It’s not often a smaller community produces an athlete who plays in the NFL.

It’s even rarer when that same community has two of them in the league at the same time.

Everyone knows about Taysom Hill of Pocatello, and rightfully so, given all that he’s accomplished in nine years with New Orleans.

But people sometimes forget Pocatello has a second player in the pros in defensive lineman Tommy Togiai of Houston, now in his fourth season in the league.

Togiai, who like Hill played at Highland High School in Pocatello, broke out a little bit from Hill’s shadow by scoring his first NFL touchdown on the last play of the game as Houston beat Indianapolis 38-30 on Sunday.

It was the Texans’ ninth straight win as they headed to the playoffs starting next weekend.

Trailing 32-30, the Colts’ final play was a series of laterals and attempts to keep the play alive and the game going. When Colts quarterback Riley Leonard was hit and fumbled, Togiai picked it up and ran 17 yards, diving into the end zone for the score.

Togiai played at Ohio State and started his NFL career with Cleveland, where he played his first two seasons.

Since coming to the Texans, he’s moved into the starting defensive rotation, usually playing inside at defensive tackle.

This year he has 26 tackles and 1.5 sacks. For his career, he’s credited with 111 tackles and four sacks along with his first NFL touchdown.

Houston will play at Pittsburgh next weekend in the opening round of the playoffs. The Texans ended the regular season with a record of 12-5.

Recommended for you

Welcome to the discussion!

The Idaho State Journal invites you to take part in the community conversation. But those who don't play nice may be uninvited.

Comments that are:

  • off topic
  • defamatory
  • libelous
  • obscene
  • racist
  • abusive
  • threatening
  • an invasion of privacy (doxxing)
  • profane (including attempts to misspell profanity in order to get around the profanity filter)

will be deleted. Repeat offenders will lose commenting privileges.

Comments are opinions of the author only, and do not reflect the opinions or views of Idaho State Journal.