Back to the Boise State Broncos Newsfeed

'It makes me want to cry a little bit.' Riggins beams as Vander Esch gets drafted. | Idaho Statesman

Decked out in a Dallas Cowboys jersey and hat, Scott Smith sat at the Salmon River Inn hopeful.

Surrounded by more than 100 people in the restaurant in a town of 400, Smith and everyone else was waiting to hear local boy Leighton Vander Esch get his name called at the NFL Draft.

When the Salmon River High graduate went 19th overall to the Cowboys, you probably could have heard the noise a mile down the canyon. Few were happier than Smith, who came up from Boise. He also is battling Stage IV colon cancer and did not want to pass up the once-in-a-lifetime shot to be among the locals when Vander Esch was drafted.