Maximum Exposure

What's more, Elkins had to deal with the expectations of family and friends. He worried that his father would be disappointed if he wasn't selected in the first round. Not knowing where he would be living next fall sent his relationship with his longtime girlfriend. Kay Draper, into limbo. At times, the distractions became so great that graduation began to seem impossible.

The first questions that scouts always asked Elkins had to do with his family and his football background. Raised in Greensboro, N.C., Elkins is the youngest of six children—five boys and one girl. His father, Jack, was a catcher in the Brooklyn Dodger organization for 10 years, making it as far as Triple A. "I detested losing," says Jack. "I got a reputation for being a hothead. That kept me from the big leagues."

Jack subjected the kids to his obsession with winning. He signed them up for the community swim team when they were very young and forced them to ride their bikes to 7 a.m. practices. "I hated him for it," says Mike. "Once I hid in the bleachers under a towel so I wouldn't have to get in the pool."

Mike had difficulty keeping up with his brothers, particularly Rod, who at age 11 appeared in SI's FACES IN THE CROWD for having been named city MVP in football and basketball, and all-city in baseball. Mike, on the other hand, was an average Little League catcher, a bench warmer in basketball and a peewee football dropout. "In junior high, my teachers tried to place me in the gifted classes," says Elkins, "but I chose to take myself out. I didn't like being with the eggheads. I wanted to be a regular guy. I've never had a positive self-image, because I grew up in Rod's shadow. I was a short, fat kid. More than anybody in the world, I wanted to be like Rod."

As a sophomore at Grimsley High, Mike tried football again. He went out for quarterback, the same position Rod was playing at North Carolina. In Mike's junior year, Rod, who had led the Tar Heels to three straight bowl games, suffered a career-ending knee injury. Mike was devastated, and to this day, the mention of the injury brings tears to his eyes. "I was raking leaves, listening to the game on the radio," says Mike. "When it happened. I felt sick. I wanted to puke. I love him so much."

Only Wake Forest recruited Mike, and he was redshirted as a freshman. The next year Elkins was forced into action late in the season when the two quarterbacks ahead of him went down with injuries. From that day he was the starter. "He was a remarkable 'space learner,' " recalls Al Groh, the Demon Deacons' coach at the time. "He saw the game in pictures, not words. He also had fire in him. He expected a lot from himself. He expected a lot from every pass."

Elkins developed into one of the best quarterbacks in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But before Elkins's junior season, Groh left to become special-teams coach of the Atlanta Falcons, and Bill Dooley, a conservative, run-oriented coach, replaced him. "I was apprehensive," says Elkins. "I knew my stats would drop in half. Kay was the first to see the silver lining. She said if I could adapt, I'd show versatility and that if I didn't complain. I'd show I was a class act. She convinced me that would pay dividends with the pros."

The first year under Dooley was a statistical nightmare. Elkins threw 19 interceptions and only seven touchdown passes. "It killed me." he says. Last season, however, he rebounded, completing 59% of his passes for 2,205 yards and 14 TDs with 10 interceptions. His comeback caught the attention of professional scouts. He finished as Wake Forest's career passing leader and the third-ranked passer in ACC history.

There's one chapter of his football background that Elkins never volunteered to NFL inquisitors. It begins after his final collegiate game, a 34-34 tie with Appalachian State. A victory would have put the 6-4 Deacons, who had not been to a bowl in nine years, in contention for an Independence Bowl bid, but Elkins was intercepted on the Mountaineer 29-yard line with 14 seconds left. "I fell into a funk," he says. "I slept all the time, ate a lot and went on three-day drunks. Didn't shave and never showered. Hid my dirty hair under a cap. I didn't want to walk around campus, because I felt like everybody was blaming me for not going to a bowl. I felt people were saying, 'You cost us.' "

How could he reveal to NFL scouts that after that interception, he told Kay he never wanted to play football again?