Ben Frederickson Ben Frederickson is a sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. You can follow him on Twitter (Ben_Fred), Instagram (benfredpd) and Facebook (BenFredPD). Follow Ben Frederickson Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Yes, sir, he will tell his story.

If it can help St. Louis get to know him better, Jordan Taalolo Ta’amu-Perifanos will explain how a kid from Hawaii who grew up writing his goals on the bedroom wall of a crowded two-bedroom apartment became the first St. Louis BattleHawk.

All we had to do was ask.

That, and withstand all of those yes-sirs that come naturally from the son of a corrections officer, a young man who played at a military academy before majoring in criminal justice at Ole Miss. He wants to be a police officer and FBI agent after his football days are over. Really? Yes, sir.

The XFL remains mostly a mystery at the moment. St. Louis has some serious professional football scar tissue left over from the NFL’s departure. We’ll see how a scorned football city and an alternative option mix.

One thing is certain. The BattleHawks have their face. It’s Ta’amu. Pronounced “tah-AH-moo.” The more you learn about this guy, the more you want him to succeed.

St. Louis knows a thing or two about being counted out, about working hard to prove critics wrong. Ta’amu can relate.