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How NFL Chaplains Serve Players and Their Families On and Off the Field
By Movieguide® Contributor
NFL chaplains Kent Chevalier and Johnny Shelton recently discussed how they help NFL players handle the challenges that fans might not know about.
“It’s sealed in my brain about the brotherhood within the NFL chaplaincy, that regardless of the teams that we serve, we don’t get caught up in those wins or losses because each and every one of us is just walking through life,” Chevalier, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ chaplain, said on the “Jesus Calling” podcast.
“Yes, the Ravens and the Steelers are rivals. But what I love is that moment after the game where we all come out — coaches, players, staff — and we come to that moment at the 50 after the game and we join hands and we kneel before God,” he added. “And I love that players and coaches from both teams come together and recognize the unity of the brotherhood of faith in the NFL.”
READ MORE: FORMER PASTOR RECALLS ‘GIANT LEAP OF FAITH’ TO BECOME NFL CHAPLAIN
Though trades in the NFL can seem like a simple business deal for fans, Chevalier explained that those changes impact players, and chaplains can help with the process.
“Families are impacted, not just entertainers, not just these players. Their families are deeply impacted because they’ve got to report to that new football city the next day, and their family is left to figure out how to move across the country,” the chaplain explained.
“And so this is where our roles come in, to help them navigate such decisions and come alongside those families, the wives, significant others who are left back in the city and saying, ‘How can we help you move? How can we help you pack up? What can we do? Can we watch the kids?'” he added.
“And to just come alongside them and serve in that way, because that’s a really unique challenge that these players face that maybe nobody really sees because they’re just seeing the Sunday games, and they might not consider the fact that this is a real business,” Chevalier concluded.
Shelton, the Baltimore Ravens’ chaplain, echoed and added that there are tons of “emotions” that are involved with football.
READ MORE: BALTIMORE RAVENS CHAPLAIN TALKS ‘BLESSING’ OF FAITH AND FOOTBALL
“The opportunity that we have as chaplains is that we’re able to teach this to the guys,” Shelton explained. “We’re able to say, ‘Okay, yeah, this game is very emotional. But that’s not the end all. The end all is the gifts and the talents that you have and how you stored those gifts back to the Lord in a game that you’re gifted to play.’”
“If your foundation is in your job, in your paycheck, if your foundation is in relationships, all of those things are easily shoved when they’re taken away or they start to crumble,” Chevalier responded. “The only foundation that we can encourage these men to have is God at the center and at the foundation of their life. We can help them see beyond the game into their fifties and sixties, that Christ is the only firm foundation that we can help them build their lives on.”
Shelton previously told TODAY that players come to him to talk about “football, pressure, family pressure, relationship issues, etc.”
“Life is hard enough,” he continued. “And at the flip side of that, football is hard enough. So when you put those two together it’s just crazy.”
“I pray for the safety, for their minds and their hearts to be clear,” Shelton expressed. “To be able to focus on the task at hand, and they will literally come up, and some of them will ask for prayer personally.”
Chevalier’s main goal? Representing Christ well.
“One of the goals that I have is that I hope that I can represent Jesus in that Steelers context,” he told Sports Spectrum last year. “As a guest in that building and that, when people interact with Erica and me, that they would say something along this line…because of the presence of Jesus that we bring into that place.”
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