Paul Lasike (born 18 June 1990) is a

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professional

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player for the

Utah Warriors The Utah Warriors are an American professional rugby union team based in Herriman, Utah, that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2010 as the Utah Warriors of the Rugby Super League and re-founded in 2017 by Rugby Ut ...

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

(MLR). In American football, he played as a fullback in the

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(NFL). In international rugby, he plays for the

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. He played

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and

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Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

Early life

Lasike is one of 10 children in an ethnic Tongan family. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Alabama. Lasike is married to Ani, a native of Santos, Brazil. Ani's family moved to

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when she was in her early teens.

NFL career

Arizona Cardinals

Lasike was signed as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

by the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

on 5 May 2015, but was waived on 5 September 2015.

Chicago Bears

Lasike was signed to 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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

on 7 September 2015, but his contract was terminated the next day due to

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problems. On 21 September 2015, Lasike was re-signed to the Bears' practice squad. On 4 January 2016, Lasike signed a

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with the Bears. On 20 September 2016, he was released by the Bears. Two days later he was signed to the practice squad. He was elevated to the active roster on 5 October 2016. He was released by the Bears on 20 October 2016, but the Bears then re-signed him to their practice squad the following day. He was promoted to the active roster on 12 November 2016. On 11 May 2017, he was waived by the Bears.

Rugby union

Lasike first came to BYU on a scholarship to play

college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of ...

. He was called into the

for the

2018 Americas Rugby Championship The 2018 Americas Rugby Championship was the third series of the Americas Rugby Championship (sometimes informally called the "Americas' Six Nations", a reference to Six Nations Championship, Europe's Six Nations Championship), which is the top e ...

, earning his debut against Chile. Lasike first started playing for

during the inaugural

2018 Major League Rugby season The 2018 Major League Rugby season was the inaugural season of Major League Rugby, an annual rugby union competition sanctioned by USA Rugby. The seven inaugural teams were based in the United States. The competiti ...

. On 3 August 2018, Lasike travelled to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to join Harlequins in the

Gallagher Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby u ...

from the 2018–19 season.

References

External links

BYU Cougars BioArizona Cardinals BioChicago Bears Bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lasike, Paul 1990 births Living people American football fullbacks Arizona Cardinals players BYU Cougars football players Chicago Bears players New Zealand Latter Day Saints New Zealand Mormon missionaries New Zealand players of American football People educated at the Church College of New Zealand New Zealand sportspeople of Tongan descent Rugby union players from Auckland Rugby union centres Utah Warriors players Harlequin F.C. players London Scottish F.C. players 21st-century Mormon missionaries United States international rugby union players 2019 Rugby World Cup players Naturalized citizens of the United States New Zealand emigrants to the United States New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in the United States 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in England American expatriate sportspeople in England Naturalised rugby union players New Zealand rugby union players