The world now knows 13-year-old Maxwell “Bunchie” Young as the star of the NFL 100 commercial that ran during Super Bowl LIV on Sunday. The ad featured Young running past current and former NFL players to get the ball to Hard Rock Stadium and deliver it to referee Bill Vinovich.
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But Young is much more than a kid who starred in a Super Bowl commercial. A standout in both football and track and field, Young already has a scholarship offer from the University of Illinois, and he was Sports Illustrated’s 2017 Sportskid of the Year.
He is also a Christian who often writes Bible verses on his arms and is open about his faith to his 43,000 followers (and counting) on Instagram.
Young is heavily involved in a church in Los Angeles called Love and Live Again Ministries, participating in an adult Bible study and helping the church’s choir director.
“God’s giving me stuff, so I’m giving back,” he told Essence in 2017.
The church’s pastor, Lafayette Dorsey, is impressed with the level of maturity and selflessness Young shows at such an early age.
“He asks questions that most adults are afraid to ask,” Dorsey said in a 2017 interview with Sports Illustrated. “You have many kids, they’re so athletically inclined, but they lack in other areas. [Bunchie’s] very well-rounded. He’s very balanced.”
Young has clearly taken the message of 1 Timothy 4:12 to heart: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
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