All About Puka Nacua's Parents, Mom Penina and Late Dad Lionel

Puka Nacua thanks his mom, Penina, and late father, Lionel, for his strength and passion

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua’s parents, Penina and Lionel Nacua, raised their son to be resilient and to pursue his dreams.

Puka had one of the best rookie seasons of all time by a wide receiver during the 2023 NFL season. He broke the record for most receiving yards and receptions in a single season by a rookie, becoming a breakout NFL star.

He is known for his physical play style, which comes from his father training Puka and his four brothers — with Puka’s older brothers Kai and Samson having gone on to play in the NFL — while growing up.

“His passions for his sons playing football was like above and beyond,” Penina told Deseret News. “He loved football and I remember him just being in love with his sons because they had this Samoan build, you know. Just seeing them, he was like, ‘My boys are gonna be athletes.’ ”

Puka — born on May 29, 2001 — is the second youngest of six children, including his four brothers Justin, Samson, Isaiah and Tei, and sister, Chanel. Lionel died from diabetes complications when Puka was 11 years old, but his mother stepped up to support her children, which Puka reminds himself of to draw strength.

"My mother is everything to me and my family. Being able to be the rock of our family and support us in that hard time," Puka told USA Today. "The strength of the single mother, being able to carry all of us kids and then to continue to carry on, it's something that I use to call upon."

Here’s everything to know about Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua’s parents, Penina and Lionel Nacua.

Lionel and Penina had six children together

Puka comes from a large, loving and athletic family with four brothers and one sister. Lionel wrestled when he was younger and was a huge football fan, who trained his and Penina’s five sons to be football players.

After Lionel died when Puka was 11 years old, Penina stepped up to continue making sure the boys would be able to pursue their gridiron dreams.

"But the strength to continue to push on and to be there in all the significant moments for me, and especially for my siblings, being the younger one, of watching her find a way to go to practice over here, go to practice over there, be at this game, and to be a team mom, and all those things,” Puka told Rams Revealed. “The things that she sacrificed and the strength that that requires is something that I hold dear to my heart.”

Lionel influenced Puka’s passion for football by showing him film and training him

Lionel’s training was greatly influential on Puka becoming the man and football player he is today. Puka is known for having a unique physical style of play for a wide receiver, which comes from Lionel making him watch film of defensive NFL legends like Troy Polamalu and Lawrence Taylor.

“There were times when I’d come to the truck, and I remember Puka sitting in the passenger seat and he’s got his iPad, and his dad would make him watch film,” Penina told The New York Post. “Puka would have to sit there, and he’d be watching film as my husband was taking him to a game. And they were my husband’s favorite players.”

Lionel also influenced Puka’s interest in football by training him and his brothers.

“My husband loved defense,” Penina said. “He would have everybody suiting up and putting on the shoulder pads, and he’d make them go head-on, one-on-one.”

Puka video calls Penina daily and calls her from the locker room after every game

The Nacua family is very close and Puka video calls his mom — along with various combinations of his siblings together — at least once a day, according to USA Today. Puka is so close with Penina that he calls her from the locker room after every game, including when he scored his first professional touchdown.

“She was very emotional,” Puka told The Ringer. “Just trying to say how proud she was of me. How proud she could imagine my dad would be of us, just making it to this point.”

Puka credits his mom for his strength

Lionel dying when Puka was so young was tough on the family and left Penina to raise Puka and his five siblings as a single mother. Puka told Rams Revealed that he gets his strength from his mother and the struggles she overcame to be able to raise him and his siblings.

“The number one word that comes to my mind when I think of my mom – strength,” Puka told Rams Revealed. “My father passed away when I was a young kid, and she raised five boys and one girl, and just the struggles she always had to [make] sure that she made us recognize, but also the things that she had also sacrificed for us … People see strength through me, but I have a strength source of my own, as well."

Penina loves supporting Puka, whether at games or watching at home

Penina loves supporting her son, whether she is watching him in person or at home. At the start of the season, she watched Puka score his first NFL touchdown — a game-winning catch over the middle in overtime — at home and found herself jumping for joy.

“We literally jumped off the couch, we were screaming, and we were just crying because watching Puka on TV and seeing him in his element and scoring that last touchdown to win the game,” Penina told The New York Post. “That was just the sweetest moment to see. And we all felt like it was coming. Like we were all calling it already. I swear, the angels were there helping, making sure he got in that end zone and he got it done.”

At the end of the season, she got to watch Puka break the all-time rookie receiving yards and receptions records against the San Francisco 49ers in person. The Los Angeles Rams posted a video on YouTube of Puka sharing an emotional embrace with Penina on the field after the game.

Puka helped Penina when her mother got sick by moving back to continue his football career

When Puka’s grandmother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and Penina needed to take care of her, Puka learned from Penina’s sacrifices that it would be valuable for him to be there to help his mom. While Puka’s brother Samson was playing football for the University of Utah and Puka was playing for the University of Washington, they decided to come home and play at BYU in 2021 and be close to Penina.

“My mom had called me and my grandma was diagnosed,” Puka told Rams Revealed. “It was just an opportunity,  especially [with us knowing] … kind of what it’s like to lose a parent and how we could go there and to be a support for my mom and to support our family because we had gone through something very similar.”

Puka used this experience to help others when he visited a local high school football team whose coach had cancer in 2023.

“My grandma passed away from ovarian cancer. I just know that as much as he’s going through it, the people around him and his family, just the support system that he has, it takes a group of people to fight that as well,” Puka told PEOPLE. “It’s a battle and it requires everybody and affects those people around you.”

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Read the original article on People.