From Little League ejections to Notre Dame stardom: Jordan Faison’s journey through his father’s eyes

SOUTH BEND, ind. -- Long before Jordan Faison became one of Notre Dame’s most reliable playmakers, he was a 10-year-old football player getting kicked out of a game. And somehow, his dad managed to get ejected, too.

For anyone familiar with the quiet, reserved wide receiver Notre Dame fans see today, that might come as a surprise. But according to his father, Quincy Faison, there’s a whole different side to his son.

And he has the childhood stories to prove it.

“A guy pushed him after the play. He gets up and he’s swinging, and so he gets ejected,” Quincy recalled during an interview with ABC57. “Me as his father, just trying to show a good example, I end up getting ejected.”

The father-son duo spent the rest of the game watching from behind a fence.

“Man, I can’t believe we both got ejected,” Quincy laughed.

That competitive fire has followed Jordan all the way to South Bend, where the former walk-on is now a team captain and Notre Dame’s leading receiver.

But his journey to becoming one of college football’s most fearless playmakers started long before he ever put on a gold helmet.

Growing up in Weston, Florida, competition was practically a family tradition. Quincy and his wife, Kristen, were both college athletes, and their sons, Jordan and Dylan, inherited that athletic drive.

Their personalities, however, couldn’t have been more different.

“Jordan, being the introvert, Dylan has never met someone he didn’t like,” Quincy said. “He can walk into a room and meet anybody and have a conversation.”

The brothers shared an upstairs bedroom growing up, complete with two beds, one bathroom and plenty of arguments.

According to Quincy, they eventually discovered they had something in common: their frustration with Mom and Dad.

“They both dealt with our wrath and it kind of brought them together,” Quincy joked. “Like, man, these guys should just shut up.”

Today, those same brothers are living together in South Bend, both once competing as two-sport athletes at Notre Dame. Only now, Jordan has traded his role as an argumentative older brother for that of a mentor.

Quincy began coaching Jordan when he was just 5 years old. Even then, his competitiveness was impossible to miss.

His size was another story.

“If I showed you a picture of him when he was 12 in football, you’d be like, holy crap, this kid isn't going to Notre Dame,” Quincy said. “He was that small, but he had a heart of a lion.”

At the time, the family wasn’t convinced football would provide Jordan’s path to college athletics.

Instead, they invested heavily in lacrosse, a sport that would eventually open the door to Notre Dame.

That commitment came with sacrifices.

The Faisons spent countless hours traveling for practices and tournaments, including summers living in an RV on Long Island so their boys could train and compete.

It wasn’t cheap. It wasn’t always convenient. But Quincy said the sacrifices came with being a parent.

“Lacrosse is not a cheap sport,” he said. “I never think about the sacrifices that we made. That was just us being parents. I do think about the sacrifices that they made.”

Those long summers and family road trips haven’t been forgotten by Jordan.

“My parents are everything for me and my brother,” Jordan told ABC57. “They sacrificed their work and their time taking us up to Long Island and staying in an RV for a couple summers. I’m so grateful for them. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them for sure.”

Ironically, Notre Dame wasn’t even Jordan’s dream school growing up.

It was Duke.

But one visit to South Bend changed his plans. Faison eventually joined the Irish football program as a walk-on, working his way from an undersized newcomer to a starting wide receiver, team captain and one of the offense’s most trusted targets.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman believes the confidence Jordan displays on Saturdays was developed long before he arrived on campus.

“He is a leader,” Freeman said. “At times when he’s around us, he seems fearless, and that mindset puts him in a position to have success. And I’m sure that was developed from the way he was raised.”

For Quincy, watching his once-undersized son succeed on one of college football’s biggest stages has been rewarding.

But one of his proudest moments as a father had nothing to do with a touchdown, a championship or even football.

It came when Jordan made a personal decision about his Catholic faith.

“We get a text from him, and we’re like, that’s our church,” Quincy recalled. “And I’m like, he just got baptized on his own.”

It was a moment that showed Quincy how much his son had grown, not just as an athlete, but as a young man making his own decisions.