Haloti Ngata is about to win the lottery. He is days away from becoming a multimillionaire and fulfilling his boyhood dream of playing in the National Football League. But during idle moments the tears start to flow.
He'll think of his mother while driving down the road and his eyes start to well again. She was one of the primary reasons he announced Jan. 6 that he was leaving the University of Oregon a year early to enter the NFL Draft. A week later she was gone.
"She was the reason I was coming out early, to support her and help with the hospital bills," he says. "She was going to be in and out of the hospital."
Olga (Ofa) Ngata died Jan. 13 in a Phoenix hospital at the age of 44. She had a cardiac arrest during a kidney dialysis treatment.
Three years earlier Ngata's father, Solomone, was killed.
"(Ngata) has his ups and downs," says Ngata's uncle and namesake, Haloti Moala. "We were just talking about this. He still has moments when he thinks about his parents and gets teary-eyed. He's glad he has football to keep him busy."
Ngata (Nah-ta), who grew up in Salt Lake City and graduated from Highland High, earned first-team All-American honors at Oregon last season as a junior. He is a projected first-round draft pick (some mock drafts have him going as high as eighth to the Buffalo Bills).
That will guarantee him millions of dollars.
Last winter, at a ceremony honoring the five finalists for the Bronco Nagurski Award (given to the nation's top lineman), Ngata and the other players were asked what they would do with their money.
"Some said they'd buy a nice car or a house," says Moala. "The only thing Haloti mentioned was that he would buy his mom a house. He wanted to care for his mother."
When Ngata was an Oregon sophomore, Moala overheard him tell his mother, "Hang on just one more year, Mom. I'll be able to care for you. You can quit working."
Ofa and Solomone worked long hours to support their five children. She took reservations for an airline. He worked three jobs, driving trucks, working the FedEx nightshift, and construction work.
"We didn't have much," says Ngata. "We couldn't get the things we wanted, like toys and video games. We just had food and clothing and a small TV."
Three years ago, Solomone rolled a truck off a freeway ramp.
The vehicle landed upside down in a canal, trapping Solomone under water. He was dead at the age of 45. His employers spoke emotionally as they described him as "one of the gentlest giants you'll ever meet."
Ofa was diagnosed with diabetes a year earlier. After her husband's death, Ngata says, her health went downhill. "She didn't take care of herself as well," he says.
"It's comforting to know that I am going to see them again," Ngata told the Buffalo News. "I love football, and they loved watching me play. My dad and mom are finally going to see me play together."
Ngata remains close to Moala, a father figure who helped raise him (Ngata was named after his uncle). According to Moala, to avoid the trouble that his older brothers found in high school, Ngata transferred from West High to Highland.
"He always had me and my wife as second parents," says Moala.
"He's been like a son to me. He spent more time at my house than at home. I can never replace his dad, but I was the next closest thing.
He's always been a good kid. The worst thing he's ever done is rear-end a car. He's been a wonderful example for my own kids."
Moala started at middle linebacker for the University of Utah as a true freshman, but knee injuries limited his playing time the rest of his career. When Ngata was eight years old, he found a photo of Moala in his Ute uniform and wrote on it: "This is my Uncle Haloti. He didn't make it to the NFL, but I will."
After a standout career at Highland, Ngata had a difficult time choosing from all the colleges that offered him scholarships. He made a verbal commitment to Nebraska, then changed his mind and committed to BYU. On signing day, he signed with Oregon. He became a starter in the fifth game of his freshman season. He was sidelined by a knee injury the following season but returned to play in 2004. The 6-foot-4, 338-pound Ngata was the 2005 co-defensive player of the year in the Pac-10 Conference.
Once again, he finds himself being wooed by many teams. Last week Ngata visited the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday, the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday and the New York Jets on Thursday.
He will be a rich man after Saturday's draft. According to his uncle, Ngata lives simply. He drives a 16-year-old Range Rover and doesn't even spend all the money from his scholarship check each month.
"I don't know what he's going to do with more than that," says Moala. "He's very comfortable with the (scholarship money). I don't think he realizes how much money he's going to make. His agent has gotten a car deal for him. They're just waiting for him to pick it up, but he hasn't bothered to do it."
Says Ngata, "The NFL has been a dream of mine." He had hoped to share it with his mother. "I think about her a lot," he says. "I just hope she's happy."
E-mail: drob@desnews.com