Ezekiel Elijah Elliott (born July 22, 1995) is an American football running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State, where he earned second-team All-America honors in 2015. He was drafted by the Cowboys fourth overall in the 2016 NFL Draft. In his first NFL season, he led the league in rushing yards and was invited to the Pro Bowl.
Elliott was born in Alton, Illinois, to a mother and father who both played collegiate athletics. His mother, the former Dawn Huff, was a high school state champion in three sports before attending the University of Missouri and running track there. His father, Stacy, was a linebacker for the Missouri football team. Elliott's maternal grandfather played basketball for Drake University.
Despite his athletic pedigree, Elliott attended more academically driven John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri, where he was a three-sport star in football, basketball, and track, and also played baseball. He played as a running back for the John Burroughs Bombers football team. As a junior in 2012, he was named the St. Louis Post-Dispatch offensive player of the year after rushing for 1,802 yards and 34 touchdowns and receiving 23 passes for 401 yards and six scores. In his senior year, he had 3,061 all-purpose yards and 50 total touchdowns, including 2,155 rushing yards and 40 rushing touchdowns. He led the football team to three straight championship games, but lost all three.