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When you travel 6,000 miles to the other side of the globe, you don't expect to run into a familiar face, but it happened to Tom Kirkland. He ran into one of BYU football's all-time greats.
Fourteen years and still going strong, former all-conference Cougar and all-NFL pro Vai Sikahema is dominating the Philly sportscasting world and is a veteran of six Olympics now.
"I can't believe it. NBC has sent me all over the world. I've been to Sydney, Australia; I've been to Athens, Greece; Torino, Italy, come here to China. The Chinese may rival all the games because the venues are great, everything's fantastic. Michael Phelps, I mean, what a godsend he has been to the Olympics. I mean, he has been fantastic for viewers, great for compelling stories. It's been one thing after another," he said.
Of course, in a land dominated by the color red, Vai is all decked out in BYU blue. "This is how I come to work. Look, band of brothers, quest for perfection, band of brothers. I'm flying the colors. And I come to China this way. I don't leave home without it; this is better than American Express," he said.
Vai thinks Bronco's boys have a chance to play in and win a BCS bowl game this season. "If their offense can sort of score enough points to help their defense along for the first couple of games, I think they, at mid season, are going to be a well-oiled machine, as BYU has always been," he said.
Vai has had a big summer. Earlier he took on Jose Canseco in the boxing ring and won. Of that Vai said, "That was the highlight of the summer. Well, this was a highlight, coming to the Olympics, but that was a highlight. That was kind of a great lead up to the Olympics."
Vai's son is starting at BYU this fall and he'll be at the Cougars' home opener against Northern Iowa.
