Glendale, AZ - October 16, 2006 - University of Phoenix Stadium: Devin Hester (23) of the Chicago Bears during a regular season Monday Night Football game (Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
Devin Hester, arguably the greatest returner in NFL history, called it quits today in a statement he made on Twitter.
“Good news: Commissioner Goodell, you can put the kickoff back at the 30. Bad news: Y’all will have to find a new favorite returner.”
CURTAINS ✌🏾 Appreciate all of the love for all these years!!! Y’all made the ride incredible!!! pic.twitter.com/jkcVrRLcNI
Hester, 35, leaves the game with an NFL best 14 punt-return touchdowns. He also had five kickoff returns for scores and one touchdown return on a missed field goal. He made four Pro Bowls and was first-team All-Pro three times. Hester also saw playing time as a wide receiver, catching 255 passes for 3,311 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Nicknamed “Anytime” and “The Windy City Flyer,” he played eight seasons with the Chicago Bears, two with the Atlanta Falcons, and finished last year with the Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks.
His mother, Juanita Brown, Pastor of Anointed House of Prayer Ministries in West Palm Beach, FL, introduced the NFL star to the Christian faith.
“My mom taught me, No. 1, to have respect for God,” Hester said to the Chicago Tribune, “and to know that you can do all things through Christ.”
His mother’s training was later embraced by Hester when he had children of his own. He understood the role of being a father and spending quality time with his kids.
“I don’t know how much to stress how important it is to be in your kid’s life. Time is the most important thing you can give a kid,” Hester said in 2011 to the Daily Herald. “I just get a kick out of coming home and seeing how excited my kid is to see me walk in the door.”
Now a married man with two kids, Hester wants his oldest son to remember him for more than his NFL record 20 returns.
“I want D.J. to tell his friends in middle school and elementary and high school that I have the best dad ever. Not the superstar on the football field, but off the field I have the best dad in the whole wide world,” he said to the Daily Herald.
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Patriots rookie TreVeyon Henderson teaches kids about the Bible at a youth football camp (Photo courtesy X/@accessthewalk).
Former Ohio State Buckeyes TreVeyon Henderson and Gee Scott Jr. are looking forward to their first NFL training camp with the New England Patriots later this month, where they will prepare to make an immediate impact on the field this fall. Yet they haven’t waited until September to make an impact in the Massachusetts community they now call home, or in the Ohio community that molded them into who they are.
Both players provided spiritual leadership for the Buckeyes’ faith-fueled national championship team and have continued to find ample opportunities to share their faith in Christ since joining the Patriots.
Scott — a tight end who signed with New England as an undrafted free agent — and three of his Patriots teammates joined community members and police officers at a Faith Night hosted by Bethel AME Church in Boston on May 30. Three weeks later, Scott and Henderson (a running back and the No. 38 overall pick) were both guest speakers at a “Revival” worship night organized by the Duxbury High School Bible Club, about an hour southeast of Boston. The players closed the night by delivering powerful testimonies of faith in Christ to a crowd of more than 400.
Their community outreach has extended outside the Boston area as well. The week after the Duxbury event, Henderson was at Storyside Church in Bellville, Ohio, where he reportedly declined an appearance fee. His reason? “My salvation is free and so am I.”
Prior to his final season at Ohio State last August, Henderson was a guest on the Sports Spectrum Podcast. He shared in the episode how he came to faith in college and why he choose to return for one more year rather than enter the 2024 NFL Draft.
“When I met Jesus, He filled me with the love that I’d been looking for in football and money and my family and women,” the three-time All-Big Ten selection said on the podcast. “He gave me the joy that I’d been searching for. … He filled me with happiness that I was looking for. What my heart was craving, what me heart needed — Jesus, He filled me with it. He gave it to me.”
Meanwhile, Scott joined the “What’s Up” podcast, part of the Sports Spectrum Podcast Network, in December. He discussed the ways his faith helps him handle the pressure and expectations that come with being a high-level athlete.
“I have a faith that all of these things that I’m going through are working together to refine me and make me a better version of myself,” he said on the podcast. “Having faith through that gives me freeing peace while I play that I’m not here to perform for man or for fans.”
The two friends and teammates reunited once again on Thursday to host a youth football camp in Mansfield, Ohio, in partnership with The Walk Foundation, an organization focused on spiritual outreach through sports.
Smiles & Bibles ✝️
Former Ohio State and New England Patriots rookies TreVeyon Henderson & Gee Scott Jr. held a youth football camp for the kids of Mansfield, Ohio. pic.twitter.com/FEQUbQgw7f
Both Henderson and Scott are also extremely active in sharing their faith on social media. Henderson declares that “Jesus saved my life” on both his Instagram and X accounts, while Scott describes himself as a “follower of Christ” on X and writes that, “I know who I am because I know Whose I am” on Instagram.
Henderson included a Bible verse from Acts in his Instagram post celebrating his selection by the Patriots.
While Scott was training, traveling around proclaiming the Gospel, and settling into life as a Patriot, he was also in the midst of planning another significant life event. Over the Fourth of July weekend, he proposed to his girlfriend, Olivia. Scott gave glory to God and cited Matthew 19:6 in his Instagram post celebrating the engagement.
As he gets ready to compete for a spot on New England’s roster, Scott will continue to draw strength from the Lord.
“I just believe if I have God with me, that is my strength,” he said on the “What’s Up” podcast. “I’m usually not the one that’s doing a whole bunch of pumping up because I just know the strength that God gives me is enough.”
Henderson’s place on the team may be more secure as New England’s second-round pick, and he knows he is playing for God’s glory and wants to utilize his platform as much as possible.
“I’m just going to continue to let Him guide me and work through me for His glory,” Henderson said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast. “I want to continue to decrease. When people see me, I want them to see the Lord. I want them to see His power to save, to transform. I just want to let His light shine through me.”
The Patriots begin training camp on July 23. New England’s first preseason game is against the Washington Commanders on Aug. 8, and it hosts the Las Vegas Raiders in its regular season opener on Sept. 7.
Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud smiles on the practice field, May 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Texans superstar quarterback C.J. Stroud regularly gives back to the people of Houston on Sundays in the fall with his spectacular plays and record-breaking performances. Yet even in the NFL offseason, when the spotlight on his life retreats for a time, Stroud still finds ways to give back to the city that has embraced him as its own.
Most recently, the youth at Space City Church were the beneficiaries of the third-year quarterback’s generosity.
Some of the kids at Space City Church were in need of financial assistance to attend a church camp in Waxahachie, Texas, later this week, so pastor Vaughaligan Walwyn decided to reach out for some help. He typed up an email to the C.J. Stroud Foundation, and not only was it answered, it was answered with a promise that the fees for seven kids (the same as Stroud’s jersey number) would be fully covered.
“It means the world,” Walwyn, affectionately known as Pastor Von Won, told KPRC 2 in Houston last week. “For C.J. and his foundation to pay those fees and help us in any capacity, it’s a blessing. It can be a big pressure sometimes, and the last thing we want is a parent stressing out. Church camp impacted my life in a huge way.
“Ultimately, it’s a blessing to see the C.J. Stroud Foundation help us. We seek God to work through them and give us the fuel we need for ministry.”
This story really started last September, however, when Texans team chaplain Mikado Hinson invited Pastor Von Won to speak at the team’s chapel service ahead of its Week 4 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Houston won the contest, 24-20, following Stroud’s game-winning touchdown pass with 18 seconds remaining.
Walwyn’s message from the night before hit home with Stroud, so much so that it was still on the mind of the 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in his postgame press conference.
“[Pastor Von Won] was talking about, ‘You gotta go through the mud before you get to the miracle,'” Stroud said. “That resonated with me. Not only just in ball but just in life. It’s not always perfect but, you know, the mud makes you who you are. I think the mud we have is self-inflicted mud, but I feel like that kind of motivates us in a sense. It motivates me.”
Last August, in the lead-up to his second professional season, Stroud joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast to discuss his identity in Christ and his boldness to speak His name publicly.
“People will assume that since I proclaimed Christ that I’m perfect,” he said on the podcast. “I am far from it, and we all are. We all are striving to be more Christlike. … I’m flawed just like everybody else, but I do believe in the perfect One. And He’s the One who keeps me humble. He’s the One who gave me my talents and He will get the glory for it right back.”
In January, he said his goal for 2025 had nothing to do with football.
“Really just locking back in with the Lord. … That’s really my 2025 goal,” he said. “It’s just to be locked in with the Lord as much as possible. Fasting and praying, being a part of getting discipled.”
Stroud has quickly endeared himself to the people of Houston with his leadership, his play on the field, and his community involvement off of it. As millions of adoring fans look on, Stroud will seek to continue to live boldly for Christ and bring glory to Him.
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST WITH JASON ROMANO, FEATURING JARED ALLEN
Jared Allen played 12 NFL seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers. He was selected in the fourth round of the 2004 NFL Draft by Kansas City. Over his career, Allen led the NFL in sacks twice (2007, 2011), was named to five Pro Bowls, and was selected as an AP first-team All-Pro four times. After his retirement in 2016, he was named to the Vikings Ring of Honor, and in 2025 was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Today on the podcast, Jared Allen speaks to Jason Romano at the Arise with the Guys event in Minneapolis, where Tony Dungy named Allen his Uncommon Award winner of 2025. We ask Jared about being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, his testimony of faith in Jesus, and playing with Matt Forte in his short stint with the Bears.
THIS IS SPORTS SPECTRUM’S WHAT’S UP PODCAST
WITH ANNABELLE HASSELBECK
On today’s episode of Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up” podcast, we have NC State defensive end Isaiah Shirley.
Isaiah shares about his journey to play football at NC State, serving with Athletes in Action, and crash-course life lessons he’s learned along the way.
