Football

Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett says despite pressures of NFL, he's saving himself for marriage

By Jason Romano Sep 21, 2017
Seattle, WA - November 7, 2016 - CenturyLink Field: Tyler Lockett (16) of the Seattle Seahawks during a regular season Monday Night Football game (Photo by Scott Clarke / ESPN Images)

Being an NFL player can provide many temptations. Money, fame, and maybe the biggest one, sex.

But for Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett, those temptations won’t sway him from following God’s plan for his life.

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“I don’t really struggle with the temptation because I’m waiting until I’m married anyways,” Lockett told Brock Huard on the Above & Beyond Podcast. “If it was Beyonce in front of me, I’d still say no.”

Lockett, who turns 25 later this month, says he doesn’t currently have a girlfriend but for him, there’s really not a struggle or temptation from the opposite sex because of the personal discipline he has in his life.

“I just don’t struggle in the area of having sex because I haven’t had sex before so obviously I’m not going to struggle,” Lockett told Huard. “If a girl comes at me or whatever, I just tell her no. Have I been in situations where I could have did stuff? Yeah, plenty of times. I know how to stop. I have great self-control.”

The locker room is a very private place for NFL players, but for Tyler Lockett, he says he’s an open book with his teammates.

“I open up to my teammates about it, they all know I’m a virgin,” said Lockett. “They don’t really trip. I like to talk about things that not too many people really talk about or go down in a discussion. I like to see what is really out there and expand the mind.”

In an interview last year, Lockett talked about using the platform that he has as an NFL player and understanding that he is where he is for a particular purpose.

“I just want to be able to show that you can be successful and represent God at the same time,” Lockett told the Seattle Times. “Some people wonder because I’m a Christian in the locker room: ‘How do you do that? How do you deal with that?’ It’s not something that you balance. Everybody is human. They act like everybody else is evil, and it’s not like that.”

On the season, Seattle is 1-1 and Lockett has seven receptions in his first two games. Next up is a trip to Nashville to face the Tennessee Titans on Sunday afternoon.

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