ELIMIMIAN’S AMAZING JOURNEY
Lions star has lived quite the life
He knows his journey could have ended differently; knows he could have been a statistic, another young black man claimed by the streets of southcentral L.A., instead of sitting at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in a tux, waiting for an award which no defensive player in CFL history has ever received.
Then again, Solomon Elimimian has come to know many things in his 28 years: the danger of his hometown, the strength of a family, the wisdom of men and women who wouldn’t let him stray. He also knows all those things brought out something in him which allowed him to stand in this place in Vancouver, instead of lying in a pool of his own blood in Crenshaw.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” he says. “I think things happen for a reason and I’ve been blessed in so many ways. When you’re young you don’t understand how important role models are in your life.”
This, too, he knows now. This is why he says he’s been blessed.
We are all the sum of the other people’s stories and these are the stories of Elimimian’s people. His father, Isaac, was born into back-breaking poverty in Nigeria and saw education as his way out. He would bring his family to the United States, then earn a master’s and PhD in English — which, technically, is his second language — while raising five children in the Crenshaw area of south-central Los Angeles, a neighbourhood notorious for its gang violence.
His mother, Theresa, would keep the family together while earning her own degree. Her children include Solomon, who on Thursday night became the first pure defensive player in CFL history to win the league’s most outstanding player award, and Elizabeth, who’s in medi- cal school at the University of Wisconsin.
His older brother Abraham, who goes by Abe, would fight gang members who crossed him or his brother. In 2001, Abe was awarded that year’s final scholarship at the University of Hawaii, the school his younger brother would attend. At 32, Abe’s now the defensive co-ordinator at Simon Fraser.
You talk to Elimimian’s coaches and teammates and they don’t talk about his physical skills or his athleticism as setting him apart. Invariably, they reference his drive, his focus, his all-consuming desire to be the best. B.C. Lions GM Wally Buono, who’s seen virtually all the greats in his five decades in the Canadian game, says: “To be great there’s something that has to come from inside the player. Solomon has that.”
Elimimian was an all-city linebacker at Crenshaw High whose life could have gone another way. That, however, was never an option for the younger Elimimian.
Abe fought more than one battle on his brother’s behalf. He then blazed the way to Hawaii, where Solomon starred for four years and learned there was life outside of Crenshaw.
He continues. “There were a lot of forces pulling me different ways and it was hard to know where I fit. I just had strong people in my life who wouldn’t let me be self-destructive.”
At Crenshaw, Elimimian drew the attention of some PAC-10 schools, including Pete Carroll at USC, and they all loved his work ethic and his competitiveness. They just weren’t as crazy about a 5-foot-11, 225-pound linebacker. He would follow Abe to Hawaii, where he was a freshman all-American, the WAC co-defensive player of the year and the Rainbow Warriors’ all-time tackling leader. The problem was the NFL wasn’t any more enamoured of him than the PAC-10 schools had been and after a failed tryout with the Buffalo Bills, he was back in south-central, living with his mother, an unemployed college graduate.
“I couldn’t find a job, man, and my mother was lending me money,” he said. “I made it to the CFL because of my brother.”
Abe, in fact, was on his way to a free-agents’ camp in L.A., when he convinced Solomon to join him. There, the younger Elimimian worked out for Buono and would be invited to a bigger camp in Las Vegas. From there, he earned an invitation to the Lions’ training camp in 2010, where he started fourth, and last, on the depth chart.
“That’s what drives me. That’s why I’m so passionate about football. I’ve been doubted by so many people.”
That’s no longer a problem. Elimimian would be named the West’s outstanding rookie in 2010, win a Grey Cup in 2011 and, after a stint with the Minnesota Vikings, return to the Lions, where he’s since established himself as the CFL’s best linebacker. This year he also shattered the CFL record with 143 tackles, 54 ahead of the next closest defender.
“I want to be a legend,” he says. “I want to be great.”