NFL player dropped by team after arrest. Now he's trying to work his way back in
College pro days offer the best opportunities for prospects to show off their skills to NFL coaches and personnel.
Unlike the NFL combine, pro days take place in the comfort of a player’s home stadium or practice field. Players also get to perform alongside their teammates, so quarterbacks and receivers can take advantage of the rapport they wouldn’t have with random players at the combine.
But what pro days also offer is a chance at redemption for former players of the school hosting the event. A good example of that was Johnny Manziel throwing at Texas A&M’s pro day last week.
Manziel last played for the Aggies in 2013, but used A&M’s pro day as an opportunity to show off his skills in the hopes of getting another shot with an NFL team.
A day after Manziel showed NFL teams what he can do, the University of Florida held its own pro day. And the event allowed another former first-round pick who had fallen out of favor with the NFL the opportunity to prove he is worthy of a second chance.
Matt Elam was a first-round pick by the Ravens in 2013 after being an All-American safety with the Gators. Not only did he join a team that had just won the Super Bowl the year before, but he was replacing a legend at the position in Ed Reed.
Perhaps due to those high expectations, Elam never developed into the type of player the Ravens had hoped for, despite a solid rookie season in which he started 15 games.
Elam was benched for poor play during his second year in the NFL, then missed his entire third season due to injury. By 2016, his last with the Ravens, he had become an afterthought on defense.
In addition to all the problems Elam had on the field, there were even more issues off of it. In 2015, he was suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. He was also arrested twice in a four-month span in 2017.
The charges from those two arrests were dropped, but Elam was still hit with a six-game suspension by the NFL in October 2017.
That was the last anyone had heard of Elam until he received an opportunity to participate in Florida’s pro day. He’s 26 years old and hasn’t played a snap in almost 2 years, but he’s grateful just to get a second chance.
Matt Elam emotional talking about his last year. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Zk8Lz51koc
— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) March 28, 2018
“It’s been a year off for me. I’ve been trying to get myself right mentally for my family to show these people that I deserve a second chance,” Elam said, his voice trembling as he spoke.
“I love this game, and I know I’ve got plenty of people looking up to me,” Elam said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “I let a lot of people down. It’s very important to me. It’s tough.”
Receiver Antonio Callaway is another former Gator who ran into trouble but was given a second chance at the pro day by head coach Dan Mullen.
“This is an opportunity for them,” Mullen said. “I’m a big believer that people deserve second chances in life and in everything. They’re part of the Gator family. They’re part of this family.”
Like Manziel before him, Elam doesn’t know what his future holds in regard to getting another shot in the NFL. But he’s willing to bet on himself as a player, and he says he’s now a much better person than he once was.
“I know I’m young, and I know I can do a lot,” he said. “I know I can bring a lot to a club. I was down on myself and the mistakes I made. But it’s time to put that behind me, be great and grown up and be a man.”
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