Jumbo Elliott was on the phone with former Michigan teammate Jamie Morris when the box arrived at his front door earlier this month. He opened it, saw the football with the letter alongside it and figured it was the usual.
“I get some stuff to be signed, and once I saw the football, I thought that was what it was,” Elliott told Newsday on Monday.
That’s not what it was. Once Elliott started reading the letter, he knew it was more than a fan looking to have a football autographed.
Much more.
The letter was from the National Football Foundation informing him he’d been selected to the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020.