Woman writes book in honor of her brother, who played football for the Gators and Raiders

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – The sister of former NFL and Gator football player Neiron Ball has written a book in his honor and held a book signing at Barnes and Noble on Saturday afternoon.

The book is called Neiron is Just Like Me and is a journey through Neiron Ball’s life and resilience. He passed away in 2019 after a year-long hospital stay. Neiron Ball was born with AVM and faced life-changing circumstances when his parents died.

He was the number 11 pick on the Gator football team and then was drafted by the Raiders in 2015, where he played for 2 years. His sister Natalie Ball promised him that she would tell his story to inspire children to talk about their childhood as an orphan, their time as a model student and more.

“I say it was a dream come true to see him here in the swamp,” Natalie Ball said. “They have a motto here: ‘We stand together no matter what the weather,’ and that’s exactly what I saw when he studied here, when he graduated and later became a Raider.”

The book is now available at Barnes and Noble.

“I remember when Neiron came here, he said there were kids like me, and I knew what he meant because we came from a Title I school district,” Natalie Ball said. “We came to an area where a lot of kids were kind of disenfranchised, and they built this network, the strong network of friendships, and his friends are like my friends now.”

3 Gator football players, including Hayden Hansen, Derek Wingo and Quincy Ivory, attended the book signing. Former Raiders player James Folston was also in attendance.

The Neiron Ball Legacy Foundation was established in 2019 in his honor and provides scholarships to exemplary student-athletes from Jackson High School, where Neiron Ball attended. These student-athletes embody resilience and academic success.

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