Among those festivities and celebrations leading up to the LVIII Super Bowl in Las Vegas was Saturday’s Super Bowl Breakfast, which took place for the 36th year in a row. Hosted by Athletes in Action, a sports ministry, the goal of the breakfast is to highlight the intersection of sports and faith. Further, during it, one player is awarded with the Bart Starr Award, which is given to a player who shows character and leadership qualities in all aspects of life, from the field to the community.
For 2024, the Bart Starr Award winner was Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. As background, Mr. Fitzpatrick is a very vocal Christian who helped his community by founding “Unshackled!,” which is a faith-based non-profit organization that helps raise awareness for and provide much-needed resources to families and children in need.
Speaking about why he finds the mission of “Unshackled!” so important, Fitzpatrick said, “I don’t think a lot of people have an understanding of the process these kids go through. They go from family to family, or from home to home. They never really get to develop the right way. … The kids that come out of this are scarred and have trauma from it, because it’s tough to go through.”
In any case, Fitzpatrick accepted the award on Saturday, February 10. In his acceptance, he said, “When I was told that I won this award, it came as a surprise to me. This past year I missed a lot of playing time, I missed seven games, I wasn’t able to finish three. So, I had a lot of time to do a lot of reflecting, a lot of time in isolation, a lot of time in meditation along with God, just sitting at his feet . . . I’m always working on being a better man, a better brother, a better son, a better football player. As I was sitting at his feet and just letting him work on me, work on my heart. He revealed a lot to me. He revealed to me that I use this game and my craft at times as an excuse to not fulfill my duties as a brother, to not fulfill my duties as a son. To not be there for my people in my life.”
Later in the speech, after commenting on how God helped him develop as a man throughout the season, Fitzpatrick said, “One of the first requirements that Jesus gave his disciples was to take up his cross, and to follow Him. A lot of us think of cross as gold crosses they wear on their neck or may have a tattoo. But the cross was an instrument of torture. It was an instrument of humiliation. It was an instrument that for an evil cause, but what Jesus did when he got on the cross was turn it into a beautiful thing. The fact that he died on that cross and made the cross a beautiful thing is what God was saying to me. A good man is a dead man. A good man is a man who is willing to pick up his cross and follow Jesus. A good man is a man who’s willing to get up on that cross daily, sometimes multiple times throughout the day, pin his flesh to it and continue to follow Christ.”
That was far from the first time that Fitzpatrick spoke about his faith. Speaking to the Christian Broadcasting Network about his faith, for example. Fitzpatrick said, “My identity is tied up in being a son of God, and if I lose sight of that, then I’m gonna struggle through this journey . . . I gotta lean on Him. I gotta trust in Him. I’m a young man — I’m still learning, still growing — the only thing that I know is for sure is Jesus. It’s Christ. It’s that I’m forgiven. It’s that I’m loved, that I have a Savior in Him.”
Watch that powerful faith story here:
Featured image credit: By Benpekarcik – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83880167