In and around the Giants, it is referred to as “That Chase Play.”
It is the play where a 5-foot-11, 285-pound undrafted rookie free agent defensive tackle chasing his improbable NFL dream chases down an unsuspecting, shell-shocked 5-6, 185-pound Texans running back from behind at 16.28 mph near the sideline.
It is the play where 5-11 Elijah Chatman announced to the world: Don’t sell me short.
“That chase play that you saw? You saw that effort and relentless attitude here during rookie minicamp. It stood out,” Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown said.
Everyone is rooting now for Elijah Chatman.
“What was going through my head during the game,” Chatman said Tuesday, “was there was nobody left to catch him.”
Only him.
“I guess I just had a great angle on him, and I was able to catch him,” Chatman said.
It was not lost on the Giants that Chatman was a 1,600-yard rusher at Evangel Christian Academy High School in Shreveport, La. Or that he ran a 4.81 40 at his SMU Pro Day. Or that the analytics and intangibles warranted a spring tryout.
“I’ve been running like that my whole life, man,” Chatman said. “There are a bunch of clips from high school to college to now. I don’t think it’s something that was out of the ordinary for me if you knew me.”
It was not lost on the Giants that Chatman was a decorated high school wrestler and powerlifter and is the son of a lumberjack.
“My whole life I’ve had to see my mom [Geralene] and my dad [Anthony] work,” Chatman said. “My mom would come home with callus on her hands. She would always be working. My dad, he’s always climbing trees, cutting branches and stuff like that. So I’m like, ‘Who am I not to work?’ Who am I to not give back to them all the years that they spent helping me, raising me into the manner that I am today?’ I feel like I owe that to them.”
His mother owns a cleaning company. “But when she was pregnant with me,” Chatman recalled, “she told me that she was doing construction work.”
He is a towering reminder that you do not tell a book by its cover, that a good player can come from anywhere and be any size.
“I never really thought about height,” Chatman said. “I got a lot of heart. And that heart came from God. I don’t pay attention to my height being a disadvantage. I use it as an advantage in any way possible that I can.”
The Giants list him as 6-foot. But when you ask Chatman if he’s really 6-foot, he says: “No. I’m 5-11.”
But not necessarily carrying a big chip.
“I don’t see myself as short, even though I am short compared to the average defensive lineman,” he said. “But I just go out there and just give it my all, and I let God do the rest.”
On the field, he considers himself a “Warrior for God,” explosive and powerful, and it should surprise no one that one of his favorite players was retired Rams future Hall of Fame DT Aaron Donald, who was 6-1.
“I liked that he was a smaller guy and he played like he was one of the bigger guys,” Chatman said.
He has become the pet project of revered DL coach Andre Patterson.
“You look at what he can do, don’t focus what he can’t do … quickness off the ball. Him having twitch. And for a guy that’s sub 6-feet, just power,” Brown said. “When he strikes a bag, you almost feel the air kinda compress out of the bag. It sounds different. When Dex [Dexter Lawrence] strikes a bag, you hear it, and I can turn my back to the pad and I can know it’s being struck.”
There were also a pair of holding calls against him in Houston. But Chatman isn’t counting his chickens just yet.
“It’s not done until it’s done,” he said. “If I’m gonna make the team, I am. If they want me, then they want me.”
His forever goal, his only goal, has been the NFL.
“And I’m still chasing after that,” Chatman said.
Is he ever.