Jason Sheridan's conversion began something like this:
With the 40th pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins select John Beck, quarterback, Brigham Young University.
Sheridan didn't join the LDS Church just because his favorite football team drafted a Mormon. There were other factors — like BYU-TV, President Gordon B. Hinckley and the Book of Mormon.
But draft day 2007 was the catalyst.
"It all came down to Mr. Beck there," Sheridan said. "If the Dolphins hadn't drafted him …"
Sheridan, a New York State trooper and former Marine, would likely still be oblivious to Mormons had Miami not used its second-round pick on Beck, a returned missionary who led BYU to a conference championship as a senior in 2006.
Beck had no idea his being drafted by the Dolphins influenced someone in upstate New York to investigate the church.
"The Lord's hand is in all things," Beck said.
The annual NFL Draft is immensely popular among football fans. It's now a three-day event shown on prime-time television.
An avid Dolphins fan since the days of Dan Marino, Sheridan was paying attention to the draft on April 28, 2007. He purchased a new Dolphins jersey with Beck's name and a BYU hat to support the man he hoped would be the quarterback of the future.
Soon, people were asking if he had converted. "That's a Mormon hat," he was told. But the only things Sheridan associated with BYU were quarterbacks — Jim McMahon and now Beck.
"I had no idea of an affiliation with any kind of church," he said.
Sheridan later learned that Beck was older than the average NFL rookie because of his Mormon mission. He read on the Internet where Beck's high school coach asked him if his church didn't have enough missionaries.
"He must have felt pretty strongly about (a mission)," Sheridan said.
BYU-TV gave Sheridan even more exposure to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While flipping through the satellite lineup at his home in Horseheads, N.Y., Sheridan happened upon Ch. 374, where a man identified as "President" was giving a talk about families. Sheridan was impressed by the speaker's intelligence.
Having known nothing about Mormons for most of his life, Sheridan had become intrigued in a short time by a quarterback, a religious channel and President Hinckley. The convergence inspired him to go online and request a copy of the Book of Mormon. Set in ancient America, the book captured the patriotic Sheridan.
"I am sucked into this like it's the best thing I've ever read," he said.
He began meeting with missionaries and was invited to be baptized, but he resisted. Raised Lutheran, Sheridan had drifted from religious activity. He worked in law enforcement — "the business of bad," he says — and thought people looking for God needed something additional in their lives.
"Me, I didn't need anything," said Sheridan, who had a family and a good career.
But faith was what sustained Sheridan when his infant son, Quinton, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder.
"I would have never made it through this without my belief in God," he said. "It has been a rock solid point for me."
He doesn't know why God called on him when he did, but Sheridan was baptized in May 2008. He has received the priesthood, his patriarchal blessing and temple endowments. Though wife Cresta is not a member, the couple fasts together and holds family home evening.
Sheridan works with the young men in the Elmira Ward. Owego Stake President Mark Beck says his three teenage sons see Sheridan as "an example that you could be cool and be a Mormon."
President Beck, who also has a child with health challenges, says Sheridan doesn't let trials get him down.
"He takes it all in stride and has a wonderful outlook," President Beck said. "He has his own challenges, but he doesn't get lost in those. He's always looking for opportunities to help those around him."
As for the quarterback, John Beck has moved on from the Dolphins and is now a backup in Baltimore. John Beck says he was always taught to do what's right, because "you never know who's watching." Still, he takes no credit.
"I feel like I really didn't do anything," Beck said. "But things happen for a reason."
e-mail: ashill@desnews.com