When Super Bowl LX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks kicks off on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. HST at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., former University of Hawai‘i linebacker Jahlani Tavai will join an exclusive club.
Tavai, a linebacker for the Patriots, will become just the 14th former University of Hawai‘i football player to play in a Super Bowl. Tavai will also be the first Rainbow Warrior to play in a Super Bowl since former UH receiver Marcus Kemp, a special teamer for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2023.
A lightly recruited player out of Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Tavai joined the Rainbow Warriors in the fall of 2014 under former head coach Norm Chow and redshirted his true freshman season. He blossomed into a four-year starter, earning All-Mountain West Conference honors in 2016 and 2017.
After injuries limited to eight games as a senior in 2018, he was selected by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft with the 43rd overall selection. Tavai was released by the Lions prior to the 2021 season and was promptly picked up by the Patriots, where he has been a staple ever since. From 2022 to 2024, Tavai played in all 51 regular season games for New England in that span. He racked up 110 tackles in 2023, then had 115 in 2024.
In the 2025 regular season, Tavai played in 12 games with seven starts. He missed time after his partner, Kalei, was hospitalized with a blood infection while pregnant with the couple's second child, a girl named Ka ua. Unfortunately, Ka ua passed away in the womb during Kalei's hospitalization.
Under NFL Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel, the Patriots have enjoyed quite the turnaround, going from 4-13 in 2024 to 14-3 in 2025. Tavai has played in all three games for the Patriots during their playoff run thus far, logging three tackles each against the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans while registering one tackle against the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game.
"So excited for him," current Hawai‘i football coach Timmy Chang said following a recent spring practice. "In the four years that I've been here, every offseason, I see him here training on the field and spending time here. Extremely proud and excited for him, and I will be rooting him on."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
