Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com



DeAndre Elliott was 4 years old, too young to play organized football when he made the promise.

He told his mom he was going to play in the NFL and buy her a house with the money he would earn as a professional football player. He even wrote it down in the form of an IOU and dropped it into a jar of loose change his mother kept, no different than the ones he wrote when he borrowed a quarter or two to buy candy, she said.

"He was playing little peewee football," his mom Elizabeth Elliott-Sims said. "He was actually the mascot; they wouldn't let him play yet because he wasn't old enough.

Last weekend, the former CSU cornerback who just completed his rookie season with the Seattle Seahawks, made good on the promise.

"He said, 'I'm going to play football momma. I'm going to go to the NFL, and I'm going to buy you a house. That's a deal; let's shake on it.'

"Here we are 20 years later, and he did it. He's actually living his dream."

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His mom said she "cried for two days straight" while moving furniture and packing boxes for the move from a 1,600-square-foot house on the south side of Dallas to the 4,300-square-foot home 30 minutes away in suburban Cedar Hill. It has five bedrooms, including one for DeAndre when he comes to come visit.

It's a significant upgrade for Elizabeth, her husband Corey Sims, and DeAndre's younger sisters, Aaliyah, 16, and Lenzie, 11.

"We're definitely loving the house," Elizabeth said

Buying the house "was a little bit of a reach" financially, DeAndre said, given he's only played one season in the NFL, earning the league's minimum salary for an undrafted free agent of $450,000. But following through on the promise was every bit as important to him as making an NFL roster.

"It's one of the things that kept me motivated over the years," DeAndre said. "You never know when your last play could be, so I couldn't wait on that."

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DeAndre, 24, played in 13 of the Seahawks' 16 regular-season games, primarily on special teams, and in two playoff games, making a season-high four tackles in a 36-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons after replacing an injured DeShawn Shead at cornerback. The 6-foot-1, 189-pounder is listed as a third-string cornerback on the team's offseason depth chart.

"I'm just glad they gave me the opportunity and they believed in me," he said. "Now, I've just got to get back to the grind and earn my spot again."

DeAndre was a four-year starter for Colorado State University, finishing his career with seven interceptions, two fumble recoveries, 124 tackles and 27 passes defended. He signed with the Seahawks the day after the 2016 NFL draft.

Elizabeth said she always encouraged DeAndre to follow his dreams. He received a bachelor's degree in communication studies from CSU.

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And once he made the Seahawks' regular-season roster, he reminded his mom of his promise.

"He kind of had been hinting at it and told me, 'Mom, start looking for a house.' So I started looking, just generally looking. I didn't dive wholeheartedly into it.

"But he kept asking, 'Mom, did you find a house? What neighborhoods are you looking in? What are you looking for? Four bedrooms, five?.' That's when I realized he's definitely serious about this. He's had it in his mind the whole time."

Elizabeth picked out the house and, with DeAndre there to help, moved in last weekend.

"I couldn't ask for a better son," she said. "It's always been me and him, and he's doing exactly what he planned to do. It's like part of his destiny.

"You have to encourage things when they say things to you as a parent. They don't know if it can or can't come true until they put the work into it.

"… You have to encourage them and let them believe that it can."

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news

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