Vai Sikahema (born 29 August 1962) is a former professional football player and broadcaster, who has served as a general authority seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since April 2021. Of Tongan descent, he is a former American football player who led his team to the 1979 high school state championship game. The first Tongan ever to play in the National Football League (NFL), he played running back and kickoff returner in the league for eight seasons, from 1986 to 1993. He played college football for the Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars, and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals (later the Phoenix Cardinals) in the tenth round of the 1986 NFL Draft. He also played for the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles before retiring after the 1993 season. After retiring from the NFL, he served as Sports Director for NBC 10, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Philadelphia from 1994 to 2020. Early life Sikahema was born in Nukuʻalofa, the capital of Tonga. In 1967, when he was 5, the family traveled to New Zealand at great personal expense to be sealed in the temple, an ordinance in the LDS Church. They remained in New Zealand for three months until his father had earned enough money shearing sheep for them to return to Tonga. His parents later went to the Church College of Hawai'i (now Brigham Young University–Hawaii), leaving Sikahema and his siblings with relatives in Tonga. After a year of working at the Polynesian Cultural Center they had enough money to bring Sikahema to join them. His family later moved to the U.S. state of Arizona, settling in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix. It was here that they got legal resident status and were eventually able to bring his other siblings to join them. Sikahema attended Mesa High School, where he played football. As a player, he earned all-state honors twice and led his team to the 1979 high school state championship game. College career In 1980, Sikahema enrolled at BYU, where he played college football for the BYU Cougars. As a freshman, he endeared himself to Cougar fans by returning a punt for a touchdown in BYU's 46–45 come-from-behind victory over SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl. He played one more season after that (1981), serving mainly as a return specialist, before leaving school for two years to serve as an