Latest / CBN Sports 1-ON-1 / EP.12 The #1 Trait Every NFL Hall of Famer Shares (It's Not Talent)
Transcript
- Will Dawson: Welcome to CBN Sports One on One, where you'll hear exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in sports right here on the CBN Sports Podcast Network. I'm your host, Will Dawson. If you're like most of us and you love sports, but you're tired of the dark side of sports culture, me-focused athletes, or even organizations that bow to an unbiblical belief system, we think you're gonna love this podcast. There's no yelling, no sensationalism. Just great conversations with athletes and coaches who recognize that their purpose is bigger than their sport. The Hall of Fame game symbolizes the start of the NFL season. This week, the Carolina Panthers face the Arizona Cardinals. Beyond the game is a commitment, commitment to legacy, commitment to love. In this interview with our colleague Tom Buring, you'll hear former NFL Hall of Fame CEO David Baker talk about the most common thread. Amongst Hall of Famers. That is love. Let's jump right in. So, David, why is this building and those who are enshrined in it so revered? You know, Tom, the the reason the Pro Football Hall of Fame is here is because this is where the game started. ⁓ ex you know, as we sit here with the hundredth anniversary was yesterday. ⁓ and ten teams came together here in Canton and created this incredible thing. But I really think that what's special here, I mean, you're you're in one of the greatest rooms ⁓ you know, on the face of the earth. We call it the most inspiring place on earth. Because I think this is the legacy of the greatest that ever played the game. Our mission is to honor the heroes of the game, preserve its history, promote its values, and celebrate excellence everywhere. This is excellence. In this room, there probably there have been 330 million young men like you and I that played the game of football. Only five million played it in college. Only twenty-five thousand ⁓ eight four hundred and eighty-eight played in the first century of the NFL. ⁓ and there's only three hundred and twenty-six bronze bust here. A hundred and seventy-six of them are still alive today as gold jackets. That is elite company. And and I think people, when they come into this, they feel the excellence. And David, why the connection to the fan? What is what is that connection? Well, ⁓ again, I I think ⁓ you know, football has kind of become America's passion. And and ⁓ when we have the enshrinement here that we start in every August to kick off the NFL season, the line to go through this room, despite everything we could do to keep it moving, Tom, is three hours long. And people will stand in line just ⁓ to be with these bronze bust and and and feel the greatness and the eliteness. So I I I think that ⁓ football is a game That has captured America's passion. The great b ⁓ Bill Curry, great player, great coach, great Christian, said that football is the only sport where every player needs every teammate on every play just to survive. And that's kind of a great metaphor for life. We need each other and we need each other every day. And ⁓ and I think that connection of of things, ⁓ when I came here, I will tell you I had no idea that we would end up with so many people who are terminally ill. That have to come here as a bucket list item. And I've had people here a week or two weeks before their life was over. And they had to be here. They had to be in this room. And I think most of us watch the games with our family. So this is family, but it's also excellence. And they've also seen, whether it's Aaron Rogers or ⁓ Roger Staubach throw Hail Mary, they've seen that, you know, it's never over until the end. There's always hope. ⁓ so it is for us, we think the most inspiring place on earth. It is. It is, David. If this is the castle, you are the courier giving the message. When you look into the eye of a recipient who has finally reached the ultimate of their NFL ambition, what do you see when you give them the news? Yeah, ⁓ it's ⁓ it's it's been fascinating. I think we ⁓ we have Done our best to try to take fans with us to have the cameras there so that they can feel what they feel. But ⁓ initially it's excitement there in the Hall of Fame. You know, and I always say they're going to Canton. ⁓ and you know, for Jerry Jones, who was with his family, this guy got eight billion dollars. But this is something money can't buy. This is a legacy that has to be earned. ⁓ for Jerry Kramer, who waited 45 years, for Kurt Warner, came out of nowhere. And was this miracle. Every single one of them at that point, it's a situation where, you know, they're not thinking about their records or their money or you know, their their rings. ⁓ they're thinking about their mom who drove them to practice when they were ten years old, or their dad who wouldn't let ⁓ quit, or that coach who put his arm around them and made ⁓ think that they could be more, or that teammate that sacrificed for them ⁓ to help get them here. And in a moment it was that John Solworth, one of our Hall of Famers, was talking about putting on the gold jacket. And he said it was as if all the history of the game was wrapped around him from the time they first laced up a pig skin to play football to the last Lombardi trophy. And and I think guys feel at that moment a legacy, a a a affirmation, a redemption, a resurrection, if you will. ⁓ that somebody said, Well done, good and faithful servant. David, tell me about that because that's that's your signature. Affirming them as you welcome then. What is that? The impact of verbal affirmation. Yeah, I think this is very important, Tom, because you know, ⁓ when I talked about our mission about honoring the heroes of the game, this isn't about the worship of football heroes. You know, every one of these guys did not fall out of bed great. We think they did as fans. We thought they were bigger, faster, stronger. ⁓ but let me tell you, they earned it. ⁓ a Hall of Famer Brett Favre holds the record for the most interceptions. Okay. And he had to come back from every one of those to be in this hall. There's not one guy here who didn't ⁓ miss a block as an offensive lineman or a tackle as a defender or drop a pass as a wide receiver. And and the question is, how did you fight through that? How how how did you move? And again, this is, you know, I I I'm told these bronze blasts will last for 40,000 years. But this is a person's life, ⁓ life at least on this earth. And to be able to be in this group is a huge affirmation. ⁓ because all of these guys had times when they weren't sure. And I could go into many stories, Tom, if we had the time, of you know, Morton Anderson, who came from Denmark in the tenth grade for a 10 month exchange program in high school, and then ended up going back 40 years later as the all-time leading score of the NFL. ⁓ They had to persevere. They had to get up when they got knocked down. They had to move on when they didn't think they could move on. When people told them that they weren't good enough, they didn't believe it and they kept going. And there's wonderful stories of Warren Moon, you know, who at every level of his life, Warren Moon was told not that long ago, by the way, that a black man couldn't be a quarterback. And he didn't listen to him. He listened to what was in his heart instead. So I I I think you know I'm not sure all your viewers can have a bronze bust here and can't know how. But by looking at the values, the commitment, the integrity, the courage, the respect, the love that these guys employed those values to drag a lot of other people to greatness, it might make us better fathers or better mothers, or, you know, better executives or better companies, better community. I I am absolutely convinced that this is something that can make us a better country. Legacy. How do we let that fuel us now while we're living rather than waiting until we're remembered? You know, I think ⁓ with every decision that's made, every action taken, a legacy is formed. And ⁓ what's interesting here is that every one of these bronze busts has a story. A and they didn't they weren't given anything in i in our business in life. ⁓ you know, in the business of football, you know, a legacy is not pristine, it's not perfect. It is snot coming out of your nose and it's blood coming out of your mouth, and it's a a ⁓ filthy, dirty unf uniform. And if you're playing at Lambeau Field, there's a big clot of you know, ⁓ you know, the the turf, the the the frozen tundra, you know, stuck in your face mask. ⁓ and you have to fight to get through it. And, you know, I think what we learn from that is you gotta fight to save your marriage. Or maybe fight to survive a divorce. Or fight to save that child. Or fight to form that company that employs so many others. Or or or or fight to do what's right. And and all of these guys were fighters. ⁓ they did not relent. They did not give up and they got knocked down plenty of times. ⁓ but I think that they went on to fight for greatness. The Hall of Famer Vince Lombardi said that you can never achieve perfection. And certainly as believers in Jesus Christ, we know there was one guy who did. But we can never achieve perfection. ⁓ there's gonna be lots of sin in our life. But Lombardi said, if you constantly chase perfection, you might just capture excellence. This represents that excellence. And and It's a great message to ⁓ us that we can pursue excellence in our life and our relationships with the others and in our conduct and our productivity and all of that adds up to a legacy that we're all gonna leave, good or bad. I gather at the hall, David, that it's connecting the fan more than fan loyalty is everything else that should resonate. within us about the game, correct? Yeah. Again, I think it's such a cool game. ⁓ you know, like Bill Curry said, that every player needs every teammate on every play just to survive. But it's also one of those situations, Tom, where I think we can identify with the battle. And in the games we watch, there's a fall from grace, ⁓ sometimes there's a redemption or a resurrection. And and it is a play, but there's so many guys that have to come into this team. You know, ⁓ you know, fifty-three on the field right now, seventy that are on the roster, and everybody has to perform their job, offense, defense, special times. ⁓ you know, I I I've I've often thought ⁓ how unique it was that ⁓ Jesus Christ Church was really twelve guys, you know, that were his disciples. And by the way, one of them betrayed him. Which left him those other eleven guys. And those other eleven guys, since Christ's ministry was only really three years, those other eleven guys, along with a few others, like the Apostle Paul, changed the world. So that now 2,000 years later, you and I are sitting here in Canton, Ohio, in the most inspiring place on earth, talking about Jesus Christ. And it was really the his teammates that believed in him and believed in what he was doing. And and so I think I think fans connect to that, you know. David, what give me one attribute. One apt one attribute of Jesus' example of Giving to others that their lives would be inspired to live it wholeworthy. To paraphrase it, there was a similar question asked of him in scripture. It said, Teacher, what's the most important thing? And he said, To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might and he said, Another is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. A and I think r you know, the Jesus Christ that I know. ⁓ had a lot of love. Now he had power and he had force and he had truth, but he also had enormous love. And he had never had the opportunity that you and I have now to go over T V or YouTube or you know, all these communication tools that we have today with the computer. But I think he would talk to the woman at the well, or Zacchaeus in a tree, or the rich young ruler, or the Roman centurion, and he would speak the truth to them and he would understand their hurt. But somehow it was so powerfully done in love that these guys knew that it was different. I i it wasn't his agenda, it was that he wanted to heal their wound. He wanted the woman at the well who had the five husbands, ⁓ you know, he wanted her to know that this is a living well and that if she drinks from this, she'll never thirst again. And and I think that is why his disciples did such an incredible job of following him and and the and the deaths that they endured, they believed in him. And again, you know, let me take that to football. ⁓ Bill Belichick has been one of the greatest coaches of the last two decades. ⁓ and he has something called the Patriot Way. And you gotta buy in, you gotta believe in the Patriot way. ⁓ those disciples certainly believed in the Jesus way. a and what it is and we're a team that changed this earth. But I think fans understand that. They understand that, you know, ⁓ this isn't all eternity. But boy on earth, ⁓ this is elite, this is excellence. These are people who fought for it. And they understand this concept. One of the things you see in the Hall of Fame when we have our enshrinement is is that our our Hall of Famers come back here and I would say the thing that they have in common is love. They miss that love that they found in the locker room. It didn't matter whether your teammate was black or white or Republican or Democrat or or ⁓ you know Baptist, Buddhist, you know, Jewish, agnostic. You know, i i if you were a Green Bay backer, i if you were a Los Angeles Ram for Deacon Jones, you were their brother. A and and in our game, character is measured by the yard. ⁓ the great Martin Luther King said that ⁓ he dreamed of someday that his children Would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. In our business, that's easy because characters measured by the yard. ⁓ on offense to get that yard, on defense to keep them from getting that yard. And and I have seen this game reform racist and and and have the most incredible hugs ⁓ between black, white, brown. ⁓ you know, they are brothers. And the love that you find here when those guys are together is profound. It's palpable. And I think that's something that we feel, ⁓ you know, kind of i in our spiritual lives as well. When we're talking about measurement. What would the bust of Jesus Christ read? Yeah. you know, I I think it would either just say love or would say come to me. And and I and I think I I think it would be I I think it would be come you know, come to me all you sinners. You know, you you don't have to you know, the great thing about Jesus Christ, in my view, was that you don't have to do anything. Except open the door of your heart and let him come in. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to you know get a degree, you don't have to have a certain amount of money. You just have to recognize that we're all sinners. And and I'm a sinner. ⁓ I have failed at many things in my life, and I'm capable of incredibly sins now. But the good news is they've been forgiven. Not because of what I've done or because of what I've earned. But because of what he gave, and dying on the cross and rising from the dead with my sins upon him, so I could be forgiven. And and that grace, ⁓ is let me tell you, you don't often get grace in football. You screw up, ⁓ you pay for it. but I'll tell you, in in the world of Jesus Christ, ⁓ it is abundant and everlasting grace. So with the door knocking of enshrinement among these busts that literally may survive for forty thousand years, it has all the elements of eternity, doesn't it? Yeah, it does stop. ⁓ whether it's Bret Favre who took ten seconds to select or ⁓ Jerry Kramer, who waited forty five years, ⁓ and all those in between, they're thinking about their journey. They're thinking about ⁓ you know, their fight and their perseverance. But it is huge affirmation to have somebody say to them, effectively, you're going to Canton is like saying, Well done, good and faithful servant. You know, thank you for all you've done for the game, and we're gonna keep your story alive here at the Pro Football Hall of Fame forever. But that's technically not true. It's not going to be forever. Even a bronze bust only lasts for 40,000 years. What's really great about this, you know, our life in Jesus Christ is that that is forever. That is eternity. It's not as exclusive as my Hall of Fame here. Anyone can get in. Revelations 3:20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and I knock. And any man who answers the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. You know, that there will be a union between Jesus Christ and me. And you don't have to, you know, play twenty years in the NFL like Jackie Slater or you know, you you don't have to have persevered through all kinds of hardship. All you have to do is humble yourself and answer the door. And and he will say, Well done. Good and faithful servants. A and eternity is a lot longer than forty thousand years. If we were to take it beyond this building, looking into the eye of everybody else, in a life well lived, if you could look them in the eye, how would you affirm them? Tom, this is the greatest job in the world, I'll tell ya. I get to give out the gold jacket, I get to give the Hall of Fame Ring of Excellence and their stay in front of their fans, but I also get to knock on their door. But for each of you out there, you know, Jesus Christ said he was leaving this earth to prepare a place for you, your own hall of fame. And it's not as tough as this one to get in. It's not as exclusive. Anyone can get in. He says, Behold, I stand at the door and I knock, and if any man answers the door, I will come into him, I will dine with him, and he with me. And all you have to do is accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, and that will change your life. But I want you to know that football is a wonderful metaphor for life. You know, it's never over until the very end. There's always hope. We've got to learn how to work with others. There's offense, there's defense, there's special teams. We're going to get tackled for loss. There's going to be interceptions. There's going to be some fumbles in our life. But it's all about how you come back from that. And you gotta have a coach. And Jesus Christ is the greatest coach of all time. You gotta have a game plan. And the Bible is an incredible game plan for life. And I think that what you want in your life is the same thing that I want in mine, and the same thing that each one of these men wanted in their football career. That when Jesus Christ knocks on your door, he can say, Well done. Good and faithful servant, I have a wonderful place for you, not just for forty thousand years, but for all eternity. What a great conversation. When we think of a shrine or enshrinement, we may think of making idols. Idol making is prohibited by God. The Hall of Fame is representative of football's best, and while they were and still are heroes to many, they are just men. It's a reminder of our own mortality. That amongst these players were fathers and husbands and sons, men who, though they were the greatest of the great on the field, That their time as athletes inevitably comes to an end. There's purpose in everyone's life. The question isn't whether you are the greatest, but whether you served the greatest and used your God-given talents to bring honor and glory to him, just like the story of the parable of the talents. Our prayer is that guys like Larry Fitzgerald and Drew Brees, who love Jesus and are part of this year's NFL Hall of Fame class. That they'll continue to lift his name up as representatives of the Hall of Fame, but even more so as Heralds for Christ. Well, if you enjoyed this podcast, please follow us and check us out weekly on our weekly sports show with guests Fuel the Fire with Will Dawson. You can watch this podcast on YouTube, and we have feature stories with athletes as well as video shorts that we think you're going to enjoy. And we're on social media. On Instagram, we're at CBN Sports underscore. Just search for us on Facebook X and TikTok. And until next week, we'll see you then.