Birmingham Stallions Sign Former New Jersey Generals Defensive End
One of the USFL’s top pass rushers in 2023 has found a new home for the 2024 UFL season. Defensive end Hercules Mata’afa signed with the Birmingham Stallions on Wednesday.
Mata’afa is coming off his best season as a professional, posting 24 tackles and six sacks in 10 games for the New Jersey Generals last year. He was also on the Generals’ roster in 2022 but contributed only three tackles on the season.
He has NFL experience as well, spending three years with the Minnesota Vikings from 2019 through 2021. In 19 NFL games, Mata’afa made 25 tackles and 2.5 sacks. He has also played for the Washington Football Team and the Jacksonville Jaguars during his NFL career.
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During his time with the Washington State Cougars, he proved to be one of the top defensive linemen in the Pac-12. Mata’afa finished his career with 86 tackles, 33 tackles for loss, 17 sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 28 games. He was named to the All-Pac 12 team three times and won Polynesian College Football Player of the Year in his junior year.
The Stallions add more depth to the defensive line with the move, as Mata’afa joins Curtis Weaver, Dondrea Tillman, Jordan Thompson, Anree Saint-Amour, DaMarcus Mitchell, Carlos Kemp and Owen Carney at defensive end.
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Anthony Miller has been covering professional spring football since 2019 including XFL, USFL, and CFL. He was a local news reporter in Texas before transitioning to sports. Other sites he writes for includes College Football Network and NTZ Network.