BYU football: The Fahu-Fui connection

Fahu Tahi couldn't be happier for his cousin, the ever buoyant and euphoric Fui Vakapuna, whom the Cincinnati Bengals drafted in the seventh round last Sunday.

They hung out together watching the final day of this year's NFL Draft unfold.

The two former BYU Cougars have a lot in common. They are both huge running backs, about 245 on the hoof. They were raised in Salt Lake City. Both are Tongans and played collegiately for BYU. Both served two-year missions for their church — Tahi went to Jacksonville, Fla., and Vakapuna went to Oceanside, Calif.

But their post-BYU playing careers start on different foundations.

Tahi, a former Granger High star, had to go the tough route to make an NFL roster as a free agent. Vakapuna, who starred at East High and was seen as the team chaplain at BYU during his career, actually got drafted.

"Fui deserves it," said Tahi. "He is far more prepared to play in the NFL than I was when I came out. He's in better shape, he's had great workouts, he's got a great attitude, and he's shown his value."

Battling for a place in the NFL can be tough.

Tahi, the undrafted one, should know.

After finishing at BYU in 2005, Tahi was undrafted but signed with Cincinnati, and then the Vikings picked him up after a year. At the NFL workouts in 2006, Tahi stunned scouts by benching 225 pounds a whopping 35 times. Cincinnati then wanted him back this spring.

While with the Bengals, Tahi made a name for himself quickly. In a bull-in-the-ring drill, where a player takes on another player, Tahi took out a starting linebacker with a head butt. No other Bengal player wanted to get in the ring with him.

Coaches loved it.

In this sense, Tahi is a great example to free agents from all these instate programs, good guys who were let down and flatly disappointed they didn't get drafted.

Tahi just signed a one-year, $1.4 million contract with the Vikings in a negotiation that went down to the final hour of the deadline before the draft.

In a strange set of domino circumstances during the past month, the Vikings toyed with re-signing Tahi, the lead blocker for Adrian Peterson. But Cincinnati, which wanted a stout fullback to help in max protection and lead-blocking situations, loved Tahi and offered him a four-year deal to return. Tahi's agent made a counter-proposal to front-load a package with a lot of money for a shorter period of time. The Bengals and Vikings mulled it over.