Back home where it started, why induction into Nebraska High School HOF ‘means a little more’ for Niles Paul | Football

After spending some time in Jacksonville, Florida, as a retired NFL football player, Niles Paul is home again.

He moved back to Omaha just two weeks ago, reconnecting with family, friends and, of course, his favorite spots to grab a bite to eat.

Time Out Foods, known for its chicken, has been visited a few times already, Paul says.

Yeah, Paul is back where it all started, and a recent phone call helped bring back to life some of those memories growing up in Omaha. The Omaha North graduate and former Husker wide receiver was told he was going to be inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 25 at Lincoln East High School.

Paul will join a class that includes Alex Henery, Dominique Kelley, K.C. Cowgill, Chris Bober and Amber Hegge, among others.

Paul has accomplished a lot as a high school, college and professional athlete — including a near-decade career in the NFL — but this honor hits close to home.

“This one means a little more because this is where I’m from, this is where I grew up,” Paul said Friday. “I am forever grateful and I feel like this achievement, it just doesn’t reflect me, but reflects my whole community and everybody that assisted me and helped me get to where I need to be.”

It’s also special because Paul recalls going to a Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame ceremony to see his cousin Ahman Green be inducted in 2010.

Football offered a lot of great opportunities for Paul. He played wideout at Nebraska from 2007-10, and his speed made him an elite returner in special teams. He transformed his body to play tight end at Washington and Jacksonville in the NFL before retiring from the game in 2019.

But those who followed him in high school will tell you, Paul could do it all as a multisport athlete.

He averaged 19 points and 12 rebounds in basketball as a junior for the Vikings, and grabbed a lot of medals on the track.

Paul won four state gold medals as a junior and swept the 110- and 300-meter hurdle titles as a senior.

“I always thought I was probably going to run track, but football really had my heart,” said Paul, who was the Journal Star’s 2009 boys athlete of the year. “I had to choose, and I obviously chose football.”

Though Paul focused on football when he set foot at Nebraska, legend has it he liked to challenge some of the campus’ elite athletes to competitions.

Paul, Rex Burkhead and Prince Amukamara — two more future NFL players — were part of a team that challenged the Husker volleyball team to a volleyball match.

“We started talking trash in the weight room and it led to us having a full-on little competition,” Paul recalls. “We ended up getting ran, but it was cool. We tried.”

Those were good times for Paul, but so were his days in high school when Paul helped put Omaha North football back on the map. He became the first Omaha North football player to sign with NU since 1998.

“High school was obviously some of my favorite times involved in sports,” Paul said. “It was less serious and you could enjoy it, it was pure.

“I just think some of my favorite memories is the comradery I had in the locker room and the lifelong friendships that started in high school, and being able to have the support of my community.”

Though Paul left the state to play in the NFL, he always wanted to leave an impact on his community. He bought football uniforms and gear for the Omaha North program several times, and held football camps in the metro area.

A new journey begins soon for Paul, who will join Omaha North as an assistant football coach for Larry Martin, a mentor of Paul’s.

“It’s been a roller-coaster,” Paul said of life after football. “When you’ve been playing football your whole life, you’ve been kind of bred to be a football player and you’ve always been told to be ready for all of it to end, but you’re never really ready for it to be over.

“It was a struggle, and I think that’s the important part is that the struggle and the transition from going a professional football player to kind of being a regular person, it’s a transition period and I’ve been trying to find things that excite me and motivate (me). That’s been a journey in itself.”