Notre Dame Starter Steve Elmer Leaving Team to Take Job in Washington

Steve Elmer is ready to start a career that won’t involve football. Notre Dame’s starting right guard is graduating in May and has elected to leave the team and forgo his final year of eligibility to start his “professional journey this summer in the Washington, D.C. area.”

Unlike many other stories about guys leaving football teams, Elmer isn’t in any academic or legal trouble and is in good standing with the football program. He just has other interests and wants to pursue them.

Elmer interned for two congressmen last summer, John Moolenaar of Michigan and Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania. Clearly he has a deep interest in the world of politics and feels it’s time to jump on the opportunity in front of him. He wrote about his decision on Notre Dame’s athletics website and had the following to say to anyone who would question his decision:

"No matter how excited I am about what the future has in store for me, the question that inevitably comes up is: why don’t you just wait until next year? My answer is pretty simple; the excitement I feel about the professional opportunity in front of me has helped me to realize that I’m just ready to be done with football. I’ve been playing this game for many years, and quite honestly my heart is no longer in it. I realize that this may be considered sacrilege to some, but it’s truth. What I do love, and where my heart will always be, is the University of Notre Dame."

Good for him, that’s a wonderful statement and you can’t help but admire the guy for chasing his real dream. Given what we’re learning about the long-term health effects of playing football, there is no reason to continue his career on the gridiron if his heart is elsewhere.

While we can all feel great for this awesome story and Elmer’s new career path, his departure will have serious consequences for the team he’s leaving behind though.

Elmer had played in 30 games during his career, starting 23 of them, and was locked in to start again as a senior. With center Nick Martin and tackle Ronnie Stanley graduating, that leaves the Irish with three gigantic holes to fill on the offensive line.

It’s going to be really difficult for Notre Dame to replace the leadership and stability those three guys provided.