Former NFL defensive tackle Gerald McCoy is putting his faith into action, helping baptize a man incarcerated at San Quentin Prison.
A video shared by God Behind Bars showed McCoy leading the inmate into the baptismal, where the former athlete baptized the man.
“Many of these men are serving 10 years or more in prison! Revival is here!” God Behind Bars wrote in the caption.
Faith has been a part of McCoy’s life since childhood, previously telling BeliefNet that his parents “raised me to be a Christ follower — not just a Christian or a guy who believes in God. I learned to be a Christ follower and an imitator of Christ.”
Related: Why Texans Defensive End Will Anderson Keeps His Eyes on God
When he faced challenges in his life, such as his mother’s death and injuries that slowed his NFL career, he clung to James 1:2-4.
“We’re supposed to be excited when a challenge comes,” McCoy, who spent most of his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before officially retiring from the NFL in 2023, emphasized. “Tests of your faith help you grow. You have to embrace it and love it and enjoy it even though it’s difficult. If you remain thankful and faithful, everything will work out.”
Other NFL stars are taking their faith to the prison system, including Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr.
“God literally takes the least likely and uses him to spread His Word,” the defensive end told a group of prisoners in a video shared by God Behind Bars. “You guys are such an inspiration to me, because I battle daily. I’m like, ‘God, are you sure?’ But in His Word, God says we are His masterpieces. He said, ‘I have created you in my image.’”
“What God has been doing back then, He’s still doing now. How God is still changing lives back then, He’s changing lives now,” Anderson Jr. encouraged. “And to walk in here and to see all the lives that He’s changed, all the people that He’s touched, it’s just been so beautiful to see. So, I’m just so humbled, man, as a 24-year-old, to be on this stage, and to be in this room with a bunch of men who gave their lives to Christ, it gives me so much hope and so much inspiration to know that God is still working.”
Whether it’s McCoy stepping into a baptismal at San Quentin or Anderson Jr. sharing his testimony with a room full of men rebuilding their lives, both athletes show that influence doesn’t stop at the stadium walls.
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