Is prayer okay in the NFL?: Dan Orlovsky

So before we get started today, I got a question for you.

Best thing about the Family Life Weekend to remember Getaway? You. You're so cute. You're up there speaking. We get in fights before we get on stage and you're saying I'm the best thing about the weekend. After the fight.

No. No, seriously, you know, as a speaker now, but we went to it, you know, as a conferee sitting there and we got hundreds, thousands of couples. I think the best thing is we seldom take time to evaluate our marriages or even to think, God, what do you have to say about our marriage?

It's hard to pull away. And in a culture that we're so busy and bombarded, even with our devices in our hands, it's a time just to kind of analyze how are we doing? Yeah, and all the things we put energy into. You think about it. We say our marriage is, if not the most important thing, it is definitely top three.

Jesus hopefully is number one, but it's one of the most important things we'll ever do in our life. And it's hard. And so few of us ever put energy into it. It's like, yeah, my body matters. I'm never going to work out.

I'm not going to eat right. Of course you're going to eat right and work out. And the same thing's true about a marriage.

Like, when are we going to put time in to say we got to really work on this relationship? So all that to say, you can right now get a half off registration to go to the weekend. Remember, and you can go to anyone you want in your own city, in another city, a destination, whatever you want. Go online right now to familylifetoday.com. Sign up, maybe even surprise your spouse if you want.

Oh, that's a good idea. Man, sign up. I can make you a promise. And you know what I'm going to say. This will transform your marriage.

It will be better as a result of getting there and letting God do His work in your marriage at the weekend to remember. So do it now. Sign up. I had never been around anyone like them. They wanted to, like, crush you when you competed against them. And they never held back. And they pushed you to the absolute limits. But then they were like amazing human beings to you and incredible husbands and remarkable fathers and great teammates. Like I did. I'd never been around someone that could want to knock you down and help you up at the same time in every aspect of your life.

And I think that was like my initial draw to just sitting back and going something that they have is like I've never seen before. Welcome to Family Life Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Ann Wilson. And I'm Dave Wilson.

And you can find us at familylifetoday.com or on our Family Life app. This is Family Life Today. So last week, an incident took place in an NFL football game on Monday night, actually, that really captured the whole nation's attention. I had friends that were texting me, asking me, have you seen what happened? Yeah.

And many of you know this, but maybe some of you don't. Buffalo Bills defensive back named DeMar Hamlin was playing Monday night against the Cincinnati Bengals and almost died on the field. They had cardiac arrest and collapsed. And obviously the whole stadium stopped. The game stopped. Thankfully, the Buffalo Bills medical staff actually performed CPR on the field. They got into a hospital in Cincinnati and basically started trying to save his life.

So obviously that became something everybody in the country was tuned into. I can you know, I've been on the field twice when the stadium stopped. As the short lines chaplain back in ninety one, Mike Utley went down with an injury, left him permanently paralyzed. And I was on the sideline and we did the same thing that Len Vandebas, the chaplain for the Buffalo Bills. I watched him lead the Buffalo Bills in prayer and a huddle on the field Monday night, just as I did in ninety one. And then a few years later, Reggie Brown, another Detroit Lions player, was partially paralyzed and we prayed on the field as well. Anyway, I mean, those are moments that are so scary. Oh, and for the wives and the parents of that player, it's so hard. Yeah, I mean, and that's why the whole country just stopped, because it doesn't happen very often.

It's very, very, very rare. But when it does it, it just reminds everybody what really matters. You think it's fantasy football or getting to the playoffs.

And in that moment you realize it's just a game and life is on the line. The good news is Damar is doing tremendous. He's recovering. And man, it was it was a scary moment.

But something else happened that was pretty unprecedented for the time. Yeah, our friend Dan Orlowski and he's our friend because he played quarterback for the Detroit Lions back in 2005. He came in as a rookie and we spent over 10 years with Dan. He is now an ESPN broadcaster, very well known, does a great job, does weekend football games in the NFL and college football. But he has a he's a host on a show called NFL Live, which is every weekday at four o'clock. We watch it often because we love Dan. He does just such a great job. But on Tuesday, the day after Damar's injury, Dan was on the program and he did something that the whole country is talking about. And if you haven't watched it, I want you to hear it, because this is what Dan did on Tuesday in regards to the Damar-Hamlin situation.

This is a little bit different. I heard I've heard it all day, like thoughts and prayers. And you just heard Sheriff and Jonathan Allen say, like, all we can do is pray for him. And I've heard the Buffalo Bills organization say that we believe in prayer. Maybe this is not the right thing to do, but I want it's just on my heart that I want to pray for this.

Damar-Hamlin right now. I'm going to do it out loud. I'm going to close my eyes and bow my head and I'm just going to pray for him. God, we come to you in these moments that we don't understand, that are hard, because we believe that your God and coming to and praying to you has impact.

We're sad, we're angry, and we want answers, but some things are unanswerable. We just want to pray. Truly come to you and pray for strength for Damar, for healing for Damar, for comfort for Damar.

Be with his family to give them peace. If we didn't believe that prayer didn't work, we wouldn't ask this of you, God. I believe in prayer. We believe in prayer.

We lift up Damar-Hamlin's name in your name. Amen. Amen.

Amen. So when you hear Dan pray on national TV, which was live, by the way, you know, what do you think? When I watched and heard, I was like, are you kidding me? I was also like crying.

Like, this is amazing. I don't think I've ever seen this happen on air. Yeah, national TV, especially on a show that's not a Christian-based, you know, sports program, to watch Dan's boldness. I mean, I had tears in my eyes.

Me too. Not just because we know Dan, but because we know Dan's story. I mean, you know what? We're not going to tell you. We're going to let you listen to Dan's story. A couple years ago, we interviewed Dan Orlowski with a couple other quarterbacks that were part of that team in 2006, Detroit Lions, where we won three football games. And nobody thinks anything about that season except behind the scenes, there was an amazing story going on with John Kitna, our starting quarterback, Josh McCown, the backup quarterback, and then Dan Orlowski, the third stringer. And you got to hear the story because this is the backstory to why Dan would do what he did on ESPN last week. There's an amazing God story behind Dan's journey, and we want you to hear it.

I'll start with John. As you signed, it was the only time in 33 years as the chaplain of the team that we were asked by the general manager and the head coach to be a part of a lunch when John, you and Jenny were coming in to be recruited, basically, to come to Detroit. How did we end up at that lunch and what happened?

Well, I think for us, it would have been our second time going through the free agency thing. And so when we were coming up to Detroit, we asked them if there was a chaplain program, who it was, would we be able to meet them when we were there? So then that was the lunchtime.

That's how that happened. And obviously they made sure your wife came with because that was like the sealer to the deal right there for my wife and for us. John, why was it so important for you to have Ann and me to be a part of that lunch? We never viewed ourselves as like NFL players. We just felt like we were Christians on mission and God was using the NFL to move us. And so if there was a chaplain program, we wanted to know about it and kind of the fruit of the ministry that had been there before we got there. And so it was important for us because we just always have felt like we were on mission for the Lord in our in our career. So where did that mission mindset come from? Yeah, I mean, it happened, you know, started happening when I got saved. But then when I got to Seattle and my first five years spent in Seattle with Carl Payne, who's the chaplain there and just his teaching on apologetics and why it's important to be able to defend our faith and and to be able to give people answers for for questions that are sincere. And so that's really kind of where it came from.

Just understanding that our life is not our own and, you know, the Galatians 2-20 mindset. Well, I remember, John, first of all, when Dave came home and he said, hey, the Lions have asked us to have lunch with this possible quarterback and his wife coming in. I was in shock because I'm thinking, what?

Why would they care about us? And then when we sat down with you and Jenny and I happen to be sitting right beside Jenny in that lunch. Yeah, actually, nobody talked at all except you and Jenny.

Probably. You guys sat over there the whole time. I was like, I love her. Like, I hope they come because she just had this mindset of like, what would it look like to bring people to Christ, but also to grow spiritually together in Detroit? And that was really pretty new for us that someone had a mindset of like, what could this look like as a ministry together to reach people for Christ in the locker room and for the wives as well and their families? And then right after that, Josh, you end up signing. I don't know if I got the timetable right if you were before or after, John, but you guys both came in. And Josh, you had a similar mindset in terms of I'm not just there to play football.

Yeah. I mean, I remember, no, I didn't get to go to lunch with you guys. They asked and I was like, the chaplains write the checks? I mean, like, why do I need to meet with him right now?

No. No, I remember, you know, locking up with Kit in the hallway there and just knowing like, OK, like these guys are here to compete for a job. But like, it was not even it was just about, man, we're here to work for the team, but for the Lord. And so I think that was the biggest thing for me was just going there.

And I knew John, I knew his reputation and just really kind of, you know, for four years in Arizona had kind of understood a little bit of how to do ministry, but not like in a locker room where you're able to lock arms with a brother and be intentional about it. So that was the best part of that year for me was just that moment. You know, I felt like God knit our hearts in that moment to go be able to do that. And it was cool because there was a deep peace that surpassed anything that would transpire on the football field. But just more of what kind of what we felt like was to come. So I always look back at that time, very thankful and appreciative of that moment.

And so I got that right at the same time and not shortly after that, that we got met then and got to work. I'll never forget that either. I remember in the hallway between the indoor and the locker room and seeing Josh.

I didn't know that Josh had been signed. And it was just immediately like I knew about his faith from Arizona and watching him. And immediately in my mind, I was like, oh, God's up to something here. Because to put us in the same locker room, my eyes were just wide open. Yeah.

Yeah. So there was a sense of destiny. I remember with you, John, I think I'm remembering this right. It might have been Josh, but it might have been both of you. But I remember one of you putting your arms sort of around my shoulder as we looked at the entire locker room. And you said, tell me about our ministry here. And I remember looking at you like, what do you mean our ministry here? And I thought this is one of the first times I've ever had a player walk in here and realize I'm not just here to win football games, which you were. And you were committed to that. But you were like, as you said earlier, John, I'm sitting here on mission. This is a ministry. And I remember I looked at you and say, what do you mean? You go, you know these guys better than I do. You've been here for years.

Tell me the landscape. Who's open? Who's not? Let's let's go, because God's going to do something. And I remember just thinking, oh my goodness, I think we're going to be on a journey this year because we have some leaders.

And so I was like, OK, what's God going to do? And then Dan Arlosky was there. He was a rookie the year before. And now he's in his second year and he's going to be in that quarterback room with you guys. So, Dan, talk about your thoughts as you meet your two new quarterbacks, because, you know, they replaced the guys before you. And now you've got two new guys who, I don't know.

What was that relationship like? Yeah, I knew of both guys. I didn't know them personally, but knew of both guys.

And I had known Kit signed and I was still young. So, all right, John Kitten of the veteran comes in. Cool. Like that's the veteran guy. I'm going to learn from him. I'm going to be the starter here at some point. And then I remember when Josh came into the building and I was in the indoor facility.

And you could tell who's like mature and wise and who's really immature and knuckleheaded through this story. I'm in the indoor facility in one of the back corner end zones and I'm doing the foot ladder, working out and whatnot. And Josh walks in and I'm like, what's up? And I'm thinking to myself, like, why is Josh McCown here?

I'm thinking I'm the backup quarterback. And he's like, what's up, man? I'm like, what's going on? And I'm like, kind of like, I have no time for you right now. And we just chit chat for a little bit.

Josh doesn't share with me that he's actually signed with the Lions. And so I get done with my workout. But my mind is racing and worries overcoming me. And I'm like, why is Josh McCown in our building?

And I sit down for lunch and I get word from somebody. I don't know who I was sitting with that Josh McCown signed. And I immediately thought to myself, I hate Josh McCown. I want nothing to do with him. I'm going to crush this dude.

Like, why is he even here? The wildest thing was, like, Josh treated me like a best friend the whole time. Now, we were as competitive as three human beings could be.

And I think that was like the initial draw for me. When it came to John and Josh was I had never been around anyone like them, someone who could be very similar to me with their mindset. Like they wanted to crush you when you competed against them and they never held back and they pushed you to the absolute limits. But then they were like amazing human beings to you and incredible husbands and remarkable fathers and great teammates.

Like I did. I'd never been around someone that could want to knock you down and help you up at the same time in every aspect of your life. And I think that was like my initial draw to just sitting back and going something that they have is like I've never seen before. Yeah. So they come in and they're obviously followers of Christ. They've talked about that.

They're on mission. Dan, where were you in your life at that time? I grew up in a traditional church home, but I was very much so the second year NFL quarterback who thought he had it all. And he was the man, at least externally. I was there, you know, like I was a womanizer and flaunting money, whatever money I had. Totally insecure, making sure that people knew I was a quarterback in the NFL and just kind of, you know, whatever stereotype you had in your mind when it came to a young, immature, reckless adult with money. I was kind of that in my life.

And Dan, I will agree. Like you probably, as you got to know them, you saw them as dads and as husbands. What stuck out to you in that realm? That was, for me, I had never experienced anything like that. I had never experienced someone who could be as driven as these guys were on the athletic field and as hardworking in the football weight room and as incredible trash talkers as they were. But then like actually like kiss their wife in front of their boys, hug their wife. And when I say boys, like their teammates, their buddies, not their kids, but like hug their wife, speak positively about their wife. You know, like talk about looking forward to going home and being home and spending time with those people and then talk proudly about being a father and how important it was to them. And that, you know, the way they allocated their effort and their energy and their time, it was like, you know, family time and family time and family time and all the positivity that came from their mouths about being a dad and a husband.

I was like, what? You guys like doing that stuff? Like you like being a dad. You love being a husband. You like giving your wife a foot rub.

You don't yell at your wife for, you know, not breathing the right way. And, you know, I had just never been around someone like that. And so that's why I was just like, I didn't know that guys were supposed to enjoy being married and supposed to actually love being around their wife and their children. And it's all these guys talked about, like it was all they talked about. And then their actions followed it. And I would say, like, you know, like what Kit says, as far as like when he and I met in the hall and that feeling that we got, it was the exact opposite when I met Dan.

So that's what I knew. God was up to something as I was like, there's something deeply disturbed in my spirit for this guy. And he was all those things that he said. But no, you could just tell like it was, I'm with Kit, like we were in a place where there was fertile soil, man. It was going to be, you know, something cool was going to happen.

Yeah. And so, you know, we're sitting here talking about it, you know, decades ago, sort of a revival started to take place in that locker room, including we'll hear Dan's story. But from John and Josh, what do you remember? What started to happen?

Why did it happen? When you think back, and I know you've been on other teams and you played many and God's working in all kinds of different places. But in that one year, there's something pretty special that happened.

What do you remember? Well, I think first of all was just, you know, getting to meet you and having the Bible study and, and then just, you know, asking guys to go and obviously Dan's in the quarterback room. So we're going to definitely ask him. And I think what Dan, you know, was saying, okay, is this how you last in the league this long? Right.

So it's like, do I do okay, I'll go and do this, you know, because this might prolong my career more than anything. And I think, you know, and Josh and I, we weren't necessarily having conversations like, okay, hey, man, you got those five. You got it was just like, let's just be us and the talking trash. And, you know, you show up at Lifetime Fitness and Josh is dunking on people and, you know, you come back in the locker room and you're playing spades and you're playing dominoes.

But you're doing it without cussing and you're doing it without having to go outside of the word of God to compete. And I think and that was from the guys in the locker room, some of the stories and some of the testimonies of listening to guys in the locker room. That was the thing that stood out from them was like they'd never seen that. And I remember having conversations with some guys that were believers on a team. And, you know, we're talking the same kind of thing that I was asking you, Dave, like tell me about guys in this locker room. And there was guys in the locker room. They're like, look, man, stay away from that, dude. That that's like it's the closest thing to the devil as you'll ever find. And God reached those guys. It was amazing.

I guess to just put it in a capsule, like the Monday night couple studies that we had at the house and seen 40 people in one house on a Monday night. That's just not NFL. It's not how it's done. And so it wasn't really anything that was like I was doing or Josh is doing or you were doing. It was like God was like, here you go. Here's a ministry for you.

Yeah. And I think to like in the facility, Dave, I give you a lot of credit. You created a space of a Bible study that was a conversation more than it was just a study. And I think it was relatable. So it just was a continuance of what was happening in the locker room to where guys were then coming in and getting some good theology.

And then even with Ann on Monday night with the couple. So. So I think you guys were a huge part of I don't think one one happens without the other, because there needed to be another space to go to that God's voice was represented. And you guys did a great job of that. So I think that was critical in the Bible studies when we would get a guy to come that he wouldn't get uncomfortable because of your leadership. You guys have mentioned the Bible studies, right? So we did the Thursday afternoons and then the couples.

The number one reason why that those became such a big deal and impactful. And I'm probably speaking for others here, but I'm taking a stab at this is I had never encountered another man in my life who loved me. Like truly, I felt loved by like I had with Wilson and McCown and Kit that I didn't look at and go, he's just soft, right? I mean, we're all competitive athletes, so we have a little bit.

That was the first time that I'd ever been like, wow, that that man literally loves me, but he's not soft. And there was something so appealing about that to so many of us in the locker room. That's one of the reasons why those Bible studies became the draws that they did in the Monday nighters that became the whole football team, essentially. Yeah, our Monday night couples study in the past, you know, for decades had been, you know, 10, 8, maybe 12 people.

And that thing grew to, like you said, almost 40. I remember one night sitting in, you guys remember, it was in John's basement, but I remember sitting there and some wife was sitting there and I'm like, hey, you know, we don't start for like 10 minutes. She's like, oh, I drove, you know, we drive two cars. I'm like, what?

Well, I got to get a seat. So my husband comes later and then I'll never forget, this happened several times, I'd be sitting there and I'd look over and there'd be a player there that'd be the last guy in the locker room I'd expect at Bible study. And I'd be looking over like, what is he doing here?

And so I ask him and I don't know if you guys knew this, but I'd say to whoever, I'd say, hey, dude, what are you doing here? And almost every time they point at John or Josh and just go, I'm here because of them. They were, what you guys just said, they were watching your lives. And I don't think they had ever really seen what Dan just explained. Well, it's funny what you just said. They were watching our lives, right?

Yeah. Like literally guys would tell us that there we were working out in the offices doing offices workout. And it was one of those like Jason would have the hardest workouts I've ever been through. And like, I never felt like I couldn't do it, but there was times and I had a guy, one of the young younger believers on a team afterwards in the locker rooms like, man, I just want to come in and tell you, you know, I just really feel like I need to challenge you because I heard you custody. And I'm like, yeah, I don't think you heard me cuss today, man.

No, no. We were working out. We were doing that. And I heard you cuss. And I just really feel like, man, you probably should talk to the guys about that. And there was another guy in the locker room that said, no, he didn't cuss because I've been waiting for two months for him to cuss. So I follow him around waiting for him to cuss.

And then he cussed. It's funny because you run into these guys. You run into Gerald Alexander, Ernie Sims and and Dom Yulebok and Paris Lennon, like God somehow has kept that happening for me. And to listen to their testimonies 10 and 12 years later and hearing what God did in that, you know, that short amount of time, it wasn't even a full year, you know, eight, nine months. And what he did and is still doing in the lives of these these people is but they were watching. They were watching. I remember one time walking into the the guy study in the locker room and Calvin Johnson came running in. And that day in practice, you guys remember it.

I wasn't there. You know, Kit, you went off on somebody. The defense gets, you know, it was a goal line deal. And, you know, and we all been there, you know, where they're grabbing guys and doing stuff. And you run up there and you're screaming and Calvin comes in and his comment is, I never seen a guy get so mad and not cuss. You never cussed one time. You honored Christ even in that moment. And he just walked out of the room. I'm like, what?

What just happened? But again, it struck him with Dan said strength, but under Christ, that's not something like that. I think we intend. OK, I got to be a certain way. Like that's walking with Christ. We're called to be a peculiar people. Like that's what should be peculiar is that we can compete like crazy, like Dan is saying.

We can be angry without sinning and people should be looking and going, OK, what's different? That's First Peter 3.15. And that's what Carl Payne trained us on all those years in Seattle. Well, it's interesting, too, because behind the scenes, my wife's Bible study that I had grew that year, too. And it was pretty interesting, too, as I talked to the wives like, hey, it's exciting that you're here.

What are you doing here? And they're all like, we just want marriages like the kidneys and the McCowns. The bad thing was that everyone hated their own husbands because Jenny would be like, oh, yeah, John came and he rearranged the furniture on his day off. And then he bought me all these new clothes and all these wives are like, what are you talking about? But I think what they saw was the way a man, a Christ follower, loves his wife and makes his wife and his kids a priority. And they were blown away by it. And I think that's why all the wives wanted to come to these Bible studies.

And they're getting their husbands like, you need to be more like Josh and John. It was like the guys were feeling pressure as they watched and their wives were kind of watching as well. You know, the interesting thing is when I talk about that year, I say the locker room tilted toward the quarterback lockers. I don't know if you guys could see that. I'd walk in there and it was like the whole locker room was where you guys were. They were drawn over there. They had Kit with his big Bible, blam, right there on his locker in your face.

And they had Josh as this lover and jokester. I mean, I couldn't even start a Bible study without McCown ripping my shorts. You know, just making fun of me. I couldn't even get my opening line out. He'd be like, hey, your shirt's too tight. You know, when you try to show us your bicep.

I mean, it's like, what? What just happened here? But the whole locker room was just like pulled over there. And then, you know, by the end of that season, I think we baptized 20 or 25 players, wives and kids, which was a beautiful thing. We hope you can join us again tomorrow. We'll hear part two of this amazing spiritual awakening among the Detroit Lions football team and specifically how a gospel invitation by Dave Wilson changed the entire direction of Dan Orlovsky's life. That's tomorrow. We hope you'll join us. On behalf of David and Wilson, I'm Shelby Abbott. We'll see you back next time for another edition of Family Life Today. . .