Follow Us:

[TDJets72027]

On Oct. 20, the phone rings in Sam Budnyk's home in Boca Raton, Fla. One of his former high school players, Abram Elam, is calling from a hotel in Cincinnati, where the Jets are staying on the eve of facing the Bengals.

"Guess what, Coach?" the excited voice says. "I'm starting."

The old coach turns to mush. He puts down the phone, his eyes welling with tears. In an instant, images flicker in his mind as he retraces Elam's difficult journey from too-good-to-be-true schoolboy star to fallen hero to starting NFL safety.

Budnyk sees the eager kid who would show up every day at 6:45 a.m. for double sessions - an hour before his teammates. He sees the little boy who sat in the school chaplain's office, sobbing uncontrollably after his 12 year-old-sister was shot dead. He sees the young man who went off to Notre Dame, so proud, so full of promise, only to return two years later, shamed.

Now he hears Elam's voice on the line, and Budnyk chokes up. His wife, nearby, sees him and fears someone has died. To him, it's just the opposite. He considers this a rebirth.

"I'm so proud of him," Budnyk says now.

"This," Elam tells reporters after his first pro start, "is a dream come true."

For a 26-year-old woman in Boston, those words - dream come true - revive dormant emotions. His dream is her nightmare.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/fo...rt.html?page=0