Thursday, July 2, 2009.

There are four Boise State products still on NFL rosters as rookie undrafted free agents. It is, of course, the toughest road to making a team. The one who's in the best position right now might surprise you. Ian Johnson and Vinny Perretta are in Minnesota, Julian Hawkins is in Dallas, and Chris O'Neill is in Oakland. It's O'Neill whose stock has risen, in a most unusual way. A tight end at Boise State who missed a good chunk of his senior year with a broken foot, O'Neill was moved to inside linebacker by the Raiders two weeks ago. Oakland will have 10 linebackers in training camp. The Raiders have told O'Neill they're going to keep nine, seven on the active roster and two on the practice squad.

We've seen linebackers move to fullback ala Korey Hall in Green Bay. But tight end to inside 'backer? "Al Davis must have seen something he liked," said O'Neill. "The transition has been easy--I'm excited." It's not like he has a history there. O'Neill played quarterback in high school and "only a little defense." But he says tight ends are taught to know what linebackers do; he just has to learn new lingo. At 6-3, 250 pounds, O'Neill is the right size. By the way, five undrafted free agents made the Raiders' 53-man roster by the end of last season.

This is why Boise State always has a scholarship or two in its back pocket. It doesn't matter when a player becomes available as long as he's the right guy. Bronco Country.com reports that BSU has picked up a late addition to this year's recruiting class, as Jerrell Gavins, a cornerback from Miami by way of El Camino College in California, has accepted a Bronco offer. Gavins is 5-8, 175 pounds--but here's the important number: a 4.3 in the 40, according to Bronco Country. The secondary is one of BSU's strongest positions, with Kyle Wilson, Brandyn Thompson and Jamar Taylor the front-liners. Gavins will come in and compete for a spot on the two-deep.

While the Boise Burn takes a timeout with a bye for 4th of July weekend, here are some Burn housekeeping items. The Burn have set Saturday, August 1, as the date for their first-ever af2 playoff game--and first home playoff game. The Burn's 11-2 record has clinched home field advantage in the first round. Despite a seven-game winning streak, though, Boise is holding at No. 5 in this week's af2 Coaches Poll. The Burn return to action a week from Saturday in Qwest Arena for their fourth game this season against the Tri-Cities Fever.

After an exhausting five-set marathon, Boise State Hall of Famer Wesley Moodie and Belgium's Dick Norman have made the semifinals in men's doubles at Wimbledon. Moodie and Norman ousted Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Mark Knowles of The Bahamas in the quarterfinals in a match that lasted 58 games. Now the French Open runnersup face the duo they swept in the semis in Paris last month, Bob and Mike Bryan, the one-time Idaho Sneakers.

The Boise Hawks plan to win games like this when the dog days of summer set in. But on the first of July, it was there for the taking, and the Hawks let it get away in a 6-4 loss at Tri-City. Boise had rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game in the seventh on a two-run single by No. 9 hitter George Matheus. Tri-City did not get a hit over the final six innings of the game, but the Dust Devils scored two in the eighth on a sacrifice fly and a passed ball to win it. The Hawks have two more in Pasco before returning to Memorial Stadium on the 4th.

The NBA summer leagues convene next week, and there are tentatively 11 former Idaho Stampede players on rosters for the two events. Among the notables in Orlando are Boise State products Coby Karl with the Celtics and Jason Ellis with a combined Nets/Sixers entry, and Lance Allred with the Magic. Those slated for Las Vegas include Jermareo Davidson with the Warriors, Mike Taylor with the Clippers and Brent Petway and Nathan Jawai with the Raptors. Meanwhile, former Stampede coach Rory White, who's been an assistant on the L.A. Clippers staff for six seasons, is a candidate for the vacant head coaching spot with the D-League's Dakota Wizards.

The USA Track & Field hierarchy is doing its best impression of the BCS--heavy-handed, elitist, biased, and arrogant. USATF has used a vague, subjective factor in leaving Capital High's Kasen Covington off the American team that will compete in the World Youth Championships in Italy next week. After winning a national championship in the triple jump at the U.S. meet Tuesday, Covington was told his leap of 48 feet, 4½ inches didn't meet the "podium standard" at the world championships.

The one-time pride of Sun Valley, Picabo Street, is headed for induction into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Street, who won a gold medal in the Super G at Nagano in 1998, will go into the Hall in a ceremony in Chicago August 12. She was a member of three U.S. Olympic teams, taking a silver in the downhill in 1994 at Lillehammer and retiring after the 2002 Winter Games at Salt Lake.

This Day In Sports...fast-forward to the 4th of July, 1939, 70 years ago:

In one of the most dramatically-charged moments in sports history, a weakened and emotional Lou Gehrig says thank you on his Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium. With a packed house looking on and his 1927 and 1939 teammates around him, the "Iron Man", dying from ALS, speaks to the ages: "For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB's Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB's telecasts of Boise State football.)

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