Near the end of Sunday’s NFC Championship game, third-string running back Will Shipley scored his first NFL touchdown. The 22-year-old rookie out of Clemson has said football is “what God put me on this earth to do.” His enthusiasm for the game, he added, is “the Holy Spirit shining through me, which is why I have to learn how to redirect it sometimes to truly let the light shine.”
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After winning his first NFC Championship, Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley posted, “God is great! 1 more to go…See ya in New Orleans.” In 2019, when he won the ESPY award for Best Breakthrough Athlete, Barkley said, “First and foremost, I want to say thank you to God for blessing me with the opportunity to wake up every single day and play the sport I love and have an impact on others.”
Another Eagles player who has been vocal about his faith is A.J. Brown. The wide receiver recently went viral for reading the book “Inner Excellence” on the sidelines during a playoff game.
That isn’t Brown’s only favorite reading material, though. Ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl, he said, “I read the Bible a lot because that’s how I fight my problems. I’m not trying to stand up here and be a perfect guy because I’m not; nobody is. But I just lean heavily on my faith and try to let [God] direct my paths.”