INDIANAPOLIS - As Penn State defensive end Tamba Hali recounted his story at the NFL Scouting Combine, a room filled with coaches and scouts from the New York Giants turned dead silent.

Hali wasn't talking about his Big Ten-leading 11 sacks or Penn State's triple-overtime win against Florida State in the Orange Bowl. That's trivial compared with what really is important in Hali's life.

Hali spoke of growing up amid civil war in his native Liberia. Of seeing dead bodies stacked in the streets. Of fleeing the city and living in huts. Of leaving his mother when he was 10 years old and not seeing her since that day at the airport in 1994. And of preparing to take the exam and becoming a United States citizen sometime this year.

Suddenly, Hali's time in the 40-yard dash and how many times he could bench-press 225 pounds seemed terribly insignificant.

"You could hear a pin drop in our interview room," Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi said. "I was just overwhelmed with not only his story, but the way he told it. He's such a thoughtful, intellectual, moving person. ... That was one of the most impressive interviews I've ever been around."

For several years, Hali had little communication with his mother, Rachel Keita, but thanks to the miracle of cell phones, he speaks to her twice a week and plans on bringing her to the United States once he secures U.S. citizenship, not to mention a multimillion dollar contract as a likely first-round draft choice.

"It's going to be a drastic change for her," Hali said. "She's going to go from living in a hut to living in a nice home. I just want her to be by my side."

And away from gunfire. She was shot in the leg a few years ago.

"She was walking with three or four other friends in Monrovia," Hali recounted. "What I hear is that three other people got killed, and she got shot in the knee. By God's grace, she's still alive."

Hali and two older brothers and a younger sister arrived in the United States 12 years ago after fleeing to the Ivory Coast, where their mother filed emigration papers for them. Using an amateur radio, Hali and his siblings contacted their father, Henry, a teacher at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Teaneck (N.J.) High School, and were reunited with him. Henry came to the United States in 1985 when Tamba was 2.

However, because Hali's biological parents had remarried, his mother had no blood relative to bring her to this country.

Although Hali said things have calmed down in Liberia, the memories of life in a war-torn country still haunt him.

"The first time we got attacked (by rebels), the plane came down, and we were just sitting there," Hali said. "My mother was cooking, and gunfire just started erupting all over the place. That happened all the time. So we went into hiding. My step-dad got a car, and we went to a village far from the city.

"Certain people would hide us. We'd have places to stay in little huts. You find ways to manage. You find ways to eat, cook and all of that. We'd spend six months there and then come back out, and things would cease a little bit. Then they would start again and (we) thought we should flee the country."

He discovered football in middle school, though basketball was his sport of choice.

"That's what I really liked doing, playing basketball," Hali said. "All my fouls came on offense. When I got on the football team, all I wanted to do was hit. That's the way it all started."

Hali didn't realize he could get a college scholarship for playing football.

"I was just playing to play," Hali said. "When I first got offered (a scholarship) by Boston College, `I went to my coach and said what am I supposed to say to the guy?' "

Hali, 6 feet 3 and 275 pounds, spent his first two seasons at Penn State as a defensive tackle before blossoming as an All-American defensive end as a senior. When Hali's classmates and teammates asked about Liberia, he's not sure they fully understood life in a country with such strife.

"It's hard to explain to people what it's like to actually be in that situation and feeling like maybe today I could die or see other people get killed," he said quietly.

"A lot of kids (in Liberia) weren't educated. A lot of them would be running around killing people for no reason."

It's just as hard to convey to his mother what he's going through as a football star who's about to be a millionaire and celebrity.

"She has no clue what's going on," Hali said. "If it were soccer, maybe she'd know. When I told her about football on the phone, she said it sounds rough. And she said, be careful."

He prays every night that she heeds her advice.