Baker Mayfield has had quite the up-and-down football career.
Sports fans likely remember that Baker was a standout in college, and that was after being a walk on at both Texas Tech and Oklahoma. He eventually won a Heisman Trophy as a Sooner, and then was drafted No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft.
So it’s not exactly an underdog story for Baker, but he still had to move past some doubts – from teams, analysts and himself – as he struggled to find his footing in the NFL. Cleveland gave up on Baker by 2021, and the Carolina Panthers had Mayfield lining up on defense on their scout team for some time before letting him go (true story).
It was a single game for the Los Angeles Rams that rejuvenated Baker’s career in 2022, and he ultimately landed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023 and has been a high-level starter for them ever since. This year, through six weeks of the NFL season, Baker Mayfield is one of the front-runners to win the NFL MVP.
And it all started with a decision to give his life to Christ.
When Baker Mayfield was a guest on the Sports Spectrum Podcast back in March, the 30-year-old quarterback opened up about how his life and career only started to turn around when he finally gave it all to God. He admitted that he had hit rock bottom, but he now knows that he had to go there to see what God had in store for him:
“God taught me a lesson. He had to take my career down to the studs and make me realize that I’m more than a football player. There’s much more going on than the game of football. And for me to see that, I had to hit rock bottom.
For me to climb back up, I had to dive into the Word and accept that grace. And that was something that was really, really hard for me. When I eventually did, I started to see things from a different viewpoint. That was the biggest change in my life.”
Baker says that as soon as he rescinded control of his own life and accepted that Jesus was his Lord and Savior, things in his life started clicking.
That change in his life happened around the same time that his NFL career started to take back off (coincidence? I think not). And because he has now seen the grace that can be given by God, he’s spreading the word about Him every chance that he gets:
“Jesus is obviously the Son of God, but is grace, is perfection, Somebody that sacrificed everything, that gave us this opportunity to live life. When you say he’s your Lord and Savior, you proclaim it whenever you can.
(Jesus is) the reason we’re here. The story of Jesus walking among the flesh — the only perfect Man — to be sacrificed on the cross and to die for our sins forever. When you accept that grace, that’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Pretty cool to hear one of the NFL’s biggest stars speaking openly about his faith.
Though things for Baker Mayfield are looking up now, the Tampa Bay QB does admit that he went through some tough times. But now that he’s a follower of Christ, and he and his wife have built their foundation on faith, Baker knows that everything has played out exactly as it should have:
“It’s been a journey, but it all happened for a reason. God’s timing is perfect, where Tampa feels like home for me now. But that’s only because of what I built the foundation on, what my wife, Emily, and I built our foundation on — that’s our faith. It’s been such a special ride to let God take us through that.”
Just another reason to be a fan of Baker Mayfield and his story.
Here’s the full pod:
