SmashMouth

The big, blond mountain of a man lifted his 1-year-old son into the air at the edge of the practice field, laughing with his baby and wife for a few minutes at the end of an NFL practice.

Mitchell Loewen is having a heck of a year.



He and his wife, Jena, have spent the past year watching his son, Luke, grow, starting a family while Loewen prepared to return to the New Orleans Saints and emerge as the surprise of training camp.

Loewen also got his father back.

Three years after his father first pleaded guilty to felony tax charges, Loewen reunited with him in Hawaii in April after his father’s release from federal prison.

If Loewen finishes this preseason by earning a roster spot, he'll likely get to play in front of his father for the first time since his sophomore season at Arkansas.

"I think he's going to come out early this season, God willing," Loewen said. "Come out and see me play."

A late bloomer from the islands
Drafted out of South Dakota State in the seventh round in 1980 by the San Diego Chargers, Chuck Loewen played in 47 games over five years, starting six of them as a 6-foot-3, 263-pound offensive lineman.

Then he built a life for his family in Lahaina, Hawaii, where he raised two football-loving sons, Cole and Mitchell.

"It was awesome," Loewen said. "He’s kind of one of those guys who doesn’t get super involved, because he just wanted me to figure it out. Unless I go up there and ask him, he’s not going to come down and coach me on the field."

A late bloomer who weighed 160 pounds as a sophomore at Lahainaluna High, Loewen headed to the All-Poly Camp on Oahu in the summer between his junior and senior seasons hoping to catch somebody's eye.

"I had a feeling I was going to get big," Loewen said. "I didn't know how big."

Loewen won Defensive Player of the Camp honors, but college coaches didn't bite, and the man who ran the camp, Dennis Ishii, decided to make sure the talented Hawaiian didn't slip through the cracks.

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