June 1, 2016

Elimimian on Comeback: ‘It taught me a lot about myself’

BCLions.com

VANCOUVER — Solomon Elimimian wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The Lions’ star linebacker is flying around camp alongside Adam Bighill this week in Kamloops, B.C., a sight not easily imagined six months ago.

When he first arrived in Los Angeles in December to begin rehabbing from the devastating Achilles injury that ended his 2015 season, the first thing Elimimian wanted to know was his timeline.

“I asked the lady – her name’s Janet – I said ‘Janet, give me a timeline. How long is it?’”

Athletes always want to know how long it’ll take, Elimimian recalled back in April, a month after finishing his rehab March 15. He was speaking to reporters in Toronto as players tried on the new adidas threads for the first time in front of the cameras.

“She said ‘June, maybe July’. I’m like, ‘listen Janet’, I said, ‘come March, I’m going to be doing combine-specific training’.

“She looked at me and laughed,” he continued. “She’s like, ‘no Solomon’, and she laughed at me.”

The rest is history. Just a few months later, the former Most Outstanding Player was deemed 95 per cent. If you ask him there was never any doubt.

“It was crazy because March came and I said ‘Janet, where would you say I’m at right now?’ She smiled and said ‘Solomon, you’re at 95 per cent and you’ve exceeded expectations. You’ve passed, there’s nothing we can do here for you anymore’.”

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Elimimian takes a knee alongside Adam Bighill at Lions training camp (BCLions.com)

In 2014, Elimimian set the single-season tackles record and became the first defensive-only player to win the league’s Most Outstanding Player honour. He had by then emerged as the league’s best linebacker, forming a dominant tandem with Bighill in the middle of the Lions’ defence.

Yet those heights paled in comparison to the challenge he’d face after tearing his Achilles midway through August in a game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Many are aware that a torn Achilles is one of the most devastating injuries in sports. Most who do make it back don’t last long. Others never do make it back. Few and far between return to their previous form.

The Lions’ linebacker knew his odds, so he enlisted the help of others who had been through it before – Riders quarterback Darian Durant, whose season ended with the same injury in the first game of the 2015 season; former Argo Vincent Agnew; even past rival Kory Sheets.

It was Sheets who reached out to him and ended up helping the most.

“I didn’t want to reach out initially to because of competition,” said Elimimian, “but he was somebody like, wow, when I first had my Achilles – those negative thoughts came to my head because it’s career-ending and a lot of guys don’t come back the same.”

Elimimian remembered Sheets’ dominant performance in the 101st Grey Cup in 2013, when he rushed for a record 197 yards and two touchdowns in a landslide win over the Ticats. Sheets suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in training camp in 2010 with the Miami Dolphins before eventually becoming one of the CFL’s most dominant running backs.

“I had to find out what he did,” said Elimimian. “The advice he gave me was the best advice I got from anybody – doctors, trainers, anybody. Things he told me to do and things I did every night, building up the calf strength.

“Within a month, six weeks – it was overnight, my progression. He was a big part of helping me.”

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With Sheets’ advice and support from family, Elimimian did everything he could.

Before rehab it started with healthy home-cooked meals and an alkaline diet that promotes more bloodflow through the body – “I looked at everything,” said Elimimian. “When you’re bed-ridden for six weeks, you’ve got nothing but to look on Google and try everything to get healthy. So that’s what I did.”

Then there was the rehab, which was just as much mental as physical. Elimimian, as only Elimimian would, said he actually enjoyed the process.

“It taught me a lot about myself. It tested me mentally. It’s an injury that, you know what, you might have minor setbacks mentally. When you overcome a hurdle in the next week, you don’t notice it progress and get better.

“You have to be patient with it because no one can give you a timeline. No one can tell you ‘Solomon, you’re good now’. Your body has to tell you.”

Evidently Elimimian’s body knows no limits. Adverse situations are where he’s most comfortable. Ask his teammates.

“Solomon has a mentality of always proving somebody wrong, and that’s just his mentality,” said Lions veteran defensive back Ryan Phillips. “He’s a guy that prides himself on his work ethic; he prides himself on wanting to be the best.

“He prides himself on wanting to go out there and putting his best foot forward.”

And that’s what Elimimian did. He wasn’t going to take shortcuts, but pushing the limits? Yeah, there was a lot of that.

“It was just funny,” said Elimimian, “because you know what, every week Janet would say ‘Solomon, what did you do this weekend’, because I would obviously do things on my own – I’d go run hills and things I wasn’t supposed to do.

“But my whole thing was I’ve gotta push it,” he continued. “Training camp is not where you get into shape. You have to come to training camp prepared, and it’s an engine – if I’m not going to be able to play at a high level, I’m not going to play football.

“I want to be the best every time I step on the field, that’s why I said I’m going to push this and rehab and be aggressive and that’s why it worked out.”

“If I’m not going to be able to play at a high level, I’m not going to play football.”
Solomon Elimimian

THE CANADIAN PRESS
So while Lions fans and prognosticators spent the off-season wondering whether Elimimian would be at the heart of their defence in 2016 alongside Bighill, Elimimian could picture in his head exactly where he was going to be the whole time.

So too did Phillips, and probably anyone else who’s gotten to know the veteran linebacker.

“He wants to go out there and prove he hasn’t lost a step as far as that goes,” said Phillips. “Solly wants to go out there and make sure everyone understands he’s one of the more dominant players in the league, and that’s his mentality and focus right now.

“Once the season hits I expect him to go out there and do the things Solly normally does,” he added. “Make guys be scared to come across the middle, going up and fitting up the holes on running backs and things like that.”

The things his teammates, coaches and fans have become so accustomed to seeing.

“The best is still yet to come,” said Phillips. “I think he still has a lot left in his game.”