Bill Belichick in 2013 (Photo Courtesy: Seatacular/Flickr seatacular.com)
“He has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace.” — 2 Timothy 1:9
Flourishing in Our Role
The New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick have built one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history. Their motto is simple yet powerful: Do your job.
One of the keys to the Patriots’ success is that every player on the roster understands and embraces his role. Everyone stays focused on their specific assignment, which allows New England to be the most detailed-oriented team in football. Players know what is expected of them and don’t try to do too much.
God gave us the roles we have in life for a reason. The jobs we have and people we interact with are not there by coincidence. We are called to faithfully fulfill the roles we’ve been assigned, honoring God in the process. No matter what we’re doing, we can approach tasks with enthusiasm and embrace them as part of God’s plan for us.
As humans, we have a tendency to look ahead to the next step — the big promotion, starting a family, or whatever it might be. When we concentrate too much on the future, we’re not as focused on the present. God wants us to be fully invested in the things we are doing right now!
We can look at every day as an opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ by joyfully performing our roles to the best of our ability.
— Joshua Doering
If you would like to submit a reader devotional, please email all submissions to jason@sportsspectrum.com.
Ohio State safety Caleb Downs makes a catch during the school's Pro Day in Columbus, Ohio, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
Ohio State safety Caleb Downs has spent the past two seasons building one of the most decorated résumés in college football. Now, he’s on the verge of hearing his name called early in the NFL Draft — potentially within the first five picks.
He was named the winner of the 2025 Jim Thorpe Award — given annually to the nation’s top defensive back — and a finalist for both the Bronko Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik Awards, each honoring the nation’s best defensive player. Downs was also a two-time consensus first-team All-American and a key member of the Buckeyes’ 2024-25 national championship team and Big Ten runner-up squad in 2025-26. Furthermore, he was given the Big Ten’s Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year honor and, for the second straight season, the Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year award.
His impact extended beyond the field as well, earning the Lott IMPACT Trophy, which recognizes performance, leadership, character and community involvement, and he was nominated as Ohio State’s candidate for the 2025-26 Jackie Robinson Community & Impact Award.
“I have spent 11 years coaching in the NFL and Caleb Downs is the best football player — pro or college — that I have ever coached,” Ohio State co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Tim Walton said. “He is first-class and exceptional in all areas he touches.”
That combination of production, football IQ and consistency has made Downs one of the most highly regarded prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft. Multiple outlets project him as a top-10 pick, with ESPN and The Athletic placing him as high as No. 5 overall to the New York Giants.
“Downs would be the first safety taken in the top five since Eric Berry went to the Chiefs in 2010, and he’d be worth it,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. wrote.
But Downs is more than just a football player. And he’s not shy in talking about what’s most important to him.
“There’s two things that are more important than me, more important than me playing football,” Downs told “The Walk” podcast in August as to why he wears No. 2. “My faith in Jesus Christ and my family. So those two things is what I wear on my chest every game and those are the two most important things in my life.”
His faith has been central not only to his personal life, but also to his platform at Ohio State. In 2024, several football players helped lead a worship gathering on campus that featured worship music, player testimonies and baptisms. When the event returned in 2025 — drawing an estimated 2,000 attendees, nearly double the previous year — Downs was among the players who spoke to the crowd.
“No play we make on the field — no touchdown, no interception — can compare to the Kingdom of God,” Downs said.
Speaking afterward, he emphasized where he believes true credit belongs.
“God is good,” Downs told local television station ABC 6. “I mean, I can’t take credit for it. None of my teammates can take credit for it. At the end of the day, His glory is above anything that we can do, but we know Jesus is real and we know that if you believe in Him, you will be saved.”
That message has also shaped how Downs talks about faith publicly. On “The Walk” podcast, he talked about the hesitation many feel about coming to Christ.
“Some people say, ‘I’m not ready to be baptized. I’m not ready to come to Jesus,'” he said. “But the realization is that Jesus is for the people that are sick. Jesus is for the people that aren’t perfect. You’re never going to be perfect enough to come to Jesus. That’s the point.”
He continued later: “Whenever you surrender to Him, that’s when everything will be washed away and you will be made renewed in Him. The faster that you can come to Him and run to Him and totally surrender your heart and your mind to Him, that’s the better off you’re going to be.
“There’s no amount of good behavior that you can do that will allow you to feel like you’re righteous enough to come to Him, because you never will be. It’s just a realization that He is what makes you righteous. He’s what makes you perfect.”
Downs, after just three collegiate seasons, officially declared for the NFL Draft on Jan. 7 and made sure to point his gratitude to God with a post on Instagram.
“Everything I’ve been able to achieve starts with my faith,” he wrote. “I’m grateful to God for the direction, strength, and purpose He’s given me. And I will continue to glorify, honor, and praise Him throughout this journey.”
The NFL Draft goes from April 23-25 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
I was frustrated. I was having a difficult time getting the girls to take practice seriously. I often reminded them, “You play the way you practice,” yet their effort and focus were not reflecting the standard I believed they were capable of reaching. As a coach, I knew something had to change — not just in what we practiced, but in how we practiced.
Before one practice, I wrote a true-or-false question on the dry erase board: “Practice makes perfect?” I gave the girls time to discuss it among themselves, then asked them to record their answers. Seven players chose true, while two chose false. I then asked each group to explain their reasoning.
“You need to practice if you want to get better,” said our captain, speaking for the true group. The others agreed, adding that without practice there can be no improvement at all. They weren’t wrong, but I felt there was something deeper still missing.
Then one of our junior players raised her hand. Violet said, “I agree that you have to practice to improve, but you have to practice correctly to get better. And I don’t think anyone except Jesus is perfect. So I would change the saying to, ‘Perfect practice makes you better.’”
So often in life — at practice, at work, in school, or even in our walk with Christ — we simply go through the motions. We show up, but our hearts aren’t fully engaged. We may be busy, but we are not always intentional. Just as careless repetition on the court does not lead to growth, careless habits in our faith do not lead us closer to God.
Spiritual growth, like athletic growth, requires purposeful practice. It requires humility, reflection and a willingness to recognize when we are doing something incorrectly. We will make mistakes, but growth happens when we acknowledge them, repent and allow God to correct and shape us. Scripture reminds us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
When we raise our standards, pursue excellence with the right heart, and practice with intention, we grow stronger — both on and off the court. Walking in His ways becomes more natural, discipline becomes more meaningful, and improvement follows.
Perfect practice doesn’t make us perfect, but it does make us better!
UConn was down by 19 to Duke. Then, all of a sudden, the Huskies were headed back to the Final Four.
The furious comeback culminated with freshman Braylon Mullins hitting a near half-court 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to give No. 2 seed UConn a 73-72 lead and a stunning Elite Eight win over No. 1 seed Duke. For more than half the game, Duke appeared ready to cruise into the Final Four. But UConn kept slowly chipping away, eventually cutting the lead to one point in the final minute.
With 10 seconds left to play, all Duke really had to do was hold the ball and head to the free-throw line. But as the Huskies applied full-court pressure, they deflected a pass and the ball ended up in the hands of Mullins with about 2.5 seconds left. He had to shoot it. Nothing but net.
It goes down as one of the most epic March Madness moments we’ve seen in recent memory, and it all came after a massive comeback by UConn. The Huskies could’ve relented and given up, but instead, they kept chipping away. As they say, it’s never over until it’s over, even down to the last second.
In life, when trials, failures and disappointments add up, we’re tempted to think the deficit is too big to overcome. We go through seasons where it feels like the outcome is already decided. We just feel defeated.
But that’s not the story the Gospel tells us.
The story of Jesus is the ultimate comeback story, at least in the sense of redefining what we thought was final. The cross looked like the end, and everything about that moment appeared to say it was over. My church occasionally sings the song “Name Above All Names” by Charity Gayle, and part of the lyrics go like this:
The sun was darkened and the Heavens thundered And for a moment death had thought it conquered But it wasn’t over ’til You said, “It’s over” Your Word is greater still
That’s because three days after Jesus went into the grave, He proved it wasn’t over.
What these come-from-behind, last-second wins remind us is that as long as there’s still time on the clock, the story isn’t finished. We see that with the man on the cross next to Jesus who secured his place in Heaven in his final breaths. God is always at work, and He’s always available, even if it feels otherwise.
Philippians 1:6 tells us that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Life will deal you some big deficits occasionally, and at times things will feel like they’re “over.” But with Jesus, that’s far from the truth.
“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.” — Titus 1:1 (ESV)
I used to identify everything wrong with me and then work like crazy to fix it. Not disciplined enough? I’d create a harder training schedule. Losing my temper too much? I’d white-knuckle my way through games, trying to control my emotions. Not confident enough? I’d repeat affirmations and try to psych myself up.
And you know what? Sometimes it worked. For a little while. But it was exhausting, because self-improvement is a treadmill that never stops. There’s always something else to fix, another area to improve, another weakness to address. I was trying to transform myself through effort, and it was crushing me.
Look at what Paul says in Titus 1:1 (above). He introduces himself as “a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.”
Notice the order: Knowledge of truth leads to Godliness, not the other way around. Paul isn’t saying, “Work really hard to be Godly and then you’ll know the truth.” He’s saying, “Know the truth, and Godliness will follow.”
Are you trying to change yourself through effort? Or are you abiding in the One who transforms? Are you grinding alone, trying to fix everything that’s wrong with you? Or are you staying close to Jesus, letting His presence shape you?
One way leads to exhaustion. The other leads to life. You don’t have to try so hard. You just have to stay close. Choose His presence over your performance. His pace over your grind.
