Lee Nelson (born January 30, 1954) 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 with ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

who played ten seasons for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

College career

Nelson transferred to

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

from

Pensacola Junior College Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal c ...

in 1974. He walked on to the

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...

team and quickly won a starting cornerback job. He led the team in tackles his junior year (86) and was named the defensive MVP his senior year. He finished his college career by playing in the American Bowl All-Star Game. He was inducted into the Florida State Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.

Pro career

Nelson was selected in the fifteenth round by the

in the

1976 NFL Draft The 1976 National Football League draft was an annual player selection meeting held April 8–9, 1976, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, New York. The draft lasted 17 rounds, with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks m ...

. He played in 135 games at cornerback and strong safety over ten seasons with the Cardinals. He scored one touchdown on a fumble recovery against the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

in 1983. Nelson retired from the Cardinals after the 1985 season. He finished his career with seven interceptions, nine sacks, and nine fumble recoveries.

References

External links

NFL.com player page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Lee American football cornerbacks American football safeties Florida State Seminoles football players St. Louis Cardinals (football) players People from Kissimmee, Florida Players of American football from Florida Sportspeople from Greater Orlando 1954 births Living people