I want to live my life like Kirk Cousins when he lost the 2022 Playoff Game. Will the players in the Super Bowl, win or lose, respond the same?
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Good morning. Welcome to Morning Motivation brought to you by the Patriot Goal Group and the Public Square app. Maybe a groggy Monday morning for you after the Super Bowl last night. Full disclosure, I'm recording this before the Super Bowl. Super Bowl kicks off in about two hours and I don't care at all who won the Super Bowl. Man, it was a great game though, wasn't it? Okay, now we'll edit this out. And then, oh man, what a bummer that it wasn't a close game. I don't know. I guess we'll just use both of those cuts. We'll see which one works. So I have a... my relationship with sports these last ten years has been very
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uncomfortable. I don't like it. It makes me feel like less of a man. I never, I don't follow anything. I used to watch SportsCenter every single day. If you asked me 10 years ago, try to live life without SportsCenter, I'd be like, what are you talking about? It's an essential part of life. And then I don't even know, is it still on? I mean, I don't have cables. I gave up SportsCenter because I decided I have seen every 6-4-3 double play ever. I've seen them all. I've seen every dive and then a cool throw and the guy catches it and spins and throws
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it and just gets in the first base. I've seen that every time. There's no other spin on it that you could possibly give me that is worth this time and if there is, it'll pop up somewhere online and I'll see it and that's it. I don't need to sit here and watch. I've seen every diving play in the outfield. I've seen all the plays. I don't need to see any more plays. So I gave up SportsCenter. Also I never had a favorite team I was obsessed with. I just always liked well-played games which is super lame too. And even if I ever did sort of have a favorite team or
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if I had some investment in the game, like let's say it was the World Cup and America, right? I'm gonna root for America. And I get all into it, but this big emotional investment, and I just get crushed and super disappointed. And I'm like, oh, well, that's not worth it. Cause like, this doesn't affect me at all. So why am I doing a thing that makes me really sad?
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So I kind of gave up on sports. Moving to San Diego, we'll do that too. I remember I first moved to San Diego and it was like 12 years ago or something. And I said, oh, I can't wait to watch the NFC championship game the NFC championship is always a great game and the person said you won't watch it so we don't watch it see I've seen the NFC championship game every year my life they've done it you won't watch it
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it'll be like a really nice day out and you'll go you go mountain biking instead oh you're crazy and I didn't watch it sure sure enough the guy was right I never watched it so now we're starting to get back into it though because Jack's seven and he's playing flag football so we're starting to watch it more and he's getting into it a little more in a healthy way. So, I think that's cool. I always thought, I agree with the Jerry Seinfeld joke that the players, they all move teams all the time.
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So, you're not even rooting for teams, you're just rooting for laundry at a certain point. And I always thought that it'd be cool if they made a sports league where you could only join a team if you had some connection to the city. So you could only play for the 49ers if you grew up in San Francisco or within like a hundred mile radius
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or if that's your closest team, whatever your closest NFL team is. Or if you went to college in Northern California that you could play for San Francisco. And if not, if you went to University of Minnesota, you had to play for the Vikings or whatever. And maybe each team gets three players that they can trade from outside their region or whatever,
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but you can't be switching teams all the time. And that way you're really rooting for a team that represents the region of your country in a more powerful way. Like these are the players from Texas who play for the Cowboys and that's it. That's all you could, just the Texas players. And here are the Florida players, right?
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But that's a dumb idea. I don't even know why I still think about it. No one. I don't know if anyone's proposed that idea. I've never heard anyone propose it, so it must be really dumb, I guess. Anywho, so I have no connection to the game, and like a chick, I had to make up all these other reasons about what team I should root for. I like Mahomes as a person.
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He seems like a nice guy. But Brock Purdy is the best underdog story. The last pick in the draft, and not only the last pick in the draft, he looks like a dweeby dad, like a dweeby guy. There's one video of him. He was walking out of the locker room holding his duffel bag. And the caption was, dad arriving to the airport six hours early so he doesn't miss his flight. They're like, oh, like, what do you mean?
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There's this guy, the quarterback. quarterback, if I was a security guard on the field, and he tried to walk on the field, I'd stop him. Say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, kid. Well, you're back up in the stands, pal. Nice try. Nice tribe buckaroo. Get back up. Like I'm the starting quarterback. Okay. You don't even look like you throw a ball. Honestly. I know he's in the Super Bowl. How can that be? And he makes no money makes $800,000 a year. The other quarterback makes like $30 million. So I want
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to root for him for that. But then he plays for San Francisco and I don't want any joy to be felt by the people of San Francisco. So now I'm back on Kansas City. But then if Kansas City wins and I have to hear another thing about Taylor Swift and Kelsey again, I don't know. In the end, I decided to go for Purdy because he's a Christian. Were you able to talk about the Lord a little bit more, have some deeper conversations because they're seeing you have success on the field, maybe having an opportunity off the field to also talk about Jesus? Yeah.
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Um, I think the media for sure there was, you know, questions brought up in terms of like, you know, how do you do it? And, um, from, from myself, it was honestly, you want the truth? Cause this is the truth. And I'm not going to just say, you know, like a worldly answer of, you know, I look in the mirror every night and I tell myself I'm good. It's none of that. It's, it's man, like, this is who God has called me to be.
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And I've believed that from day one. I believe that Jesus Christ did come down and died for my sins and rose again. And he's living, you know, he's living and sitting beside God on the throne. And so I believe that. It's not just some story, fairytale thing, it's real. It allows me to stay level-headed and real with life and I know what my purpose is. That all has allowed me to play my game and has allowed me to play football at this level. I don't go into the locker room telling everyone, I believe this or that.
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It just comes about. you know, when guys ask me or they're interested and what helps you do what you do, then yeah, I share. But the biggest thing for me is just loving all my teammates, being where they're at, relating with them, being a relatable teammate, and then if they ask about what I believe in, then I'm all for sharing.
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And he was able to do a lot of that sharing at the Super Bowl press conference interviews. What a cool ministry moment that he had for moments like this Let me ask you a question about your face How you doing? Good tell me about scripture this year some of the Bible verses that you've been reading and passages. It's maybe helped you this year Yeah this year for me. It's been Psalm 23 Yeah, the Lord is my shepherd I have what I need he lets me lie down in green pastures
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he leads me beside quiet waters and it goes on, but for me, playing this game, playing this sport, there's a lot that goes into it and it's easy to get wrapped up in wanting and feeling, wanting to be loved, obviously by your teammates and everybody, but the world. And so for me, in that passage, it's talking about I already have what I need from the Good Shepherd and Jesus. So, I don't know, I've just been studying Psalm 23 throughout the whole season and been going back to it. It's what I start off with actually every single day.
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I just read off Psalm 23 to myself before I start off with some solitude and then I go about my day. I talked to your dad a couple days ago. He said he prays his guts out when he watches you play. Yeah. Do you pray when you're playing during a game? Yeah, yeah I do.
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You know, it's not, can we, God can we win here, can we do something great here, it's more just to have that peace, that steadfastness in all the chaos. That's really what it is, it's sinking back into like, Holy Spirit, you know, take over and lead me here in this moment and allow me to think clearly, allow me to, you know, obviously go through my reeds and like I said, just have an even keeled state of mind that I get from the Holy Spirit. Being a Christ follower will give you the right perspective. I was going to say it can give you the right perspective, but that comes across like some sort of life hack.
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Like, oh, I'll become a Christian and your life will be so much better, like it's some sort of trick. But no, you'll become a new person. You'll become a new person with a new heart, born again. I think about this a lot from before I was a Christian. The idea of being born again, obviously I used to mock it because it made no sense, but it's very simple. You become a new person.
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It's from John 3. There was a Pharisee, his name was Nicodemus. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a good teacher who has come from God, for no one can perform the miraculous signs you're doing if God were not with him. Jesus said, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. And Nicodemus has the reaction that most people would have. How
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can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born. It's great. Ezekiel 36 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And when that happens, when you're born again, you have a new identity. And football doesn't matter as much. It matters for all the good reasons it should matter in a healthy way, but it's not life. Yeah, I feel like, you know, it's so cool, you know, seeing across the league and the
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other teams that you play, like other people that obviously believe in God and glorify God through everything. I think it's awesome. And for me, I look at it as just our identity isn't in the sport of football. It's in who God calls us to be and what he wants us to do in life and what he says in the Bible. And for us, obviously, we're playing football. It's our job, but it's not who we are. And we're loved no matter what because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. And we get to go and be transformed and love people through that. We're football, it's our job and we want to do it well, but
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man it's not going to go perfect all the time. You know, you're going to win games and people are going to love you, you're going to lose games, people are going to hate you. And so as a believer and all the believers in the NFL, like that's what we mean by glorifying God, win or lose, like we're loved through him and because of him, not based off of if we're a good football player. So I'm rooting for the game, but I'm rooting for the Niners because of Brock Purdy.
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And of course, there are no Christians on the Kansas City Chiefs. Joking, joking. One end with this, I watch this documentary on Netflix called Quarterbacks. Peyton Manning was the executive
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producer of it. And it follows a couple of quarterbacks. One of them is in the Holmes which is why I like the Holmes too. But it's the end of the season for Kirk Cousins, quarterback for the Vikings. And Kirk Cousins is kind of like a Brock Purdy but if you saw Kirk Cousins you'd be like, oh you look like an athlete at least. But Kirk Cousins is just like a great guy. Just like a good decent man. So it follows him during this year and they're playing great and he loses the playoff game. The big playoff game at the end.
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And season's over. And it's wildly disappointing and the big one's been eluding him for so long and obviously the documentary builds it up, builds up the drama. It's big life or death or whatever. So Kirk Cousins, I don't know what I thought quarterbacks or players did after a game. I guess I just assumed they all go to the strip club or something. I don't know. Like what do you do? Kirk just got in his car and he drove home and his wife was sitting there when he drove home. Frustrating. Really, really frustrating. Oh, I forgot it's trash night.
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His wife's like, I forgot to take out the trash. All righty. Usually about this time when you start feeling all the pains from the game, you just walk around your house and you're like, ooh, that hurts. Turner, that was awesome. The fact that you let Cooper go to the game and you played. Every time he wants to go there, I'll let him go and my mom lets him go. That was so nice of you. Turner, that was so nice of you. My mom let him go again.
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That was so nice of you. That was so nice of you. Mom won the game. Wow, so you stayed home and watched the game with Mimi? Yeah. Did you know if we won or lost? We won. No, we lost. Yeah. We lost 24 and 31.
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You want to go read with Dad? No, I want to stay. Let's go read some books. We got 24 and the other kids got 31. I love the other kid that doesn't even care. You won. No, we lost. Okay. Can we do that? Can we read? And the other kid keeps rubbing it in. Did that? Some books? Let's do the book of why in Sports Illustrated. Let's do that. That
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was a good one. Why do the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys always host a game on Thanksgiving? Why are some tennis players considered clay court specialists? Why does the NFL have so many rules against hitting quarterbacks? In the NFL, the quarterback is by far the most important player. An injury to the quarterback can sink a team's entire season. Did you know the season-ending knee injury that Tom Brady suffered in the first game of the 2008 season led to a ban on hitting quarterbacks below the knee? And dad is forever grateful.
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So he just lost his game. Biggest game of his career huge disappointment bar and here he is reading to his kid talking him into bed okay you comfy all right you should sleep well tonight cuz you didn't get a great nap and it's nine o'clock alrighty ready singing pray on Christ the solid rock I stand all of the All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Jesus, thanks for today. Thanks for protecting Dad and his football game and through this football season. Thanks that Cooper was able to be there tonight and watch.
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And thanks for Mommy and for Turner, for the great family we have. And God, we continue to just give the days ahead to you and trust you for what's up ahead. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, buddy, you good? Okay. Sleep well. Love you. Let us be the Christians who know the true purpose of life and the important things of life,
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even if you lose the Super Bowl, or even if you win it. Mike Slater, dot locals dot com. Commercial free, night before, transcript, Mike Slater, dot locals, dot com.
