Sopoaga enjoying
life in the NFL

SAAC Sopoaga is happy. You can hear the smile in his voice.

He sounds comfortable. Confident. Laid-back. Relaxed.

Like he is home now. Like everything fits, and he's found his true purpose in life, and best of all, he knows it.

"Everything is just fine," he exhales smoothly, like a man on a recliner who just might roll over and take another nap.

You can just picture him wearing that trademark lau hala hat.

"You don't know how happy I am," he says.

No, that's probably impossible to fathom, unless we ourselves have hit the jackpot, or just witnessed the birth of our first child or heard that Target was opening an Oahu store.

The people of Maui, for example, who just saw a Krispy Kreme franchise come to their island, might have some idea.

That's how happy this man is.

Sopoaga feels so good he opens every San Francisco 49ers practice with a dance.

This is not a rookie hazing thing.

This is an Isaac thing.

"I do some little island style," he says.

"I make the team ready for this day and the next day, make them get going."

The former UH defensive tackle by way of American Samoa is in the right place at the right time. He's in the Bay Area and second on the depth chart and he's young and strong and there's family all around.

"Uncle Jesse" Sapolu is even on staff, and they get together about once a month.

He couldn't be in a better place.

Plus, as a pro, he's loaded now.

"Money? ... Nah, that's nothing to me," he says, likening his NFL paycheck to his UH scholarship money and financial aid checks. Same thing.

So happy he hasn't even noticed the cash.

Truly, a rich man.

The facilities and infrastructure of a pro program are dazzling, he says, but in a good way. Everything is first-class. Everything is intense. Everything is football.

"They're all good," he says of his teammates. " 'Cause that's why they're here. They're pros."

Yes. Yes, that's right. That is slap-yourself-in-the-forehead enlightenment on a Zen level.

He's in a zone.

This is the time of his life.

Of course, it isn't quite perfect. He hasn't played, or even practiced that much, this month. His bad back is back, and it's been bugging him through much of August.

"When I first started camp," he says, "camp was fun for me."

But now, injury. And that isn't positive and comfortable and smooth. He doesn't want to think about it or talk about it or even bring it up.

He won't let any bad thoughts drag him down, not now. Can't even let them enter his brain.

This is a dream and he's living it. He doesn't want anything to wake him up.

He had a doctor's appointment yesterday.

He's hoping to be back on the field today, running, hitting, working.

"I really want to play this week," he says. He has to get back in there.

He's already missed two preseason games.

"That's not a good thing," he says.