, Tinoisamoa recorded 289 tackles (210 solo) with 15.5 sacks, 11 QB pressures, six forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, nine passes defensed, two interceptions, and one blocked field goal while starting 27 of 35 games for Rainbow Warriors. He was a First-team All-

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

pick and was the recipient of the Alec Waterhouse Award, given to team’s Most Valuable Player as he led team with career-high 129 tackles (89 solo), with 6.5 sacks, 18 tackles for loss, eight QB pressures, two interceptions, five passes defensed, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and blocked kick. He was named Second-team All-WAC as junior when he tallied 86 tackles (67 solos) with five sacks, 11 tackles for loss, four QB pressures, three passes defensed, and three forced fumbles. As sophomore, he recorded 74 tackles (54 solos), four sacks, 10 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, five passes defensed, and four QB pressures. He did not play as freshman.

Professional career

Pre-draft

St. Louis Rams

Tinoisamoa was drafted out of the

by the

in the second round (43rd overall) of the

. On July 24, 2003, Tinoisamoa signed a four-year $2.90 million contract with the Rams. In his rookie season he played in all 16 games and finished the season with 76 tackles, two sacks and three interceptions. He was the first Rams rookie to lead the team in tackles. The following season, he recorded a career-high 95 tackles and 1.5 sacks. In 2005, he led the team tackles for the third straight season, recording 94. He also recorded 1.5 sacks and two interceptions. On October 11, 2006, he signed a five-year $24.7 million contract extension with the Rams. The 2006 season saw him play in 11 games after breaking his hand versus the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

on December 11. He finished the campaign with 36 tackles and two sacks. In 2007, he recorded 40 tackles and two interceptions in 9 games. Hand, knee, shoulder, elbow, and ankle injuries struck in ‘06 and ‘07, forcing Tinoisamoa to miss 12 of 32 games. But he stayed healthy the following season, playing all 16 games and led the team in tackles. On May 8,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, Tinoisamoa was released by the Rams. Tinoisamoa was scheduled to make a base salary of $3.25 million and count $4.25 million against the cap. Releasing him freed up $2.25 million in cap space.

Chicago Bears

Tinoisamoa agreed to a one-year contract with the

on May 29, 2009. Pisa was named starting strong-side linebacker in August 2009. He follows

Adam Archuleta Adam Jason Archuleta (born November 27, 1977) is a former professional American football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football at Arizona State, and was selected in the first round o ...

as another player brought over to the Chicago Bears who was coached under

Lovie Smith Lovie Lee Smith (born May 8, 1958) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). From 2004 to 2016, he served as the head coach of the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a ...

in St. Louis during Smith's time as defensive coordinator. Tinoisamoa was placed on Injured Reserve due to a knee injury on December 2, 2009. After the Bears signed linebacker

Cato June Cato Nnamdi June (born November 18, 1979) is a former American football linebacker and high-school football coach. He was selected by the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL) in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL Draft. A 2006 ...

, Tinoisamoa's jersey number was changed to 49, giving June number 59. On April 12, 2010 the Bears re-signed Tinoisamoa.

NFL statistics

References

External links

NFL.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tinoisamoa, Pisa 1981 births Living people American football linebackers Chicago Bears players Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football players St. Louis Rams players People from Vista, California Players of American football from San Diego American sportspeople of Samoan descent Ed Block Courage Award recipients