Hometown: Wayzata, Minn.
College: Ohio State University
Born: December 3, 1986
Team: St. Louis Rams
Position: Linebacker
Career Notes:
• Bronko Nagurski Award (2006)
• Dick Butkus Award (2007)
• Ronnie Lott Trophy (2008)
• Three-time NCAA All-American (2006-08)
• The Sporting News NFL All-Rookie Team (2009)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
As the son of WWE professional wrestler “The Animal,” it seemed perfectly normal to me that my dad would paint his face and wrestle people on TV. Only later did I realize that, to people outside of our house, it probably seemed pretty strange. But we didn’t care. My buddies and I still loved to dress up like my dad and his friends and copy their moves.
That was how my family passed many cold winters in Wayzata, Minn., a suburb west of Minneapolis. As we grew up, my older brother and younger sister and I played a lot of sports— not just living-room wrestling—like football and hockey. And, if we weren’t playing, we were there supporting one another.
Spiritually speaking, there wasn’t much happening for most of my childhood until I was a freshman in high school. That’s when one of my dad’s wrestling friends, the WWE’s Nikita Koloff, gave him a Christian book that began to stir his heart. Several days later, a member of the Christian power lifting group the Power Team who was working out at my dad’s gym, invited us to their next show. My folks decided to go as a family, and it was the most awesome show I’d ever seen. They ripped phone books in half and broke cement blocks and wooden boards. I was amazed by it and how they taught the audience that their strength came from the Lord. At the end of the show they invited people up to accept Christ into their lives. My dad took my hand, and our whole family went up and gave our lives to Christ.
For the rest of high school I was living for the Lord and also starting to really excel on the football field. I was a member of our FCA Huddle and was already seeing how my status as an athlete could be used to reach people for Christ.
I accepted a scholarship to play football at Ohio State University, and, in the new environment, I back tracked in my faith during my freshman year. But during my sophomore year, I started to re-engage with the Lord, focusing on not just knowing the truth but walking in it.
I owe a lot of getting back on track to two of my Buckeye teammates: Malcolm Jenkins and Marcus Freeman. There was a point in my career in which I was always worried about the next game but arrogant about my abilities at the same time. Those guys helped me realize that I had to change. I had to start putting God first and trusting in Him. By reorganizing my priorities, I realized I was blessed to be able to play for such an awesome God.
Another man, Tom Rode, who served as our Bible study leader at OSU really poured into me and challenged me to use my platform for the Kingdom. He taught me to, when I would speak on campus through Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru)—the ministry we had in college—explain how I was facing the same temptations that everyone else faced, even if I was a football player. It wasn’t easy, but Tom taught me to live in my brokenness and confess my love for the Lord.
In 2009, I was blessed to be drafted by the St. Louis Rams and was excited to learn that there were a lot of great Christian leaders on the team. My rookie year, one of my teammates, O.J. Atogwe, who had been in the league for five years, really took me under his wing and showed me how to humbly approach people with the message of Christ and let them know that I truly cared about them. Through him, I learned a lot about the dynamics of an NFL locker room.
Since then, my church in St. Louis and our FCA Bible Studies with Walt Enoch have been instrumental in my growth as a man of God. In both of those settings, I know I’m seen as James the person, not just James the football player.
To me, there’s nothing that trumps my faith in Christ—not even an NFL career. Everything I have on this earth is borrowed. All that really matters is eternity. God has blessed me with a platform and with an opportunity to do something that I love to do. Out of my gratefulness, I give all that I have as if He’s the only One watching.
Originally Published: January 2012
Photos courtesy of G. Newman Lowrance/St. Louis Rams