Super Bowl LVIII took place in Las Vegas, also known as Sin City, on Sunday, February 11. But while the city is known for its less-than-Christian goings-on, many NFL players took the opportunity afforded them by the media blitz surrounding the big game to speak out about their faith in Christ, sharing the glory and attention with Him and hopefully ushering fans toward Christ.
For example, the NFL Honors show took place on the night of Thursday, February 8. During it, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was awarded the Associated Press Most Valuable Player award. Kicking off his acceptance speech with comments about God and Jesus, Jackson said, “First and foremost, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” He added, “Without Him, none of this is possible.”
Similarly, prominent Christian quarterback C.J. Stroud, QB for the Houston Texans, won the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year Award at the same event. He also led his acceptance speech with praise of and credit to Jesus, telling the gathered crowd, “First and foremost, I want to give all glory and praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Just like Jackson and Stroud, Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson gave the glory to God on stage when he was awarded the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. He said, “First, I got to give all glory to God, man.” Continuing, he added that all of their success was due to God’s grace, saying, “Without Him none of this is possible, man. He deserves all the honor and praise.”
Similarly, Brock Purdy, the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, spoke about praying during games and how his faith keeps him focused on what is important. When asked if he prays, he said, “Yeah, I do. It’s not, ‘God, can we win here? Can we do something great here?’ It’s more just to have that peace, that steadfastness in all the chaos. That’s really what it is. It’s sinking back into, ‘Holy Spirit, take over and lead me here in this moment and allow me to think clearly, allow me to go through my reads obviously.’ Like I said, just have an even-keeled mind that I get from the Holy Spirit.”
He then went on to talk about how a particular passage from the Bible, Psalm 23, helps keep him focused on what’s important. He said, “For me, playing this game, playing this sport, there’s a lot that goes into it and it’s easy to get wrapped up in wanting to be loved — obviously by your teammates but [also] the world. So for me in that passage, it’s talking about [how] I already have what I need from the Good Shepherd in Jesus.”
Purdy added that he has been starting off every day with that powerful passage, reading it to get going in the right way. He said, “I’ve just been studying Psalm 23 throughout the whole season, been going back to it. It’s what I start off with actually every single day; I just read off Psalm 23 to myself before I start off with some solitude, and then go about my day.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: By All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA – JMG_8886, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109478434