There was a time over the last two years when Ryan Clark, an ESPN analyst, former NFL safety and professed Christian, began questioning his faith.
The former LSU standout had no problem sharing about God during his Pro Bowl career. A Super Bowl XLIII champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers, for whom he played eight seasons, Clark directed credit upward at different points from the time he entered the NFL as an undrafted New York Giants rookie to the day he retired in 2014 as a member of the Washington Redskins.
Yet amid nationwide political division, particularly over racially motivated protests and police shootings, Clark found himself reeling inside. An ESPN analyst since 2015, he told the UNPACKIN’ it podcast last month that the last two years often included more questions than answers.
“When you have been taught Biblically, when you have been taught through fellowship that we’re all the same, that we’re all beautifully and wonderfully made, that we’re all made in Christ’s image, yet your image is starting to be made to feel like it’s not enough … it starts to eat at you in a way where many of those teachings are tested, because it’s supposed to be love — God is love — yet the world is being manipulated by evil,” Clark said.
Clark wrestled with racial identity while attending a “predominantly white church,” he continued. But it turns out that the questions he may have had in the middle of heated politics or issues of inequality ultimately led him back to the foundation of his faith in the first place.
“What [God] revealed to me … was that the one place Christians can all come together is in knowing that Jesus Christ gave His life for us. Jesus Christ gave His life for us to be free. You always have to go back to that. In times where I’m questioning, in times where I’m sad or I’m disappointed in what the world is now, it all goes back to Jesus Christ being love, to Jesus Christ giving His life for us and what we’re supposed to do with that.”
Since retiring from the NFL, Clark has been outspoken not only for justice but for compassion. A 13-year veteran of the league most known for his starting role on the Steelers (2006-2013), he now appears on various ESPN shows, including “NFL Live.”
Falcons players and their spouses — including Bradley Pinion (left) and Kaden Elliss (right) — walk through the Dominican Republic. (Photo courtesy of Compassion)
Many professional athletes are involved in some capacity with Compassion International and have served with the nonprofit in foreign countries. But until the Atlanta Falcons took a large contingent to the Dominican Republic in March, no professional sports organization had traveled as a group in partnership with Compassion.
Falcons president Greg Beadles, head coach Raheem Morris, seven players, plus staff and spouses went on the trip with Compassion, which partners with local churches to help release children from poverty. The group spent four days in the country meeting with church partners, participating in organized activities with the children, like a baseball game and football drills, and visited the homes of mothers and children facing struggles.
“One of my biggest takeaways from the trip was just the guys that went on it and seeing their hearts for Christ and seeing them outside of the football building and in a situation that can sometimes be a little uncomfortable, because of the level of poverty that you’re seeing,” Falcons punter Bradley Pinion, who spearheaded the trip with his wife Kaeleigh, told Sports Spectrum. “But then, seeing how my teammates just opened up and the joy that came on their face, and just seeing them serve and serving alongside them to the neediest of families in the Dominican Republic, it’s just something that I’ll never forget.”
The @AtlantaFalcons are making a difference beyond the football field! They recently visited the DR to see firsthand how Compassion is helping children escape poverty.
"The lives of these kids are being changed, and we've been changed too," said Bradley Pinion, punter for the… pic.twitter.com/0M2KMrZamx
— Compassion International (@compassion) April 7, 2025
Pinion has been serving with Compassion for many years. In 2023, he and Kaeleigh traveled to Tanzania to visit survival centers they helped fund, which provide critical prenatal care and access to food, clean water and medicine to mothers and babies.
This experience led to him launching “Punts for Purpose” later that year, for which he partnered with other punters around the NFL to donate $1,000 to Compassion for every punt that landed inside the 20-yard line, in support of 500 child survival centers.
When envisioning this trip to the Dominican Republic, he felt compelled to invite his teammates and other members of the organization to experience what Compassion is doing. However, he told Sports Spectrum, he was admittedly a little nervous to ask Beadles about the team partnering with Compassion, but he’s ultimately glad he did.
“It was just incredible to see, honestly, God in all of it and how it, from one simple [act of] stepping out in faith and being undaunted, led to me seeing teammates in a different light, and seeing different people within our organization in a different light, and our head coach in a different light, and our president in a different light,” Pinion said. “God has used that to draw people not only closer to Him, but also draw them to Compassion’s mission and the work that Compassion does.”
“We’ve never done anything like this before and I’m so grateful we had this opportunity,” Beadles said in a team press release. “We are a values-driven organization both on and off the field, and we’ve always wanted to be a positive, impactful force for good in communities.”
Morris echoed a similar sentiment.
“It’s what we preach every day,” he said. “When you get a chance to go live it, it means everything.”
Compassion President and CEO Jimmy Mellado commended the Falcons for their willingness to serve as a team. He said the Falcons organization is “dedicated to excellence and sportsmanship on the field,” but it went a step further because these efforts off the field were “lifesaving.”
“You can tell when a team has a culture: when they’re unified, when they’re powerful,” Mellado said in a video recap. “There are some teams that have the best athletes in the world, but they don’t ever reach their potential. But when you put ability plus culture plus that glue that puts you together, now that team is unstoppable.”
According to Compassion, 49% of households in the Dominican Republic live on less than $3.40 a day. Children in these communities are often exposed to “serious consequences of poverty,” including crime and gang violence, drug activity, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
Through its partnership with 234 church partners in the Dominican Republic, Compassion serves more than 62,000 children in its fight against poverty and its side effects.
“It’s what we are passionate about,” Pinion told Compassion. “We just want to bring other people along because we see the impact Compassion’s having. We want other people to see it, support it and give that same fire that we have.”
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