Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield, the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and a two-time Pro Bowl selection, said he had to hit “rock bottom” before he developed an appreciation for Jesus Christ, which he now attempts to instill in the next generation of athletes.
In an appearance on “The Sports Spectrum Podcast” Friday, the 29-year-old detailed his walk with Christ, recalling how he rarely attended church services as a child and limited his encounters with God to Christmas and Easter.
Mayfield said his understanding of what it meant to be Christian as a child boiled down to “you do good deeds” and “you’re a good person.”
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“I was trying to make things happen on my own,” Mayfield said, sharing how his experience attending college in Oklahoma changed his perspective on his faith.
There, he met Pastor Adam Starling, who helped him realize that “I didn’t have to be perfect; I didn’t have to have it all figured out.”
Another valuable lesson he learned from Starling, he said, was that “We’re all born sinners” and “We’ve been saved.” Even after meeting the pastor, Mayfield maintained that he did not fully embrace Christianity right away. His relationship with God strengthened after joining the NFL.
Upon joining the ministry Professional Athletes Outreach with his wife in February 2020 when he was a member of the Cleveland Browns, he discovered, “This is what we’ve been looking for.”
“There was a lot of emptiness that I had, that I had been searching for and through ups and downs that I thought I could fulfill it in other ways and did not. And my identity at the time was a football player. … It was a quarterback.”
“God taught me a lesson,” he asserted, likely referring to his departure as starting quarterback for the Browns in 2022 and bouncing around as a backup for two other teams before signing with the Buccaneers in 2023. Since joining the Buccaneers, Mayfield revived his career and has been named to two Pro Bowls.
“He had to take my career down to the studs and make me realize that I’m more than a football player.”
The lesson taught Mayfield, “There’s much more going on than the game of football.”
“For me to see that, I had to hit rock bottom,” he said.
The “rock bottom” in Mayfield’s life extended beyond football into his marriage.
“We weren’t doing well at all,” Mayfield shared as he discussed the difficulties he and his wife, Emily Wilkinson, experienced trying to have children.
“For me to climb back up, I had to dive into the word and accept the grace and that was something that was really, really hard for me,” he added. “When I eventually did, I started to see things from a different viewpoint, and that was the biggest change in my life, and that’s a couple years ago.”
Mayfield described the Christian journey as “constant work,” adding, “You have to continue to work because the enemy is out to get you.”
“I thought that OK, once I achieved something, I can just move on,” he declared. “This is something that has to be part of the daily routine, and you have to make your priorities align with that.”
“God’s timing is perfect,” he said, praising Tampa as feeling “like home” because of “what I built the foundation on.”
“It’s been such a special ride to let God take us through that,” he contended. “God gave me the ability to try and lead and do that as best as I possibly can, and that’s when I realized it’s not about the stats or anything on the field. It’s about how I carry myself, how I inspire others and try to bring people together and create a culture that allows you to be yourself and the best version of that, whatever that looks like.”
Mayfield hopes to “use the lessons I’ve learned, the ups and downs of trying to make it happen my own way and being humbled” to teach younger football players. He said faith in Jesus is “the only thing that made me feel whole.”
The quarterback stressed that his wife’s faith has also grown during this time.
“God had her back the whole time, kept her strong through a lot of trials and tribulations,” he said, adding that he’s “fallen more in love with her.”
“I’ve seen her faith grow and I’ve seen how strong she’s been for me in times where I wasn’t able to be strong,” he said.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
