"A Dream Come True": Adderley Revels in #GirlDad Role During Rookie Season
6/15/2020
For Nasir Adderley, it was the moment he had always dreamed about. Growing up in Philadelphia, earning his college degree and now, the moment had finally arrived.
He was overcome with so much joy.
“You’re always told that it’s a feeling that you won’t ever understand until it happens and looking back, it’s just so tough to put into words,” Adderley said. “Once you hold her in your arms for the first time, man, there’s just so much love that fills your body.”
The 23-year-old became a father for the first time earlier this year, welcoming his daughter Elaina Marie into the world with his fiancee Kaylynn, also a University of Delaware alum.
“Honestly, this is something that I’ve always dreamt about,” Adderley said. “I never had an opportunity to get to know my father. My mom worked so hard and my grandparents helped as well, but I always knew that I wanted to become a father, start a family and truly be that father figure that my kids could look up to because it was something I never had growing up.”
Elaina’s birth and Adderley’s engagement to Kaylynn were two incredibly high moments in a year that didn’t unfold as he had envisioned long ago.
“Going back to high school, I knew two things,” he said. “I wanted to play in the NFL and I wanted to start a family. My first year in the NFL definitely wasn’t what I wanted it to be, but the moments I had with my family, they truly pushed me through the tough times.”
The troubles started in Week 7 of Adderley’s senior season in a big road win at New Hampshire. Yes, it was the game in which Adderley became a social media sensation for the third time in his career when he “truck-sticked” an opposing player on his way to over 20 million views.
Trucked him so hard on the way to a TD that everyone stopped ?? #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/fegCry79gu
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 21, 2018
However, what went unknown to many was that Adderley had suffered an ankle injury in the game.
“If there’s one thing that I want people to know about me is that I’m a competitor and that’s all I wanted to do, I had to keep pushing through and doing all I could to be out there for my team,” Adderley.
So, he kept playing, helping lead the Blue Hens back to the FCS playoffs for the first time in eight years.
That next spring (2019), the pre-NFL draft hype train picked up steam after a big week at the Reese’s Senior Bowl and led to nearly 100 scouts and all 32 NFL organizations rolling into the Delaware Field House for the largest pro day in the history of the program.
Adderley started out with impressive numbers in the vertical and bench, then came the 40-yd dash.
“I felt good going into it honestly,” he said. “I was ready to really try and do something special.”
On his first attempt, he felt it. His pro day was over almost as soon as it began due to a hamstring injury.
“It was really tough because I knew how hard I had worked for that moment and I knew how many people had helped push me to that opportunity and it all went away so quickly.”
However, Adderley’s dream would still come to fruition a little over a month later when he became the second-highest draft pick in Delaware football history. The Los Angeles Chargers selected him in the second round with the 60th overall pick.
“Emotional, overwhelming, just so happy, that’s what I remember about that night,” he said. “My mom, my sister and whole family had been such an incredible support system and to look back at everything we went through growing up and now, our dream had become reality.”
A few days later, he found himself in front of the LA media, answering questions and trying on the patented Chargers powder blue uniforms. He was ready to make an impact.
However, his body didn’t quite agree with him.
OTAs, minicamps and into training camp, the hamstring was still hampering the two-time All-American. Something wasn’t right.
“I’ve had hamstring injuries before, I knew what those felt like, this just didn’t feel the same,” Adderley said.
He was right, the injury would allow him to play in just two preseason games and two regular season games before he and the Chargers made the decision to go on injured reserve for the rest of his rookie campaign.
“In my eight years of high school and college, I think I may have missed just one game total and to now be at the stage that I had always dreamed about, and not be able to play, it was really difficult,” Adderley said.
When things weren’t seeming to be getting better, he went back into the lessons that he received in Newark while earning his Health Behavior Science degree.
“I’ve always been really interested in learning about the body and how it functions. Ever since I got to college, I was trying to be a sponge when I was around our strength coaches or trainers, I just wanted to understand so I could better myself,” he said. “And that’s exactly what I did again, I researched and read a lot to understand what was holding me back and what I needed to do to get better.”
What was discovered was that the ankle injury back in the fall of 2018 had caused Adderley to put more pressure on tendons that stretched to behind his knee, which ultimately caused the hamstring issues that sidelined him.
“It wasn’t what I had envisioned for my first season. I wanted to make an impact, I wanted to help this team win. The people around me know that I really try to have a positive outlook, but I really struggled not being out there,” he said.
But that’s where the silver linings came in.
With Adderley sidelined, he was able to attend every appointment with Kaylynn. He was there every step of the way, something he knew that his biggest fan, his mom, wasn’t fortunate enough to have.
“My mom did so much to help my sister and I live our best life. She continuously worked several jobs and moved from place to place to help put us in the best place to succeed. I saw how hard it was for her,” Adderley said. “So while it was tough not playing, I know I’m fortunate to have been able to be the entire way because that’s something I’ll never ever forget.”
