Atonio Mafi NFL draft diary: What it’s like training in a ‘smorgasbord of cultures’

As offensive lineman Atonio Mafi transitions from UCLA to the NFL, he is sharing his journey with Times staff writer Ben Bolch through a weekly diary leading up to the April 27 draft. This week, Mafi discusses the friendships he’s made while training for the draft.

The guy said he thought I was a big Mexican.

It was OK; I thought it was funny. I did make sure to correct him, though.

“Oh, no,” I told Emil Ekiyor Jr., a former Alabama offensive lineman who was training for the NFL draft with me a few months ago in Florida. “I’m Tongan, bro.”

It was just another learning experience for us both. Throw a bunch of guys from different parts of the country together and it’s going to be a smorgasbord of cultures, regional preferences and personal tastes that leave everyone cracking up.

I could see how Emil didn’t realize I was Tongan because there’s not a lot of Polynesians in the South. It’s similar to how I don’t know much about country music because I don’t hear much of it in California.

I explained some basics about the South Pacific to Emil and he just kept laughing about the misunderstanding.

It’s the sort of thing that has made these last few months so worthwhile. They have taught me about more than what it’s going to take to make it in the NFL; they’ve also provided valuable insight about what it’s going to take to make it alongside new teammates from all over the country.

Former UCLA offensive lineman Atonio Mafi (bottom center) poses with people he met while training for the NFL draft.

(Courtesy of Atonio Mafi)

Part of what made playing for UCLA so easy was that the locker room was fairly homogenous; it was mostly guys from the West Coast. There were also a bunch of Polynesians who I bonded with instantly over shared food and music tastes.

Since our bowl game ended in late December, I’ve had to broaden my horizons. I’ve hung out with a lot of guys from the Southeastern Conference who are very different — while being surprisingly similar. I mean, we all work hard and want the same thing, to make it in the NFL.

After spending a few weeks around players from Alabama and Georgia, I realized they were a lot like me, just cool guys and jokesters who get after it whenever they have to. Any time they tried to make fun of the Pac-12, I had my comeback ready. I said we played Louisiana State and y’all saw what happened — we beat the Tigers, 38-27, in September 2021 — so you can’t talk to me about the Pac-12 being soft.

I even got to bond with some Pac-12 rivals, playing alongside Washington’s Jaxson Kirkland and Henry Bainivalu at the East-West Shrine Bowl. The tension of having wanted to beat one another while in college dissolved by the end of the week when we were joking around, having fun in a totally positive way.

It was funny, one of the guys I trained with, Paris Johnson Jr., from Ohio State, kept calling me “my Big Ten brother.” Meeting so many cool guys from the Big Ten made me bummed that I’ll never get to play in that conference. There’s a lot of historic programs over there and a lot of amazing experiences I’ll miss out on.

I had seen a lot of these guys play on TV before my UCLA games and getting to meet them was awesome. It was a reminder of how big America is, just the differences in music tastes between Ohio and California and stories about growing up in different places and random things we find funny. It’s like, wow, there’s really a lot of different people playing college football and it’s just a cool experience to be a melting pot.

Former UCLA offensive lineman Atonio Mafi (bottom left): “There’s really a lot of different people playing college football and it’s just a cool experience to be a melting pot.”

(Courtesy of Atonio Mafi)

My roommate when I was in Florida, Juice Scruggs, who played center at Penn State, was heavy into rap while I’m into island reggae. He said In-N-Out was trash and preferred Five Guys; I told him he was wrong, but it never got heated.

What was important was that we respectfully disagreed while trying our best to understand each other’s perspective. That’s all that matters, really. We’re all just here to play a game and grateful to be in this position.

You don’t think you’d get along with strangers right off the bat, but then we’re out there after a week sitting down making jokes and just kind of realizing this is what football is all about, bringing people from different backgrounds together and just having a good time doing what you love.