Glorifying God on the Gridiron

It's important to show your faith both on and off the field, in practices and in games, in the weight room.  Everywhere you go.

Football is often thought of as a violent, brutal sport.  Do you ever feel pressured to act in a way that contradicts your values as a Christian?

As a human being, there are certain things in your life that may steer you in the wrong direction, but if you can control those things then it can be the most remarkable thing in the world.  I am starting to learn how to steer it in the right direction.  You see a lot of people cussing, and things like that.  But they're human beings.  Everyone sins.  Everybody does wrong things.

But if you can turn that pressure around and make it a good thing, then I think it's the greatest thing that you can do.  If everyone else is cursing, then you can stand out as different.  It becomes an opportunity to do something good, to be a witness.  You can bring more people to God on the football field if you figure out the sinful things in football and turn those around to glorify God.  I think that's by far the biggest thing you can do in the game of football.

The University of Kentucky must offer a lot of things that could be enticing to young men, and college is a time when many young people cut loose.  How do you deal with the temptations that come with being such a talented quarterback?

It's a real simple answer.  Prayer.  That goes a long way.  There are so many temptations in life, especially when you hit the college level.  There are so many things that you want to do.  But you have to pray about it.  God will lead you in the right direction.  He's not going to do anything to truly hurt you or harm you.  So that's really what I do.  Whenever I come to a crossroad where I really want to do something, but I know it's not right, I pray about it.  I trust that He will lead me in the right direction and show me the right way to go.

Do you feel temptations to pride or believing the hype around you?  Do you find that difficult?

My family, especially my parents, has done a great job keeping me humble throughout my life.  I don't read too many articles in the newspaper or on the internet.  I don't want to fill my head with unnecessary things, so I stay away from that stuff as much as possible.

It all goes back to this: God has given me this ability to play the game, so I'm going to give the glory to Him.  That's all I can do.

You recently suffered the first major injury of your athletic career.  Were you angry with God?  Did it seem to conflict with your sense of what God intended for you?  Maybe you had imagined God intended for you to have an amazing senior year that would make you one of the top 5 prospects.  But that didn't happen.  So how did you respond?

It made me take a step back and examine my priorities.  Initially, I was scared.  I didn't know if I was going to lose my scholarship to Kentucky.  So at first, like you said, as a human being, you want to be angry.  Honestly, I was angry for a little bit.  But I kept praying about it.  I wanted to know why it had happened, because I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.

Taking a step back and looking at what God has taught me through the injury experience has made me cherish so many things about it.  I've seen the game of football in a completely different way.  It's helped me to grow as a Christian.  Probably the biggest thing that God has shown me is that, as good as everything is going, as high as you can be, He can give you everything, but at the same time He can take it all away.

So I learned not to take for granted so many things in life -- and not just football.  There are so many people in this world who can't get up on their own, can't eat, can't talk, can't walk, can't do so many things that everyone else takes for granted each and every day.  So I just thank God for giving me all the little abilities to do those things.  It's a remarkable blessing to play the game of football.  God has shown me that throughout the injury.

Are you now a better football player because of the injury experience?

Yes, sir, I believe I am.  I get up at 5:45 or 6 in the morning.  I hear from so many people who complain about how they have to go work out.  But I wake up and I'm fired up to work out.  I know that so many people would die to be in my shoes.

Same thing with practice.  Some players say they really don't want to go to practice today.  But it truly is a blessing to go out to practice.  That's another thing a lot of people forget.  There are so many people in this world who would love to be in a position to practice with this team and get ready for games.  You have to have that mentality that everything you can do, enjoy it and be happy, because God can take it away in an instant.