Elisha Shaw: The Story You Won’t Hear From The National Media

It was another typical National Signing Day for Alabama fans. Coach Nick Saban and the staff pulled in yet another top ranked class. In fact, it was ranked number one across all of the major recruiting sites. The Tide even added a former Auburn player’s son when 5-star LB Rashaan Evans signed with them. Evans even attends high school right there in Auburn’s backyard. The class met every single need that the Tide has and is being called one of the greatest in history. All of these things are more than enough to make Alabama fans more than ecstatic. However, there is another reason this class is special for me. You probably won’t hear a single peep from the national media about it either. I am pretty sure that Michael Carvell from the Atlanta Journal Constitution won’t say a word about it because it doesn’t fit his agenda. The website that takes the time to point out how Big Bad Saban likes to oversign probably won’t add anything about it on their little corner of the world wide web but we will here.

Elisha Shaw was the number one ranked defensive tackle coming out of Georgia. The 6 ft 4 in, 310 pound senior unfortunately suffered a neck injury during pre-season practice when his head dropped too low while making a tackle. Initial fears were a fracture but later x-rays thankfully revealed that wasn’t the case. Most schools continued their recruitment of Shaw until late in 2013 when  Shaw was told by doctors that he would never play football again. All of those schools quit calling and trying to pull them to their school. All except one. Nick Saban and Alabama.

More than likely, Shaw won’t get to live his dream of playing football but that doesn’t stop him at all. Shortly after the injury happened, an interview with his high school’s coach showed exactly what kind of character Shaw does have. “He’s out there with the guys every day,” Tucker coach Bryan Lamar said. “He’s a special kid. He has got such a great personality and such a great outlook on life. He was down a little bit when it happened. His teammates, his coaches and everybody kind of picked him up. He’s doing better.” With an attitude like that, Shaw is destined for success in life whether it is on a football field or not, It’s evident that the Tide staff picked up on that as well and from all accounts, fell in love with Shaw. They stood by him and let him have his moment today with his announcement ceremony when he announced that he would be attending Alabama. Shaw will attend Bama on a football scholarship and receive a medical hardship.

We could all learn a lesson from the young Shaw. Sometimes things don’t go as planned but we have to press on and keep going. Shaw is a perfect example of knowing we are all going to fall at some point in time but the important part is to pick ourselves up, dust off and to keep going. This won’t keep Shaw from the game of football that he loves so much. Shaw summed things up better today via this Twitter account than I ever could, even with all of these words that I have typed. “Quote of the day. Never give up on anything you love. Roll Tide”.

Roll Tide, indeed Elisha Shaw. Welcome to Bama Nation. You are going to do great things and we will all be here standing behind you.