Faith, family, football: Jadin Nelson upholds key values

On game day, junior Jadin Nelson wears his black Apple headphones, letting gospel music fill his ears and soul. 

As he walks past Lehigh’s gothic stone buildings, the ringing chords of guitar notes rise into harmonies and echo around him. He focuses on the lyric in the song “Graves into Gardens.” “There’s not a place. Your mercy and grace won’t find me again.”

Before kickoff he takes off his headphones, but the music stays within him. He looks toward the stands, thinking of his family 1,582 miles away who can’t be there.

But in that moment, he feels at peace, lifted by the music and knowing God is with him.

For Nelson, football isn’t just a game. It’s a platform where faith and focus combine, guiding others.

As a defensive lineman on Lehigh’s football team, he’s appeared in 22 games in his first two seasons. He has totaled 33 tackles, eight tackles for loss and four sacks.

Nelson grew up in Rosenberg, Texas and came to Lehigh on a full scholarship after coach Kevin Cahill recruited him. Before that, he’d never heard of the university.

When Nelson arrived at Lehigh, he said the campus felt unfamiliar. Tall stone buildings and the architecture carried a sense of history that was very different from the schools he knew in Texas.

Back in Rosenberg, he said the schools looked simpler than Lehigh. 

“When you grow up without certain things, you learn to appreciate what you do have,” Nelson said. “I didn’t have computers, big libraries or advanced technology, but I carried that mindset with me.”

As he walked around campus, he began to realize Lehigh offered opportunities and resources he’d never imagined. 

Nelson said he has access to a large alumni network willing to help him succeed beyond college, libraries filled with books and computers, and courses on subjects he never had the chance to study in high school.

Those opportunities shocked him at first, but they also made him appreciate what he had growing up.

In elementary school, he participated in karate, soccer and basketball before football became his passion.

In the classroom, though, his competitive energy was a distraction. Teachers questioned his academic abilities.

His parents set strict boundaries at home. If his grades slipped, football stopped. 

By the time he reached high school, Nelson realized that if he wanted to keep playing, he needed to take academics seriously. His focus in high school started to pay off. 

His mother, Andrea Nelson, said she raised her children with high standards and love.

“We may not have it all, but we have a home full of love,” Andrea Nelson said. “That’s the foundation they can always come back to.”

While his home gave him stability, college came with changes and challenges.

For the first time, Jadin Nelson no longer had his mother to hug him through hard times or his family to pray over him. He was on his own, more than a thousand miles away from everything he once knew.

Jadin Nelson grew up in a non-denominational church, spending Sundays praying, listening to gospel music and Bible verses. But it wasn’t until the distance of college that his faith got stronger. He realized how much he loved and needed God.

At Lehigh, Jadin Nelson strengthens his relationship with God through team Bible studies. Every Thursday, he and many of his teammates meet for a Bible study led by Billy Dunn, Lehigh’s student-athlete support and enrichment coordinator.

Jadin Nelson said Dunn preaches unity, love and the importance of lifting each other up.

For Jadin Nelson and others on the team, the lessons from Bible studies go beyond scripture, playing a role in connecting the team.

“The team is like the body of Christ,” he said. “Think about the disciples of Jesus. He needed them to spread the gospel. In the same way, I need my team to come together and follow our purpose so we can reach our goals.”

As his faith deepened over his first year at Lehigh, so did his leadership.

Junior defensive back DJ Brown said Jadin Nelson is someone he looks up to and can count on when life gets hard.

“That’s a brother to me,” Brown said. “From the start, I knew I could rely on him, and he’s been an anchor for me.”

Jadin Nelson said the reason he chose Lehigh to play college football is to show kids in Rosenberg that their future can be bigger than what’s around them. 

When he travels back home, he spends time at his old high school mentoring younger players and helping them with their football skills, allowing him to give back to the community that raised him. 

“That short time he’s allowed to come home in the summer, he’ll go back to his high school, work out with the boys, even friends he’s graduated with, and encourage them,” Andrea Nelson said.

That same influence has transferred online as well. 

When he posts about the team on Instagram, younger kids from Rosenberg comment and send supportive messages. It reminds him that people are watching, pushing him to continue being a role model. 

Back home, a gray wooden sign hangs above his bed, engraved with three words in an exact order: Faith. Family. Football.

As life changes, the sign remains the same. 

For Jadin Nelson, those words are everything — his relationship with God, the love and foundation his family instilled in him, and the dream that carried him all the way to Bethlehem to play Division I football.