The Big Mystery

"WHY IS EVERYONE whispering?" I asked David, a Boise sportscaster, in my own hushed tone. He and I were leaning against a railing inside the Caven-Williams Sports Complex, Boise State's new regal indoor practice facility. We were encompassed by the interior of a barn-like edifice that seemed better suited for housing 747-jets. Thirty five feet in front of us was a white stripe that someone had carefully painted on synthetic grass to indicate the 40-yard-line on the school's only green football field. Forty-five yards to the left of that line sat Ryan Clady, Boise State's 6'6", 315-pound All-Everything left tackle, two months removed from declaring for the NFL draft and two months away from becoming a multi-millionaire. He was stretching out. Sixty five yards to the right of the stripe gathered more than 50 NFL talent evaluating experts, a collection that included coaches, front office executives and scouts. They were all there acting as sleuths for their respective clubs, tasked with gathering clues about the mystery that had brought them to Idaho.

"I don't know," David said in response to my half-rhetorical question. He himself had been whispering until my question had pointed out the absurdity of the situation: More than 100 total people gathering in a 78,000-square foot facility to gauge how prepared a few college-aged athletes were to play a violent, noisy game in front of 70,000 screaming fans on Sundays. Whispering in that environment was like bringing a book to the movies.

"It doesn't make any sense," he continued, deliberately increasing the volume of his voice. "It's like we're in church."

"Maybe we whisper because nobody here really wants to share their clues," I thought. At that moment, the mystery stood up. He was all stretched out.

I COULDN'T DECIDE whether it was sad or pathetic. I was standing amongst the talent evaluators, quietly watching Clady go through blocking drills. When he pile-drove a fellow BSU lineman 15 yards and had come within fifteen feet (felt like two) of hitting me at full force, I realized that it was the most danger I had ever faced. I anxiously looked around to see if anyone had noticed my fleeting fright. Scanning the crowd, my eye caught hold of scout Frank Arnold. He was leaning up against the wall, a good 20 yards behind the group. Like everyone else, he followed the action intently, but wrote down very little. With 28 years of experience in pro football - including five years as an offensive coordinator and eight as a high-ranking front office executive. What he was witnessing was nothing new. And if it was, his obligatory scout face (which is really just an advanced poker face) refused to admit it.

The night before, Frank and I had gone out to dinner. The evening was, as usual, quite interesting. Like any good scout, Frank is direct and pointed in his words, which are regularly sprinkled with heavy salt. He chooses them carefully because his time in the business has taught him to be guarded.

"I know how that off-the-record s--- works," he replied when I genially reminded him that whatever he said over dinner with a friend would not be made public.

Frank is one of the sharpest minds in pro football. While in the front office, he helped bring in a few future Hall of Famers and Super Bowl champions. Of course, he also helped bring in a few letdowns and character nightmares.

Frank wasn't the only highly-credentialed talent evaluator watching Clady that day. Standing to my left was Panthers head coach John Fox. With him was virtually Carolina's entire offensive coaching staff, as well as GM Marty Hurney. I first saw Fox earlier that morning as he was leaving the BSU football offices with Clady. When I had visited with him, he told me that they would be moving left tackle Travelle Wharton to guard in '08, which I reasoned meant Carolina was in the market for a new bookend to Jordan Gross, their very solid veteran starter who had been a first-round pick in '03.

Standing across the practice ring from Fox was Bengals assistant head coach/offensive line coach Paul Alexander. He was conducting most of the drills. I assumed that he had visited with Boise State head coach - and famous owner of some of the biggest cajoles among play-callers in all of football - Chris Peterson. Seemingly everyone at the workout spoke with Coach Pete.

I later learned that Bears head coach Lovie Smith was scheduled to fly in to attend a private workout for Clady. Smith's team desperately needed an offensive tackle to block for lethargic former fourth-overall pick Cedric Benson. I had heard that Lane Kiffin was also supposed to stop by at some point. Holding the fourth pick in the draft, it was conceivable that the Raiders would select Clady to make up for disappointing former No. 2 overall pick Robert Gallery (now a decent left guard).