BUFFALO, NY. (WKBW) \u2014 This week, on the sacred grounds of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, former NFL running back and longtime Buffalo Bills assistant coach Elijah Pitts will receive the Pro Football Hall of Fame\u2019s annual Award of Excellence nearly 27 years after his passing. <\/p>\n
The award recognizes his contribution to the game of football.<\/p>\n
“You needed to find out as a coach what made everyone tick, what made those guys go?” his son, Ron, told me. “I think that\u2018s where he had some special relationships with (running) backs.” <\/p>\n
WATCH: Former Buffalo Bills asst. coach Elijah Pitts to receive Pro Football Hall of Fame Award of Excellence<\/p>\n
Former Buffalo Bills asst. coach Elijah Pitts to receive Pro Football Hall of Fame Award<\/p>\n
Perhaps his most special relationship was with one of the best to ever do it, none other than Bills legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThurman wasn\u2019t just a guy he coached, I think in a lot of ways, he looked at Thurman as another son,” Ron said. “They had that kind of special relationship.” <\/p>\n
You hear the word family a lot when it comes to talking about the Bills, and you can make the argument that it started during the 16 years Pitts walked the sidelines in Orchard Park.<\/p>\n
Although he passed in 1998, the road he took to achieving his NFL dreams has now set up generations to follow in his footsteps.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe grew up in Arkansas in the 1930s, which, as we know in American history, was not an easy time for African Americans,” his grandson Shea said. “I think during all that stuff, he couldn\u2019t sleep in the same hotel room as his teammates a lot of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s constantly getting awards for so many things after his life, and the fact he\u2019s going to go into the Hall of Fame as a contributor to the game of football as an assistant coach is just amazing,” his grandson Lee added. “I think that\u2019s the biggest takeaway is what one man can truly do for his life and for the lives of others around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As his family prepares to receive this incredible honor on his behalf, there is one woman who they\u2019d argue deserves her own award.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow strong Elijah was as a man and the things he was able to accomplish, that\u2019s amazing \u2014 but the thing that doesn\u2019t get shown as much is how strong of a woman he had by his side,” Lee said. “My grandmother, Ruth Pitts.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t give her enough credit because without her, dad would be the first to tell you those championships don\u2019t happen,” Ron added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, NY. (WKBW) \u2014 This week, on the sacred grounds of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,4704,6,14253],"class_list":{"0":"post-159625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-highmark-stadium","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-one-bills-drive"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114748946381259642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}