Really hope this kid balls out. Such a hard life he's had to go through to even make it to the NFL and now all the injuries he's been dealing with.
Matt's brother Abram, then 17, was doing homework. Matt, 8, and Christina, 12, huddled next to the television.
Christina later left the house to go to Monroe Heights Park, barely two blocks away.
About 30 minutes later, a neighbor pounded hysterically on the front door. He said a girl had been shot at the park.
Abram and Matt sprinted out the front door.
When they arrived at the park, they saw their sister's body bloodied from a bullet that pierced her arm and stomach.
Christina was a victim of random violence. She had been shot while she sat in a car with two friends, after a 20-year-old man opened fire to seek retribution for an after-school fight between his sister and another girl, according to newspaper accounts at the time.
Though Christina's killer later would be sentenced to 30 years in prison, it did not give Matt any comfort. Her loss would not be the only tragedy he experienced in his young life
...
Last May [2009], Matt picked up his phone and heard a message from a friend that brought back feelings he had buried with his sister nine years earlier.
Donald, Jr., 33, who had just been released from prison after serving eight years for an assault conviction, had been shot and killed near the park where Christina died. The murder remains unsolved.
"I was just thinking, 'Not again,' you know?'" Elam said. "All I could think about was my mom. All the memories of before came back. It was still hard, but I knew how to deal with it this time."
Instead of retreating from his emotions as he did with Christina's death, Elam relied on them for strength.
He spent the rest of that summer in the weight room, adding muscle to what has become a 6-foot, 200-pound chiseled frame that made him Scout.com's top-ranked safety.
Elam transferred to Dwyer before last season and changed his jersey number to 22, in honor of Christina, who wore the same number when she ran track