David Alan Nelson (born November 7, 1986) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

wide receiver. He played college football for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, where he was a member of two

BCS National Championship The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college foo ...

teams. He was signed by the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2010, and also played for the New York Jets and

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Stee ...

Early years

Nelson was born in

Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Accordi ...

in 1986.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
David Nelson
Retrieved March 31, 2011. He began his high school career at 1A Petrolia High School, winning the 2002 Texas 1A State Championship. Beginning his junior year, he attended

S. H. Rider High School S.H. Rider High School is a State school, public school in Wichita Falls, Texas, Wichita Falls, Texas, United States. It is part of the Wichita Falls Independent School District. The school opened in 1961 and serves students in grades nine throug ...

in Wichita Falls, where he played for the Rider Raiders high school football team.GatorZone.com, Football History, 2009 Roster
David Nelson
. Retrieved May 8, 2011. As a senior, Nelson was team captain and had ninety-one

reception Reception is a noun form of ''receiving'', or ''to receive'' something, such as art, experience, information, people, products, or vehicles. It may refer to: Astrology * Reception (astrology), when a planet is located in a sign ruled by another p ...

s for 1,641 yards and eighteen

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

College career

Nelson accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fr ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division ...

team from

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 74, 81, 184 (2011). Retrieved August 31, 2011. The Gators coaching staff elected to

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

Nelson as a true freshman in 2005. During his time as a Gator, the team won two

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. The championship game pits the SEC East Division regular season champion against the West Division regula ...

s ( 2006,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

) and two

BCS National Championship Game The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college foo ...

s (

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

). The highlight of his 2009 senior season was a four-reception day for fifty-three yards against the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a m ...

in the

2009 SEC Championship Game The 2009 SEC Championship Game was played on December 5, 2009, in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine the 2009 football champion of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The game featured the Florida Gators and the Alabama Crimson T ...

. During his four-season college career, Nelson played in forty-four games, started fourteen, and made forty-six receptions for 630 yards (a 13.7-yard average) and seven touchdowns. Nelson was the recipient of quarterback Tim Tebow's "jump pass" in the 2009 BCS National Championship Game which cemented the Gators' 24–14 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners. Nelson graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 2009.

Professional career

Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills signed Nelson as undrafted free agent, and he made his professional debut in the Bills' October 3, 2010 game against the New York Jets. Nelson had two consecutive touchdowns catches in the 2010 season from quarterback

Ryan Fitzpatrick Ryan Joseph Fitzpatrick (born November 24, 1982) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. During his career, Fitzpatrick started at quarterback for nine different teams, the most ...

in games against Cleveland and Miami, in weeks 14 and 15. In 2011, Nelson finished the season with 658 yards and 5 touchdowns, finishing second on the team behind only

Stevie Johnson Steven John Johnson Jr. (born July 22, 1986) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). Johnson was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft ...

. Following the 2012 season, which was cut short after he tore his ACL in week 1, the Bills did not tender a new contract, and Nelson became an unrestricted free agent.

Cleveland Browns

Nelson was signed by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

on April 8, 2013. He was cut by the Browns on August 31, 2013.

New York Jets

Nelson was signed by the New York Jets on October 2, 2013. He had 36 receptions for 423 yards and a pair of touchdowns during the 2013 season. Nelson was released on October 18, 2014 after the Jets had traded for

Percy Harvin William Percival Harvin III (born May 28, 1988) is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football at Florida, when the Gators won the BCS National Championship in 2006 and 2008, and was drafted by the Minnesota Viking ...

Pittsburgh Steelers

On August 12, 2015, Nelson was signed by the

to a 1-year, $745,000 deal. At his first practice with the Steelers, Nelson suffered a shoulder injury. On August 25, 2015, the Steelers announced that after receiving an MRI on his shoulder, Nelson had been added to the injured/reserved list.

NFL career statistics

Receiving Stats

Personal life

Nelson made national headlines in 2011 as a member of the Bills when they played the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

, as his girlfriend at the time, Kelsi Reich, was a cheerleader for the Cowboys. He promised to do "something special" for her if he scored a touchdown in the game. After catching a touchdown pass from

, Nelson jogged along the sidelines until he found Reich. They embraced and he gave her the scoring ball. Nelson married Madison Sadri of Charlotte, North Carolina on June 9, 2017. They have 3 children, Easton John, born April 2018, Noah Ally, born October 2019, and Navy Reign, born December 2022. Nelson and his brothers have started a non-profit organization, I'mME, that focuses on ending the orphan cycle. They were inspired by a trip to

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

in 2012.

References

External links

Buffalo Bills bio

Florida Gators bio

I'm ME official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, David 1986 births Living people American football wide receivers Buffalo Bills players Cleveland Browns players New York Jets players Pittsburgh Steelers players Florida Gators football players People from Wichita Falls, Texas Players of American football from Texas