Going into Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl matchup against the New England Patriots, Sherman Smith shared how victory on the football field without Jesus Christ would be, for him, a \u201cserious waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll never forget when I got drafted in [1976], my father told me, \u2018Son, remember this, playing professional football is how you make your living but it\u2019s not your life because it\u2019s gonna end. You\u2019re gonna stop playing one day and life will continue.\u2019 I never forgot that,\u201d the running backs coach for the Seattle Seahawks said.<\/p>\n
Today, Smith will tell you he\u2019s living a coach\u2019s dream on a team that won last year\u2019s Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos. But he said he\u2019s thankful life isn\u2019t all about winning and losing football games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this were just about winning a football game, this is a serious waste of time,\u201d Sherman told Baptist Press during Super Bowl Media Day (Jan. 27) at the US Airways Center in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s bigger than that,\u201d he said. \u201cAbsolutely, no doubt. This is about [His] glory. This is about [His] Kingdom. This is what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
And on the Seahawks, Smith is not alone in being vocal about his faith. Fellow Seahawks Russell Wilson, Russell Okung, Clint Gresham and fellow coach Rocky Seto all spoke about their faith in Christ on Media Day.<\/p>\n
But for Sherman, life wasn\u2019t always about honoring the Lord on and off the football field. Sherman shared his testimony last year in a video, \u201cThe Making of a Champion,\u201d which also featured the testimonies of Wilson, Okung, Gresham, Chris Maragos, who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Seto.<\/p>\n
In the video that has attracted more than 600,000 views on Youtube, Smith recalled the emptiness he once felt while playing in the NFL — and even during his college years at Miami University of Ohio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in college and had a very successful career there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe went 33-1-1. I was the starting quarterback. People were telling me I was going to get drafted in the NFL in all that stuff. And I just remember walking around campus and just saying, \u2018Man, there\u2019s got to be more to it than this\u2019 — a feeling of emptiness. I loved the winning but still there was something missing in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former second-round draft pick, who went on to play eight seasons for the Seahawks as a running back, said his life began to change when he tried to console middle linebacker Ken Hutcherson, whose career had ended unexpectedly to a knee injury.<\/p>\n
\u201c … I walked in that locker room to comfort him and be a friend to him and he comforted me,\u201d Smith recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said to me … \u2018Sherm … I\u2019m excited to see what God has planned for my life.\u2019 That\u2019s what he told me, \u2018I\u2019m a Christian and nothing happens in my life that\u2019s not filtered through God\u2019s hands first.\u2019 And I knew I didn\u2019t have that confidence. I knew if that were me, my world would have fallen apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith wanted to know more and soon put his trust in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Whether the Seattle Seahawks win or lose on Sunday, Smith said he is confident opportunities will come to share with others how Christ has changed his life.<\/p>\n
Smith still remembers the pain of a gut-wrenching Super Bowl defeat when he was a running backs coach for the Tennessee Titans. In 2000, the Titans came up about a yard short of tying the game and going into overtime against the Rams. They lost the game 23-16. Smith recalled numerous opportunities to share how he coped with the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Tennessee, people wanted to hear about how\u2019d you deal with it, and winning [the Super Bowl with Seattle] people want to hear the same question,\u201d said Smith, who has coached with the Seattle Seahawks since 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I found really a balance between the two — the winning and the losing and having opportunities by God.\u201d<\/p>\n
In The Making of a Champion video Sherman shared, \u201cThe world we live in today, we get so many people telling you how you should live, what it means to be successful, what you should strive after. And I just think you have to have a desire to want to know why you are here… A lot of this other stuff is not as promising as everyone says but God\u2019s Word is solid. The foundation is solid. The promises are solid. The future is solid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shawn Hendricks in managing editor of Baptist Press.<\/p>\n
Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com\/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com\/SubscribeBP).<\/p>\n
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Going into Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl matchup against the New England Patriots, Sherman Smith shared how victory on the football field without Jesus Christ would be, for him, a \u201cserious waste of time.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll never forget when I got drafted in [1976], my father told me, \u2018Son, remember this, playing professional football is how you make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3547,325,948,926,226,3546,703],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}