Elijah McGuire’s Twitter handle is @Mr_Adversityy, and when you hear him tell his story, you understand why.
Part of it is being born three weeks premature, after his mother’s previous pregnancy ended in a miscarriage of twins. The youngest of six children, Elijah McGuire wasn’t planned.
“I’m not supposed to be here right now,” he told The Post on Wednesday. “I’m a golden child. It’s just a blessing to be here.”
Part of it is losing his best friend in high school. McGuire’s teammate, T.J. Cantrelle, was among four high school students killed in 2010 when the pickup truck in which they were driving crashed into a canal while traveling back from an LSU football game.
“They crashed into a ditch,” McGuire said. “It was two football players and two cheerleaders, and one of them was my best friend.”
Another part of being @Mr_Adversityy is dealing with the loss of his father, who died of kidney disease when McGuire was 12 years old.
“I just wanted to shut everything down,” McGuire said. “School, sports, whatever I had going I just wanted to stop everything.”
Elijah Singleton was 50 years old.
“I was playing Little League at the time, and he didn’t miss a game,” the Jets running back said. “If he had to miss work, he would miss work to come watch me play. That’s what I miss, just his presence being there. The time we spent together was fun.”
It took a village to help him deal with the loss: family, friends, coaches, and teammates too young to really understand.
“I don’t know why the man above took my dad away,” McGuire said. “I was so mad and had so much anger inside me. I was mad at the world. But the people around me helped me get back on my feet and overcome that adversity. They knew what I was capable of becoming.”
What McGuire has become is potentially the steal of the 2017 draft. A sixth-round draft choice from Louisiana-Lafayette, he enjoyed his welcome-to-the-NFL moment Sunday when he ran 69 yards for a touchdown in the Jets’ 23-20 overtime win over the Jaguars at MetLife Stadium. His 93 yards on 10 carries offered a glimpse of the kind of explosive player the Jets have lacked.
He figures to see plenty of action Sunday when the Jets (2-2) travel to winless Cleveland (0-4). Starting running back Matt Forte missed last Sunday’s game with a toe injury and didn’t practice Wednesday. It is likely McGuire and Bilal Powell, who rushed for 163 yards against the Jags, will be the two featured backs again in Cleveland.
What the Jets saw Sunday was a something McGuire did for four years in college, when he rushed for nearly 6,000 yards and scored 52 touchdowns. A foot injury limited his production his senior season, which is why he was projected to be selected in the later rounds.
“I wasn’t as productive as I was when I was healthy because of my foot,” McGuire said. “But I wasn’t missing any games. I just wanted to enjoy my senior year.”
McGuire expected to be selected on the third day and had a Saturday party to celebrate when the Jets used the 188th-overall pick to call his name. Cantrelle’s father, Jimmy, hosted the party.
“It was a moment I’ll never forget,” McGuire said. “You only go through that once. I had a great time.”
Sixth-round picks are long shots to make the team, but injuries to Powell and Forte during training camp gave McGuire the chance for valuable reps and to display his speed. He was clocked running 21 mph on his touchdown run against the Jaguars, which doesn’t surprise him. McGuire trained for three months at Michael Johnson Performance Center near Dallas where he was frequently timed running 21 mph.
“People think I’m fast, but I’m really quick,” he said.
Keep this up, and McGuire will go from @Mr_Adversityy to @StealoftheDraft.