One fall night regular students look across the field and see a shocking surprise. A former college football standout playing intramural flag football.
Nazir Dale, a 5’9 200-pound running back who punishes defenders, has faced academic struggles and injuries since arriving at William Paterson University.
The star running back has struggled to stay on the field after a dominating freshman year in 2022 putting up 963 yards rushing along with seven rushing touchdowns on 231 carries. This put him on pace for the record books but off the field, he wasn’t as dominant.
Dale had his strengths which were his ability to produce for the football team and his ability to get by in the classroom. This ultimately ended up setting him back down the line.
“I did take football for granted because I was always told growing up that I got a God-given talent or whatever so when it came to football, I was always a bullshitter, and sometimes with school too cause I would get out of things easy but all that I guess built up and came to bite me in my back,” Dale said.
“I say that because I wouldn’t always work hard when it came to football and school. Football I wouldn’t do what I needed to do to get better because I was already better than my opponent. In school, I just wouldn’t do my work but teachers would still pass me so I could play,” Dale said.
To participate on any NCAA sports team, student-athletes have to be enrolled with a minimum of 12 credits. In the spring semester, the football team has 16 practices for one month to allow younger guys the opportunity to develop before the next season. During the spring of 2023, Dale’s freshman year, he didn’t make the minimum requirement and was forced to miss time with the team.
Dale returned in the Fall and was only able to play in four games due to a torn left meniscus. In that time, he was able to record 162 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on 42 carries. He also had 47 receiving yards on three receptions.
In his support group, he had people who had gone through injuries as well. They were aware of the depression that athletes could fall into if not motivated by others. They helped him get through his injury by being by his side and motivating him to keep on going. The support that he had pushed him to stay on top of what he needed to so he could make a return to the gridiron.
“Nah I tried to keep him from letting that happen as much as I could because it happened to me too, so I’ve seen it and didn’t want him to go through it too,” Hamilton said.
Though he had the support to get him back to where he was healthy, the academics still weren’t there for Dale. He’s had to change some of his mindset and approaches when it came to school. He knows what he has to do to get back to where he wants to be so now, he is trying his best to make it all happen. He felt as though he needed to take a step back to take three steps forward.
“I always knew that before you succeed you gotta fail, like everything is going to get worse before it gets better, so I don’t let everything negative in my life bring me down,” Dale said.
Currently, on his own doing, he is working out every other day or whenever time allows within the day and participating in intramural football to get back in shape and stay doing football movements. All of this work that he is putting in is to make a return to the football team Fall of 2025.
“Getting my body back in shape, getting my legs back right, my grades better, basically everything that I wasn’t doing before I’m doing now. So, the things that I wasn’t doing to get myself better I’m doing now,” Dale said.
Football movements get worse over time if you stop doing them so playing intramural football and lifting weights to strengthen what is weak will be a crucial part of Dale’s comeback. If he doesn’t continue to stay consistent with his regimen he could fail at achieving his goal.
Dale is used to playing on Saturdays but the change from being on the field to the stands isn’t fun or easy. Seeing your old teammates out on the field is tough. What makes it harder for him is that he can see himself being out there helping the team.
“It [being in the stands] gets annoying sometimes ’cause it’s times on the field where it’s like I know I should be out there, and I know I can make an impact if I was playing,” Dale said.
This conversation made Dale state his feelings of frustration about missing the season and talked about himself not being able to miss another season.
“I just can’t miss another football season. I’ve never went a whole season without playing so I don’t plan on that happening again,” Dale said.
Dale remembers his remarkable freshman year and is awaiting when he can get back on the field. He described his favorite play that had him excited about his future on the Pioneers.
With a little smirk on his face Dale said, “Yeah, my first touchdown. First college touchdown it was in the red zone, it was a nice little three-yard run. After I scored, I jumped up, ran to the sideline, and everybody feel me,” smacking his head signaling how his teammates were celebrating “congratulating me, fans were loud, it was just a real memorable moment.”
Certainly, a great feeling to have, and want to get back to. Expectations from friends will be high in his return too as they believe if he does what he needs to do in the offseason he can have a great season and boost his previous career accolades even more.
“He’s been in the gym, in the lab working. He’s been telling me that he has been working out and everything like that so hey, if you see him back out there, y’all better get ready,” Nelson said.
