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Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jahan Dotson was happy to back at Nazareth\u2019s Andy Leh Stadium on Saturday where he hosted a free football camp for kids from Nazareth and surrounding communities. (Keith Groller)<\/p>\nJahan Dotson never struggles to gain separation as a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n
But he did in his return to Nazareth High School\u2019s Andy Leh Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Super Bowl champion who played at Nazareth and Penn State and was a first-round draft pick of the Washington Commanders before being traded to the Eagles, was surrounded wherever he went at the start of his free football camp.<\/p>\n
Dozens of kids, age 8 to 13, were there to learn from Dotson and Nazareth players and coaches. The campers especially wanted to get close to Dotson, who graduated from Nazareth in 2018 and then played for three seasons at Penn State before being drafted by the Washington Commanders in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft with the 16th pick overall.<\/p>\n
Washington traded him to Philadelphia on August 22 last year where he was a part of the Eagles\u2019 high-octane offense that paved the way to the franchise\u2019s second Super Bowl title.<\/p>\n
Thousands of Eagles fans, especially those who have followed Dotson since his days in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference leaped to their feet when he nearly caught a touchdown pass early in Super Bowl rout of the Chiefs. The 27-yard reception was reviewed and instead of a touchdown, the ball was placed on the Kansas City 1 and the Eagles scored on the next play.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jahan Dotson was happy to back at Nazareth\u2019s Andy Leh Stadium on Saturday where he hosted a free football camp for kids from Nazareth and surrounding communities. (Keith Groller)<\/p>\n
Dotson would later catch another pass for 15 yards in the 40-22 victory in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life has changed a considerable amount, especially being a Super Bowl champion, but it\u2019s great to be back home and giving back to the community and the kids,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I am all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dotson\u2019s friend and manager, Maihan Ramin, said the Dotson he knew a decade ago as a classmate hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI credit his parents first of all, and the community we\u2019re from here at Nazareth for keeping us humble,\u201d Ramin said. \u201cI know Saquon [Barkley] is the same way. These are very humble guys who love giving back to the community and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
With training camp just a few weeks away, which will start arguably the most important season of the 25-year-old\u2019s career since it\u2019s a contract year, Dotson could have been doing other things on Saturday. But he wanted to be back in Nazareth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool being back home,\u201d Dotson said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome to be a Super Bowl champion. It\u2019s a dream come true and something I thought about since I was a little kid and playing in this stadium. It\u2019s really cool to hoist the Lombardi trophy and be able to say I am a Super Bowl champ.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the near-touchdown in the Super Bowl, Dotson, who did catch a TD pass against the Packers in the first round of the playoffs, said, \u201cI get told from everyone who thought it was a touchdown. They were super excited and super proud of you. It\u2019s so cool to have that support behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dotson had more significant moments later in the season than he had earlier in the year, and he said a lot of that had to do with gaining more familiarity with the Eagles\u2019 offense and developing a rhythm with quarterback Jalen Hurts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of getting familiar with the quarterback and gaining his trust and gaining the team\u2019s trust, and the plays will come,\u201d he said. \u201cAs everyone saw as the season went on, I started making more and more plays. I am capable of doing so, but it\u2019s all about the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the coming season being a contract year, Dotson said: \u201cI am going to prepare like I\u2019ve never prepared befor and I want to make sure I am ready for the moment when the moment comes. I just want to make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are many Eagles fans, both of the Philadelphia and Nazareth versions, who would love Dotson to call Lincoln Financial Field his NFL home for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n
But football is first and foremost a business, and no one can predict the future.<\/p>\n
One thing that\u2019s for sure is that Dotson will always call Nazareth home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is home and it\u2019s always awesome to be back here any time I get the chance,\u201d Dotson said.<\/p>\n
Nazareth athletic director Ray Ramella said Dotson will always be welcomed back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Jahan Dotson Day, and this is something we wanted to do for a long time,\u201d Ramella said. \u201cWith Jahan now with St. Luke\u2019s, we were really happy to bring him back home and celebrate him with a special day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramella is a lifelong Giants fan who has had to soften his opinion of the Eagles because of his rapport with Dotson.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to see him step on the field for a Super Bowl was a great feeling, and then to see him contribute early in the game was even more special,\u201d Ramella said. \u201cHe was a few inches away from that first touchdown. But we couldn\u2019t be more proud of him and the job he has done. Any time we get the chance to bring him back and have him spend time with the kids in Nazareth, we\u2019re going to take advantage of it because he\u2019s such a good role model.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another outstanding role model who was at Leh Stadium helping out was four-time state wrestling champ and all-state football player Sean Kinney, who will soon begin his sophomore season at Lafayette.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great day for our whole community,\u201d Kinney said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff going on, and the kids are having fun. We always did camps when I was here at Nazareth. I did Jake Wilson\u2019s linemen camp, and it\u2019s always good to get out with the older guys. I\u2019ve gotten to know Jahan pretty well over the years, and it\u2019s so great to see all the kids who are really excited to see Jahan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramella said he hopes the event will become a tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe capped it at 250 this year to kind of get our feet underneath us,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is something we\u2019re going to look to grow and build it up and celebrate it each summer. It has been an exciting time for Nazareth, considering we are the smallest 6A school. The success we\u2019ve had is a testament to our coaches and the caliber of athletes we have. I\u2019ve been here for 10 years and I was drawn here by the community feel. When you get the right coaches in place and do things the right way, good things are going to happen. We\u2019re proud of Jahan and all of our athletes, and who knows? The next Jahan Dotson might be out there right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 12, 2025 at 3:28 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jahan Dotson never struggles to gain separation as a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. But he did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,7,2682,3131,6,242,109,2476,9,5367],"class_list":{"0":"post-202190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-high-school-football","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","15":"tag-philadelphiaeagles","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114842051952800006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}