Ex-NFL Star Ben Watson Shares Testimony: ‘I Am Now Victorious’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Former NFL standout Ben Watson shared his testimony at the Athletes in Action Super Bowl Breakfast, where he was presented with the Bart Starr Award.
“The number one reason why you are here is to hear about a God who loves you and a God created you and a God who sent his son to die for you,” Watson began. “You may feel like you don’t need that. You may feel like ‘what’s the point?’ You may feel like you’re already religious. You go to church, you pay your tithes, you do all those things, but what we’re talking about is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Watson talked about how he grew up in the church and knew all of the right answers but didn’t realize that faith is about more than that.
One day, his dad asked Watson if he knew what would happen if he died.
“[My dad] showed me John 3:16,” Watson recalled. “‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have lasting life.’ Right there, at about six years old is when I first came to know Jesus Christ, and I knew that I needed to repent of my sins because my sin separated me from God.”
The former football player then shared how his Super Bowl ring illustrates what salvation through Christ means.
Watson said he didn’t feel he deserved the 2004 Super Bowl ring. He suffered a torn ACL and dealt with many emotions accompanying that injury.
“I don’t wear this ring very often, I don’t pull it out very often and for a while I didn’t want to wear it because I felt like I didn’t deserve it,” Watson said. “I felt like even though I was on the team I wasn’t really a champion, but I can put this ring on and say that I’m a Super Bowl Champion.”
“Not because of what I did, not because of how great I played in the game, not because of all the passes in the game. I can say I’m a champion because I was on the team. Because of what they did for me, I am now victorious, I am now a champion,” he explained.
He added, “Paul says in Scripture that Christ gives us the victory. It’s because of Him and that’s the hardest thing for some of us because we are so oriented to work, work, work, and earn everything. In football you earn everything.”
“But God says, ‘No. I’ve done it already. The price has been paid. The blood has been shed. Will you receive that? Will you get off your high horse and realize that there’s nothing you can do to earn my approval?’” Watson concluded.
“We must decrease, and he must increase,” Watson previously told CBN. “Our ultimate purpose in life is to glorify God. He’s given us all talents and abilities, which we use, but ultimately He created us to glorify Himself because He is God and He can do that.”
“The skill set that brought your success was not given to elevate self, but to glorify God,” he added in a recent Instagram post. “Never allow personal accomplishments to deceive the heart and plant seeds of pride.”
Movieguide® recently reported on Watson:
Drafted in the 2004 draft to the New England Patriots, Watson said that he did not share his faith as readily as he did by the end of his career. However, Watson said it is important for believers to talk about the relevant, moral issues of the day.
“Ultimately, I think as Believers it’s not that we’re immune to what happens in the world, it’s not that the world is going to be perfect for us—we’re going to have trials living in this world, there’s going to be disappointments, there’s going to be fear, there’s going to be anger—we rest in the hope of the gospel,” he explained.
“In the new Heaven and new earth, all these things will pass away, but it doesn’t change our directives to bring justice, peace and mercy on the earth while we’re living in it,” he added. “So we live in this weird juxtaposition between what’s happening now and what’s going to be, while still being ambassadors of Christ.”
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