SAN FRANCISCO – It was a sound, not a word, that first came to mind for Dwight Hicks on Wednesday night at the Curran Theatre when asked about 49ers All-Pro safety Talanoa Hufanga.
“Whew!” Hicks said twice to NBC Sports Bay Area in a two-second span before the start of Broadway SF’s “Unscripted: The San Francisco 49ers,” a conversation led by Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, where the former 49ers defensive back was joined by Steve Young, Ronnie Lott, Brent Jones and Harris Barton.
Hufanga is a player who fits any era of football. He’s a ballhawk patrolling the back of the defense, making him made to defend modern-day offenses. But he’s also a heavy-hitter who isn’t afraid to lay the boom.
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Hicks certainly checked that first portion of Hufanga’s playing style, constantly snatching passes from free safety in San Francisco’s defense. Though he only played eight games as a rookie, Hicks had five interceptions and never looked back. He led the league in interception yards (239) during the 49ers’ 1981 championship in a season where he had a career-best nine interceptions in the regular season and picked off Ken Anderson in the first quarter of the team’s 26-21 Super Bowl XVI victory.
In Hufanga’s breakout 2022 campaign, he snatched four interceptions and already has two through the 49ers’ first three games this season.
“He’s just relentless,” Hicks said of Hufanga. “His motor doesn't quit. And that's what you like to see in a defense. You like to see people screaming to the ball, and he has a motor that he gets to the ball very quickly and he does a lot of damage when he gets there.”
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For 49ers Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott, it’s hard not to see a fellow Hall of Fame safety when he watches Hufanga play. From their hair flowing out the back of their helmet to the way they torpedo across the turf, the comparison has been made by many.
“Well the funny thing is, I think of Troy Polamalu,” Lott said. “The reason I think of Troy is because Troy was telling me, ‘Hey, man, I've been working out with him.’ I was like, ‘Really?’ He goes, ‘Yeah!’
“In this case, man, what I've seen with him is remarkable.”
Polamalu has trained Hufanga ever since the fellow Polynesian reached out to him ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft. The two have formed a mentorship Hufanga forever will be grateful for but kindly tries to brush aside any comparisons to the Pittsburgh Steelers legend.
Lott, Polamalu and Hufanga all roamed the USC defensive backfield in college. Now years later, Lott loves everything Hufanga represents and is extremely pleased by the 49ers already being on the lookout for wary passes early in the season, with Hufanga having two of the defense’s five interceptions.
“There’s a hunger there that you’re seeing that I hadn’t seen in the first three or four years,” Lott said. “I’m hoping that the hunger stays there and I'm hoping for him, being a Trojan, I'm hoping for him that he does what he's been doing.
“And that is playing hard, playing tough, playing physical but playing smart.”
Hicks and Lott won two Super Bowls together surveying San Francisco’s defense, and both take pride in how Hufanga does so today.
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