‘He’s a fighter’: How former Idaho LB Christian Elliss found his way from practice squads to the Super Bowl

SAN FRANCISCO – Luther Elliss must have thought his phone was going to burst into flames. Moments after his son delivered one of the signature hits of the NFL season, laying out New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart with a vicious tackle along the sideline, he got texts from all kinds of people: friends, family, reporters, all of whom wanted his thoughts.

Christian Elliss just did that, huh?

By now, you probably know the play. The first quarter was winding down in a December game between the Patriots and Giants. Dart scrambled from the pocket and bolted upfield, sprinting along the sideline. As Elliss converged, Dart decided to stay in bounds for an extra yard or two. Elliss made him pay for his impudence, laying him out with a ferocious hit to the shoulder.

The video immediately went viral. Elliss was praised for the hit. Dart was criticized for not stepping out of bounds sooner. It was a legal tackle, but that didn’t stop Giants players from getting in Elliss’ face, defending their quarterback.

But watching from home in Salt Lake City, where he works as Utah’s defensive tackles coach, Luther wasn’t just proud of his son for the hit. He wasn’t even most proud of what it represented for Christian, who had to bounce around a couple of different franchises in years past before finding his footing in New England.

“He didn’t get engaged,” said Luther, who played 10 years in the NFL himself, many with the Detroit Lions, who drafted him in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft. “He didn’t engage with the tight end or the O-lineman who was trying to pull him down. He just went on about his business. And that’s why it was such a proud dad moment – he showed good character, and he did the right thing and moved forward.”

In truth, the hit was a microcosm of the way Elliss is flourishing with the Patriots, who are set to take on the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday’s Super Bowl 60. For one, Elliss started that game at middle linebacker, a far cry from his special teams days. He’s in the second of a two-year deal that pays him a total of $13.5 million, a number he could only have dreamed of while playing on practice squads previously. And he’s doing it all for a Patriots defense that ranks fourth in the league in scoring defense, which they’ll need to lean on to win the biggest game the sport offers.

In short, almost five years after playing his final snap for Idaho, Elliss is finally prospering the way he always figured he could.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” said Kaysie Elliss, Christian’s wife, who met him at UI. “It’s been such an amazing experience being able to watch him grind and get to be able to start on a defense and now starting in the Super Bowl. So it’s crazy.”

“We’re excited to watch him go on and redeem it this time,” said Kaden Elliss, an Atlanta Falcons linebacker and one of 11 of Christian’s siblings. “Go get a win and let us all celebrate with him afterwards. It’s been really fun watching him play all year, and to play against him this year, and now getting to watch him this postseason with how special he’s played.”

It’s true that when he takes the field on Sunday in Santa Clara, Elliss won’t be playing in his first Super Bowl. He got his feet wet in 2023, when he was playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, who fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 57. But back then, Elliss was playing almost entirely on special teams. He took a total of nine defensive snaps in that year’s playoffs.

Since then, Elliss’ life hasn’t just changed for the better. So has his career. He has a stable role with New England. He’s played in all 18 games this season, starting in 15. He finished the regular season ranked second on the team with 94 tackles. He’s doing it as a representative of the Vandals, for whom he played from 2017-2021. They haven’t had an alum start in the Super Bowl since former offensive lineman Mike Iupati started for the San Francisco 49ers in the 2013 contest.

That gives Elliss a deeper appreciation for the opportunity he’ll get on Sunday. But so do the losses he had to take to earn it.

***

Mostly, Christian Elliss just didn’t want his kids to see him crying. He was in his home office in Philadelphia, where he had finally earned a meaningful role with the Eagles, the third team in three seasons to take a flyer on the young linebacker. It was early December 2023, and with a consistent role on special teams locked down, Elliss felt more or less at peace.

Finally, he figured, he had caught on in the NFL.

Howie Roseman, the Eagles’ general manager, didn’t see things the same way. So on a partly cloudy Thursday in the City of Brotherly Love, Elliss saw his phone ringing and picked up. On the other end was Roseman, who let Elliss know that franchise brass had decided to cut him.

The news devastated Elliss. A few days prior, he had just enjoyed his biggest opportunity yet with Philadelphia, earning his first professional start, filling in for an injured linebacker. Elliss produced six tackles in 44 snaps. He knew he didn’t play a perfect game, but with a unique opportunity, Elliss felt like he had acquitted himself well. Besides, he and Kaysie had two kids, Koa and Elaia, who he didn’t want to move around again.

“Getting cut right after that,” Kaysie said, “was a slap in the face.”

Before Christian could venture back out to Kaysie and his kids – the couple has since had another, 9-month-old Matai – Elliss had to call his dad. He passed on the news. Then he sobbed.

Why can’t I do this? Elliss wondered. Why am I not … why is this league …

He wondered whether the game was still meant for him, whether he should still keep plugging away if he was going to keep getting cut at a moment’s notice like this. “That was his concern,” Luther said. “He was like, ‘Dad, I don’t know. I don’t even know if I want to play anymore, because it just seems like it’s not the right thing, or I just can’t get it done right.’ It was more self-doubt than anything else.”

Before long, Luther asked Christian this question: Do you still love the game? Christian said yes.

Then Luther asked if Christian felt like God was planning to keep him in football. Christian said yes.

“And he said, ‘Well, there’s your answer,’ ” Christian said. “For me, I’m gonna keep playing until I feel like God’s called me away or my body’s done. Honestly, all that kinda built into my resilience, built into my chip on my shoulder. It’s why I play so hard, it’s why I practice so hard, it’s why I carry myself the way I do.”

“He’s a fighter,” Luther said.

Elliss didn’t have to dwell on things for too long. In the NFL, when a player is waived, he goes to the waiver wire. At that point, teams can put in bids to sign the player, with those with the worst records getting first priority. Six teams entered bids to sign Elliss, but New England was at the front of the pack and struck first, claiming Elliss off waivers less than 24 hours after he was cut by Philadelphia.

That lifted Elliss’ spirits in an enormous way. It proved – to him, to Luther, to everyone in their orbit who were dumbfounded by the Eagles’ decision – that he still had a place in the league.

“Which showed how well he’s been playing,” said Kaden, whose Falcons also showed interest in Christian’s services.

“That just makes you feel good,” Luther said, “and then it reminds you, like, you can play this game. Trust me, if you couldn’t, there’s not teams that are going to (sign you). What the Eagles were trying to do is try and get him cheap. They were trying to practice squad him. Didn’t work out in their favor.”

Instead, Elliss hopped on a flight to Boston to join the Patriots’ program for the final four weeks of the season. He played sparingly in four games, totaling one tackle apiece in the first two and no other statistics in the final pair. To hear his wife tell it, he had had easier four weeks in his life.

The main problem: Elliss couldn’t make it back to Philadelphia for Christmas. He was holed up at the Hilton Garden Inn near New England’s Gillette Stadium. “He was super bummed,” Kaysie said.

So ahead of Christmas Day, Kaysie found the hotel’s phone number and explained the situation to the front desk. She’d like to set her husband up with a Christmas dinner, she told the staffers. “It sucks being by yourself,” she said. “I was trying to make sure I could make it feel as homey as it could.”

The hotel staff obliged, making a plate for Elliss and delivering it on Christmas. That made things easier on the family, on Elliss, who was still trying to solidify himself in the league. Sometimes some chicken and mashed potatoes can do the trick.

***

About a decade has passed since Paul Petrino convinced Elliss to come play at Idaho, but even these days, he can’t believe he didn’t have to fend off other schools. As a class of 2017 prospect out of the Denver area, Elliss earned all manner of accolades, including the South Metro co-defensive player of the year award.

But even with good size, back then listed at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, Elliss didn’t pick up the recruiting attention that his dad and siblings figured he would.

“There wasn’t as much as you would think. Those were two guys that a lot of people missed on,” said Petrino, the Vandals’ head coach from 2013-2021, referring to Christian and Kaden, both of whom played for UI. “We were lucky to get them both. We always thought he was really good, and with Christian, I thought somebody was gonna come in at some point, but fortunately, they didn’t.”

“I think it really shaped him,” Luther added, “in a sense of, it’s just kinda the truth of: Life’s not easy. Life’s hard, even though you’re doing things the right way, you’re doing things that are special on the field.”

So Elliss took his talents to Moscow, where Luther was Idaho’s defensive line coach at the time, which gave him the chance to coach Christian and Kaden at the same time. Christian played in 11 games as a true freshman, totaling 30 tackles and one interception. The following season, he earned a starting nod at middle linebacker, where he led the Vandals with 81 tackles, landing on the All-Big Sky third-team defense. As a junior, he started all 11 games to pick up all-conference first-team honors, and in the 2020 season – which was moved to the following spring because of the coronavirus pandemic – he made 50 tackles in the five-game season, leading to another first-team all-conference campaign.

When he thinks back, Elliss can still remember his favorite play at the Kibbie Dome, where he teamed up with Kaden to block a field goal. Luther’s favorite moment, or at least the one he feels like captures Christian’s personality the best, was when Christian tried to high-five a referee to celebrate a play. (The referee politely declined.) “Each year,” Petrino said, “you just saw him make improvements in all aspects of the game. And that was due to a lot of hard work by him, the work he did in the weight room and the work he did in film study. He kept making himself better each year.”

Still, when the 2021 NFL Draft rolled around, Christian didn’t hear his name called. The standard seven rounds came and went and there was no mention of Elliss. So in early May 2021, he signed a deal with Minnesota, which proceeded to part ways with him in August. A couple weeks later, he joined the practice squad in Philadelphia, which did the same about a month later. Then Elliss got the same treatment from San Francisco, which kept him on its practice squad for only a month.

Not until a year later, in December 2022, did Elliss make an active roster. He found a niche with the Eagles.

It took a toll on Elliss. But it wasn’t anything new for him. He had endured similar treatment out of high school. Now he was experiencing it in the pros. On a December 2023 afternoon in Philadelphia, he went through it again. That didn’t just lead him to Boston. It led him to the Bay Area, where he’s expected to start at middle linebacker for the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Imagine how much Luther’s phone is blowing up now.

“There’s a lot of emotions,” Christian said. “I want to let the emotions out. I’m not a person who hides it very well. If I’m upset, you’re gonna know I’m upset. I wear my emotions on my sleeve, for better or for worse. At the time, I was able to do it, and it’s something I’m very thankful that I was able to have some control over. It’s a good memory. From a sad memory to a good memory.”