Stan White has had the football career of which some men can only dream. He started playing at the age of 12 and grew bigger and better with each year. Even though he was making more tackles and winning more awards with each passing season, he felt empty inside. It was not until he reached the biggest point in college football – a national championship – that he realized it was going to take something bigger then football to fill the emptiness in his life.
Spirituality was the theme of “The Main Event” Monday night at St. John’s Arena. Ten football players, coach Jim Tressel and former Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel talked to a packed house about how religion has shaped their lives.
The free event attracted a mixed crowd of families, high school students and college students. The OSU Marching Band was there, along with the cheerleaders and Brutus the Buckeye, to warm up the crowd. St. John Arena was encased in sounds of the fight song and “Hang On Sloopy.”
The atmosphere became louder as each player took the stage to tell his story. That was until Tressel took the stage to a standing ovation and cheers so loud that he had to remind the crowd why they were there.
“Tonight, I am not the Ohio State football coach, I am just a child of God,” he said.
Tressel’s speech revolved around two words: Reverence and relationships, or “R and R” as he called it.
“We know we are much happier when we use the wisdom and understand the meaning of the reverence of God,” he said.
Tressel praised the work his players put into their personal relationships. He said he believes these relationships are part of what make our lives complete, but the most important relationship is the one an individual has with God.
“These guys are tremendous teammates. They are tremendous students at Ohio State because they will do anything for their team and anything for their school,” he said. “And they will most certainly stand tall for their God and serve their God.”
It took White a little bit longer then some of his fellow teammates to find God. It wasn’t until the Fiesta Bowl of 2002 that he was able to figure out where football and God fit into his overall life plan.
“We beat the University of Miami that year 31-24 in the Fiesta Bowl,” White said. “When we got back to the hotel room the courtyard was full of fans. One fan stopped (coach Jim Tressel) and said ‘Coach, great game but what about next year?’ I thought about the seniors who put in four or five years to get to the pinnacle of college football and two hours after the game, ‘what are you going to do next.’ It was that night that I knew football would never have the significance in my life I once thought it would,” he said.
White said building a relationship with God is like building a house on a solid rock foundation. No matter what the weather is like, it will always be there.
James Laurinaitis, another member of the team, told a similar story about meshing God with football. It was a story that began the second game of this season.
“Dave Patterson (a fellow teammate) spoke at chapel,” he said. “He gave me the Bible verse that read ‘cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you.’ That just hit me because before games I get nervous and having that Bible verse lets me know I can calm down. Throughout the game no matter what happens, I know that God will love me. I am playing for a crowd of one and that is all that matters.”
