Playing eight-man football in high school helped Leighton Vander Esch develop his open-field tackling. There's plenty of room to cover in those games.
He then walked on to the Boise State football team and developed into a standout linebacker in his lone season starting last year. Now Vander Esch finds himself playing for America's Team. The Dallas Cowboys used the 19th overall pick on him during the first-round of this year's NFL Draft that started Thursday night at AT&T Stadium.
Thursday capped an improbable journey from a 400-person town in Idaho to the world's richest sports franchise.