From a *kiruv* website:
“With the 262nd pick in the 2022 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers select Brock Purdy, a quarterback from Iowa State.”
The fans were AGHAST!! What's a "Brock"? Who's a "Purdy?" Is it edible? What color is it? Can you buy it at the supermarket? On Amazon?
No - it is a football player. A real, live, human, male who throws a piece of skin taken from a pig, blown up in a funny shape and painted brown and white.
These are the words that started Brock Purdy’s pro football career. Dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant” for being the very last pick of the NFL draft, Purdy seemed to be heading into sports oblivion alongside many of the 47 other Mr. Irrelevants that preceded him. But God seemed to have other plans.
After a series of injuries, Brock found himself starting for the team that drafted him last. Making one of the great sports stories of our time, the unthinkable happened and within a year and half Mr. Irrelevant found himself more relevant than just about anyone else in football. Finishing the 2024 season as a Top 5 MVP candidate and leading his team to the Super Bowl, it seemed like a fairy tale story had just unfolded before the sports world’s very eyes.
We might assume that once anyone puts so much time, energy, and effort into a sport, they’d finally feel the vindication of thinking, I was right. I always knew this was where I am meant to be.
But on media day, the day before the Super Bowl, Brock was asked if he felt like he finally got to “where he needed to be?”, to which he responded with the following:
“Honestly for me it’s always been about God in my life. Living for Him. I got drafted last. I’m playing football out of college. I didn’t really know what my future would look like. It was all about ‘alright, I’m going to show up and try my hardest and try to get drafted. (Then) the 49ers ended up drafting me; I got drafted last and I was grateful for that. I took that opportunity, studied the playbook, worked hard, and did everything I could to make the team. Sure enough I made the team and became a backup and then I got an opportunity to play. So for me, it’s just been trusting God and his plan for me and my life. It’s never been ‘I need this, I need to be a starting quarterback,’ I never said that to myself it’s always been wherever God needs me that’s how it’s going to play out.”
In a separate interview he said this about his story: “God takes something that doesn’t look so great in the world’s eyes and makes something pretty cool out of it; for His glory.”
When asked if he was playing for somebody he simply laughed and responded, “God.”
In a third interview he said, “I haven’t tried to hold onto the football life being a quarterback. It’s been about ‘God, this is what I do, but I am who you say I am.’ And I’ve allowed that to take over my life and he’s taken me to wherever he needs me.”
Purdy’s statements reveal a great depth about how he relates to his life. Instead of holding on so tightly to how you might think the world should be or how things should go, there’s an openness to whatever shows up. And in this open minded perspective, there is also a certainty that things are working out according to a higher order, a purpose, and for the greater good.
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WOW-EEEE!
He actually has himself convinced that *football* brings glory to G-d! 22 men running after a ball like wild, untamed animals, all the while pounding each other mercilessly, to the delight of tens of millions of lost souls, with nothing better to do with their time than watch this spectacle.
To his credit, his trust in and awareness of G-d in his life is certainly admirable and something people can learn from.
I thank Hashem that He revealed Himself and taught us what really brings Him glory.
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As an aside, if the 49ers were in the Super Bowl, how come Joe Montana wasn't out there???
Asking for a friend [named *Joe Montana*].
