And while Laulu’s football life journey back to Las Vegas has been a circuitous one – the Raiders broke ground on Allegiant Stadium in the fall semester of his senior year of high school – his journey to the quarterback is anything but.
“First is a surge of excitement,” Laulu said. “You’re filled with energy. Excited. Happy. Getting to the quarterback, especially from the interior, is as hard as it is already. And then you celebrate with your guys and then afterwards, then you get hit with the tired.
“You’re like, ‘Whoa, I’m tired now.’ Maxx even says it himself – because he never gets tired – the only time you get tired is when you celebrate, because you just get so excited.”
“He’s a high-effort guy,” Booker said of Laulu. “And he can also rush his ass off. So when that combines, you have those stretches of games where, shoot, you can get four [sacks] in six [games], or even more. I think the sky’s the limit for him.”
While Laulu has not had a sack since Week 6, he is still second on the team, behind Crosby and his eight sacks.
Literally and figuratively, it’s about getting home for Laulu.
Just like that day he had to pull over into a nondescript Indianapolis hotel parking lot to make sense of what his agent was texting him.
After all, Laulu figured he’d head back to Las Vegas for a few days to see family after signing that practice squad deal with the Colts before returning to Indianapolis to start the season.
“I was like, Oh, I guess I’m really going home,” he laughed. “And when I got here, my sisters were there at the hotel to pick me up already and then took me to my mom’s house and it was just crazy.”
Almost as crazy as going from Sin City to Paradise to Middle America to the Heartland back to Sin City, and watching Allegiant Stadium rise from the desert on every trip home.
“Every time I say I’m from Vegas people say, ‘Oh, you live on The Strip?’ I’m like, ‘No, bro,'” Laulu laughed.
“I didn’t think I’d be playing in there … It’s crazy to be able to be here, back home, after everywhere I’ve been. But yeah, the stadium, they built it fast. I ain’t gonna lie.”