Faith and Football

Everyone faces difficult moments in their lives. Right now is one my most challenging since becoming a professional over ten years ago. One of my greatest fears career wise has been that of having my employment terminated. Now that I am in the midst of it, I've come to realize that I am going to aggressively recover from this situation.

This temporary setback allowed me to refocus and I am now on the verge of the comeback. This is a very difficult situation personally, but there are two things besides family that are keeping my spirits high during this ordeal: My faith and the sport of football.

Football is a sport that full of cliches. Coaches have a clever phrase to use for just about any situation. Those phrases and thoughts become embedded in all football player's subconscious when heard so many times. What coaches don't tell you is how those statements apply to life and not just the playing field. Football teaches you how to persevere. It teaches how to overcome obstacles and deal with pain. Football forces you to struggle so that you can make overcoming a skill. In essence, it gives one the ability to overcome all of life's obstacles by not quitting or giving up. To endure takes courage, strength and desire. Those are the key ingredients to football and they also provide one the ability to succeed after failure. Life is like being on the one yard line. Either you score or you don't score on that play. You can fail many times on the goal line but sooner or later your desired outcome will manifest. Just as long as your can endure for the next goal line opportunity. I will endure until then and score when it's my time.

Faith is the other critical component. If one doesn't believe great things can happen, then nothing great will ever happen. People can draw their faith from many areas, but a majority get theirs from having a spiritual life. Religion is the most common source of faith. I'm not here to preach, but I would like to share where I get mine from and why I believe as I do.

My faith is Christianity and comes from believing in Jesus. I believe in him and I know that if I live my life right, everything will work out in the end. That is not an easy thought for some to believe in. I am an engineer and scientist which makes these types of claims extremely difficult to believe in because there is no scientific proof. For those moments of weakness or extreme scientific times I can still find peace thru Jesus. He sacrificed and suffered more than Gandhi, MLK, Malcolm X, and William Wallace combined. If believing in God gave him the ability to endure what he dealt with then that same strength can more than help me endure my daily life. My belief is both spiritual and humanistic meaning that I view Jesus as a spirit and as the greatest man to walk on this Earth.