Former K-State star Jordy Nelson on life after the NFL and settling down in Kansas
Former Kansas State receiver Jordy Nelson turned 35 on the last day of May.
By NFL standards, Nelson is no spring chicken but he’s certainly not over the hill either. However, after playing one season for the Raiders in 2018 following nine years with the Packers, Nelson decided to retire rather than try and latch on with another team.
Last fall was Nelson’s first without football in nearly two decades. He filled the time as a spectator, making trips to see his former college and pro teams. Regrets? Nelson hasn’t even a few.
“We haven’t second-guessed our decision at all,” Nelson told ESPN Wisconsin, per Madison.com. “Our family transitioned very well back home to Kansas. Obviously the coronavirus shut a lot of things down (this spring), but I enjoyed last fall. I enjoyed going to K-State games every Saturday and tailgating with my family, doing what I did as a kid. We were able to make it to a few Green Bay games and go down to Dallas and watch Randall (Cobb) play and see him and his family, and we’re looking forward to doing it again now that he’s down in Houston and Green Bay plays down there again.
“We’ve had fun. I have not missed the game one bit. I miss some of the guys, but I think going to Oakland for that year allowed us to transition away from the guys a little bit.”
Nelson was a star for the Packers from 2008-17, winning a Super Bowl, making the Pro Bowl and topping the thousand-yard receiving mark four times.
When the Packers let Nelson go, he signed a one-year deal with the Raiders and had 739 receiving yards and three touchdowns
Nelson received interest from teams after leaving the Raiders, but he decided to put his wife, Emily, and their children first.
“Emily was on board the whole way, no matter what. If I wanted to continue to play after Oakland, she would have been on board. But we had conversations about it,” Nelson said. “I think as long as I was in Green Bay, I would have continued to play and play and play. But that obviously wasn’t the case.
“I didn’t need to continue to play to fulfill anything I wanted personally, so instead of moving around … If we went to Seattle, that maybe would have been one year, then it would have been Tennessee or Kansas City. Everything becomes a one-year thing from then on out, so I wasn’t going to start moving my family all around the country just so I could play football for six months.”
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This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 9:17 AM.
