Justin Buzzard saw a video of a man in his 60s playing football and sent it to his sons as a way to encourage them as athletes. The juxtaposition of an older man on a field with a bunch of guys in their prime served as an example to never give up and know it’s never too late to do something.
His oldest son wrote back and suggested he — Dad — could do what that man in the video was doing.
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“I just thought, ‘That’s so stupid. So no way,’” Buzzard told Sports Spectrum this week. “But within 30 seconds, I’m like, ‘Wait. Maybe. What if I did that? Maybe I could do that. What if I tried?’
“And my heart was just kind of leaping in me.”
Buzzard is 47 years old, soon to be 48. He’s the founder and lead pastor of Garden City Church in San Jose, California. He’s a husband, a dad and an author. He’s also now a defensive end for the San Jose City College football team. It’s a reality that even he’s still trying to wrap his head around as it quickly becomes one of the most talked-about stories early on in the 2026 college football season.
He made his college debut on Saturday.
Initially, still not fully convinced of his own conviction, he jokingly messaged the team’s defensive coordinator with a link to the 60-year-old’s video and suggested he — in his mid-40s — should play for SJCC. Buzzard expected a humorous reply, but instead the coach wanted to talk. For real.
“And so two days later, I was meeting with them at the school, he was showing me around, and basically said we would hold you to the standards of every other person, and if you really want to come out here, we’ll give you an opportunity,” Buzzard said. “And so I took two weeks to think about it and to pray about it and decided to go for it.”
He talked with his wife, family and friends and made a list of pros and cons. Aside from balancing his work and life with playing a college sport, the most glaring concern was injury. He started his bachelor’s degree at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, and redshirted on the football team for one season before a finger injury cut short his initial foray into college football. And even though he trains regularly now and does CrossFit, his body at 47 isn’t quite the same as it was at 18 or 19.
But aside from injuries, everything else pointed Buzzard toward saying yes. Videos of him getting action in last week’s game have now been posted all over social media. He’s been on SportsCenter, and the New York Times is writing a story about him. In the last couple of weeks, he’s received about three-to-five media requests every day.
He wasn’t expecting this kind of media blitz, and the attention isn’t why he said yes in the first place. But his journey has become an inspiration to many and it’s given him a platform to talk about Jesus, though he insists that his main goal was just to play football and see if he could do it. He didn’t want to force his way into a locker room just to be some sort of missionary.
“Jesus calls us to be in the world, but not of the world,” Buzzard told Sports Spectrum. “That’s very much how I’m looking at this. I’m in the field, in the locker room. I’m not going around telling people I’m a pastor. People found that out over time. I’m not just walking around preaching the Gospel. I’m walking around very much just being myself and trusting that guys are seeing, ‘There’s something unique about this guy. God’s at work in his life.'”
Like any other player, he had to earn his spot on the roster during training camp. And as the defensive coordinator told him, he wouldn’t get any passes just because he’s older and has a full-time job. Buzzard wouldn’t have it any other way.
Still, it’s a grind to get through each week, he said. Practice is hard, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when players are in full pads and practice at full intensity. He’s also taking a full class load, as is necessary to be eligible. It’s a mental and physical battle to balance studying game film and preparing for games while still pastoring his church, writing his sermons, providing counseling, and being a dad and husband at home.
He’s exhausted and sore at the end of each day, but he’s chosen to embrace that this is just a season that will only last for a few months. Practice is at the same time each day Monday through Friday, which helps him create a schedule, and he can adjust accordingly. He’s also an author, with his next book, “Be A Man: The 21 Marks of Biblical Masculinity,” set to release in fall 2027.
His church staff and elders are helping him get through each week logistically, and the football team is off on Sundays, so that doesn’t interfere with his preaching schedule.
“The main thing is I just have to be disciplined,” Buzzard said. “Whatever I’m doing, I’m doing that. So if I’m in football, it’s all football. If I’m writing my sermon, it’s all sermon. I’m giving my full focus to whatever I’m doing and there isn’t extra margin. There isn’t time to fool around.”
He wasn’t expecting this either, but before the first scrimmage and again before the first game, head coach Jim Winkler asked him to pray for the team. Buzzard thinks that will become a regular thing going forward.
“Certainly my hope is that I would have an eternal impact here,” he said. “I hope to have an impact on the team right now in terms of our play and what we actually do on the field. I want to help my team win through my presence on and off the field, but I hope I have an eternal impact on the guys.”
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This whole experience has opened the door to plenty of questions and conversations from players and the general public, and he’s receptive to all of it. His motto is “risk or rust,” which basically means if you don’t take risks or challenge yourself, you’ll get complacent. He hopes his story inspires his teammates and others in that way, and the hundreds of private messages he’s received over the last few weeks would suggest that mantra has resonated with a lot of people.
“I hope men are inspired to take a risk, to do something new, to not stand on the sidelines, to not stay stagnant, but to step out in faith and trust God for something new and to take on a new challenge or opportunity,” he said.
As of now, his plan only includes this season. He hopes to get through each practice and each game in one piece. Whether he plays again next season isn’t yet on his mind.
Buzzard sees all the encouraging and sarcastic comments online, and he loves it all. He knows full well there’s a chance he gets hurt or embarrasses himself on the field. And if a poor play gets caught on camera, there’s a high likelihood that a video of a 47-year-old making a fool of himself on a football field could go viral and those sarcastic comments would only intensify. But for him, it’s all worth the risk.
“That’s the risk of vulnerability in all of this,” he said. “Who knows what’s going to happen this week with game No. 2? Who knows what’s going to happen the rest of the season? I think that’s what makes this story, and especially sports, interesting, is that there’s so many different variables, and you never know what is going to happen.
“I hope people get that God wants to use you in the places of your deepest desire or excitement.”
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