Elisha Shaw (right) poses with Deionte Thompson and coach Nick Saban after graduating from Alabama on Aug. 4.

Elisha Shaw was devastated.

“I could not understand why it happened to me?” he said. “Why me?”

Before his senior year at Tucker (Ga.) High School, the former Top100 recruit suffered a serious neck injury that would ultimately end his football playing career. One that once held such promise.

After blacking out from a hit at practice, Shaw learned he possessed strained ligaments at C1, the highest cervical vertebra of the spine, bulging discs at C3 and C4 and an improper curve in his neck. His dreams of playing college football were over before they even started.

“My initial thoughts when they told me my career of playing football, my lifelong dream of playing football, was over, of course, I was heartbroken,” Shaw told BamaOnLine. “It’s basically like telling me I can’t walk again, telling me I can’t breathe again. They told me at an age in which I was discovering myself through football. Basically, they took my entire identity from me.”

The top-rated defensive tackle held scholarship offers from several schools, including his top list of Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia and Ole Miss. But he would never play for any of them.

“It was a situation where you felt really bad for Elisha,” said his high school head coach at Tucker, Bryan Lamar. “He’s a very rare talent in terms of his size, his speed, his strength and his work ethic. I think those were his biggest attributes. He was a kid that worked so hard and had to overcome some stuff academically. He really had busted his butt in the classroom.

“And then to get this injury -- it was kind of a freak thing -- was very hard, very hard to try to get him to understand the significance of it. But also understand that life does go on and football’s going to end for every single person. There’s no one that’s going to play football for the rest of their life. At some point, you’re going to have to move on. And so, I just tried to be there for him and advise him and give him the best information that I could in terms of handling that.”

Shaw at Tucker (Ga.) High School.

That was five years ago.

A lot has happened to Shaw since then but nothing as significant as what occurred shortly after his injury. As he knowingly slipped down teams’ recruiting boards, one program remained by his side.

Alabama.

Shaw said the Crimson Tide was the first school to offer him, and Lamar revealed Shaw was a silent UA commit prior to his injury. His high school head coach reached out to former Alabama defensive line coach Chris Rumph, and he passed the injury news on to Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. “They all got together, and they all were able to work it all out for Elisha.”



The end result was the first team that offered him as a highly-coveted football prospect was the lone school to extend an academic proposal to Shaw following the severe on-field setback.

“I’m just glad that he had built such a great relationship with their staff and Coach Saban that they still honored him,” Lamar said. “You don’t hear stories like that all the time.

“It’s so easy for them to say, ‘You didn’t make a solid commitment to us, so we’re not going to honor what you had told us.’ He had told them he was going to come to Alabama, but you know how kids are … They felt good enough about their relationship with him that he was truly committed to coming, so it was just a true blessing for Coach Saban and the University of Alabama to honor that.”

Named a U.S. Army All-American before his senior campaign, Shaw joined 15 of his classmates at Tucker as they signed letters of intent on National Signing Day. Donning a crimson Alabama hat, Shaw did not actually put pen to paper, however, like the rest of his teammates.

But he did find a way to get to college.

Receiving a medical exemption scholarship, Shaw pursued a degree in human environmental science at Alabama. Once on campus, Shaw was around the team as a mentor to players both on and off the field and provided a walking example of life after football, he said.

And on Saturday, Aug. 4, he walked across the stage as a graduate.

“Man, it was beautiful,” Shaw said. “I graduated with one player, and it was my boy, DT (Deionte Thompson). And to be the first in my family to walk across a university stage, it was a blessing. Just to walk across that stage with Alabama’s support behind me, knowing that I had made my family proud. I took my family name to another level. I’m motivating my little sisters and nieces. I’m resetting standards for my family. Just to do that, it was all God. I felt so blessed.

“I felt like I had God’s favor on me, and I was at the right place at the right time.”

Those that watched him throughout the process beamed with pride on graduation day.

“I’m just proud of him, man,” Lamar said. “It’s one of the best stories.

“He could have easily just tucked it all in, and said, ‘You know what, I can’t play football anymore. I’m going to feel sorry for myself.’ Or, ‘I’m not going to be motivated to do the things that I need to do.’ But he wasn’t, man. He just kept plugging along, just having a great spirit. I’m very proud of the fact that he got the degree. That’s the most important thing for us.”

Saban and Shaw on Day 2 of Alabama's summer commencement.

But there is more of the story to tell.

Now that he has his degree, Shaw said he wants to be a coach. Reaching that decision, though, took some time, and it was something Saban suggested to him early on in his college tenure.

“Nick Saban wanted me to get into coaching, but I had to silence those selfish questions that I had inside me, like why me? Or if I felt better than someone, why didn’t I still have the ability?” Shaw said. “I had to understand why God put me in my position, I had to understand that part.”

Through networking, Shaw decided to write a book in order to repay Saban for the chance he took on the injured defensive lineman. He completed it one month before graduation and is now searching for a publisher. The book is fittingly titled, “Thank You, Coach Saban.”

He started it as a sophomore at UA, and the book is about not being one-dimensional. Shaw faced academic problems as a high school sophomore. While he excelled on the football field, he faltered in other important areas. Thus, he said he was one dimensional. “You’ve got to put your all in everything you do.” That is the message he hopes future recruits take from his words on the page.

But Shaw wanted a way to -- literally, in this case -- say thank you to Saban and Alabama, whom he is “180 percent appreciative” for what they did for him at a critical moment in his life five years ago.

“And this is only the beginning of how I’m going to repay him,” Shaw said.

With a future in coaching hopefully on the horizon, the questions of “why me?” Shaw once could hear when he closed his eyes have silenced. Like Saban, Smart and Rumph helped him in his hour of need, the recent graduate wants to soon assist players on and off the field.

“Now that I’m 22 years old and I understand why me, I understand God’s purpose for me, and I’m ready to one day be the best coach in the nation,” Shaw said. “That’s what I want to be.

“Now, I understand why me.”

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

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