The Chicago Bears kicker competition continues to bring in some fascinating names. It started with Redford Jones. Then came Chris Blewitt. Now a young man named Elliott Fry has joined the mix, fresh off his recent stint in the Alliance of American Football where he was a perfect 14-of-14 kicking for Orlando.
However, while he may not win the award for best name out of that trio, there is no question Fry is the most fascinating story. Fry was a unique case when he got to the University of South Carolina in 2013. He had a leg. Everybody knew that. He also had something else.
Diabetes.
There aren’t a lot of football players with that sort of condition and it’s something that Fry has lived with since he was seven-years old as his mother told the Post and Courier six years ago.
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Diagnosed with Type I diabetes before
middle school can be cruel. To a youngster pricking his finger 10 times daily to check blood sugar levels, it can feel like an impossible obstacle.Withrow made sure it wasn’t.
“I said, ‘ Yes, this is bad, but it’s not the end of the world,’ ” Withrow said. “I’d point out people that I saw in public … and I said, ‘You know what, all you have is diabetes. You don’t have that big of a hurdle.’ ”
The daily encouragement continued for months. It soothed both mother and son. After a year, Fry got the message. Life would never be the same. It would never be normal. It would go on.
Elliott Fry battled many hardships to finally get his NFL chance
Fry started every season of his college career, connecting on 66 of 88 field goals for a respectable 75.0 accuracy rate. Unfortunately this wasn’t enough to draw attention from NFL scouts. After attending some tryouts in 2017, he decided to push his football career in a different direction.
He took a job as a kicking coach and special teams coordinator at Richland Northeast High School in Columbus, South Carolina. It looked like things were going to continue in that direction, but fate has a funny way of intervening. The next year word came out that a new football league was in the making. The AAF.
It just happens that Fry’s former coach in college, Steve Spurrier, had been given head coaching duties for the new Orlando Apollos. They needed a new kicker for their building roster and Spurrier knew just who to call. Fry quickly accepted the job and joined the new league.
Barely two months later, the diabetic kid who thought his NFL dream had died signed a three-year deal with the Bears.
