 Raised a Catholic, Nitkowski converted to Evangelical Christianity after an incident in which his son nearly drowned in a swimming pool during spring training in 2002.In May 2012, Nitkowski was filmed playing the role of former MLB player Dutch Leonard for a scene in the motion picture "42", which chronicles Jackie Robinson's life story.Coincidentally, the footage was shot in Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the ballpark where Nitkowski first broke into professional baseball as a first-round pick of the Reds in 1994.