The most inspiring message Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson received this year didn’t come from a coach, player or fan.
It came from God.
Wilson, who’s dating pop singer Ciara, said he was told by God during one of his girlfriend’s concerts to “lead” his girlfriend towards abstinence, according to The Washington Post.
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“It was about 15 minutes before she went onstage,” Wilson told Pastor Miles McPherson in an interview, “and she was sitting there, and God spoke to me. He said, ‘I need you to lead her.’ And I was like, ‘Really? Right now?’ … He goes, ‘No, I want you and need you to lead her.’ And so I told her, right then and there, ‘What would you do if we took all that extra stuff off the table?’ Just do it Jesus’s way.”
When asked to elaborate on the subject, Wilson said, “Yeah, we’re talking about sex.”
Wilson said that through abstinence, the couple could show each other how much they really care about each other.
“I know that he’s calling for us to do something miraculous, something special," Russell said in the interview. "And I told her — and she completely agreed — is the fact that, ‘Can we love each other without that?’ If you can really love somebody without that, then you can really love somebody.”
This isn’t the first time Wilson said he’s spoken to God. In 2013, Wilson said when he was 14, Jesus visited him in a dream that encouraged him to find religion — something he had rejected and treated in jest as a child, CBS News reported.
“I had a dream that my dad passed away and that Jesus came into the room and he was basically knocking on my door, saying, ‘Hey, you need to find out more about me,’” Wilson said, according to CBS News. “So that Sunday morning I ended up going to church and that’s when I got saved.”
Since that time, Wilson’s led a life where faith and family come first, according to Brandon Judd of Deseret News.
"God comes first, family and friends come second, and football comes third. That’s just how my life is structured," the Seattle quarterback told Judd ahead of Super Bowl XLIX earlier this year.
Wilson is far from the first NFL player to embrace his faith. He is one of many NFL players who credits God for his football success, Deseret News reported.
In fact, as NJ.com reported, many of the Wilson’s teammates get together for Bible study sessions ahead of weekend football games.
The league itself also has a long history of embracing Christian traditions, as our own Kelsey Dallas reported. Teams today partake in a post-game prayer, where players gather, bend down on one knee and pray to celebrate their religious beliefs.
"(The prayer) is not really about who won and who lost. It's about honoring God and guys who really look at their talents and their abilities and the privilege to play in the NFL as a gift from God," said Buffalo Bills chaplain, Fred Raines. "It's a chance just to give thanks."
Related links:
What’s God got to do with football devotion? Plenty
Survey shows sports fans believe higher forces at play when team wins or loses
Taking a knee: Professional football and its mysterious postgame prayer
Herb Scribner is a writer for Deseret News National. Send him an email at hscribner@deseretdigital.com or follow him on Twitter @herbscribner.