Seahawks' Clint Gresham: Faith On and Off the Field
Updated: Sep 12
You'll love this story of a young "feeling" kid, who is ADHD, filled with anxiety and lacking in self confidence but ends up as a Super Bowl champion in the NFL and a sought after speaker and author. In this episode we walk through the up and down seasons in the life of Seahawk's long snapper, Clint Gresham.
As a boy growing up in Texas, church was always a part of his story....but it became the focus of his story when he made a radical shift in 2009 when one month changed his life to this day. It happened with the help of a mentor who cared enough to be present and to speak into his life.
Listen right here:
Watch right here:
Clint's football story includes times of disappointment, frustration and heartache but his obedience to God, as crazy at it seemed at times, revealed HIS awesome grace on the other side.
You'll hear some inside thoughts on coach Pete Carroll, plus Clint's call to create a prophetic video called, "The Making of a Champion", as well as the intense emotion that a Super Bowl win and loss can evoke.
Our conversation took a deep dive into the power of words, and some thoughts on the value of pain and so many other inspiring bits of wisdom.
This guy is the real deal: authentic, vulnerable and willing to share it all!
Definitely read his book: "Becoming"
And watch the short 15 minute video with Russell Wilson, Sherman Smith and more. "Making of a Champion"
CLINT GRESHAM AT A GLANCE
Former Seattle Seahawks Long Snapper • Super Bowl XLVIII Champion • Author • Speaker
Topics
NFL • Seattle Seahawks • Super Bowl • Faith • Identity • Addiction • Anxiety • Depression • Long snapping • Pete Carroll • Becoming • Christian leadership
His Faith Journey
Christian upbringing → Seeing the limits of “being a good person” → Understanding sin and the need for a Savior → Struggles with anxiety, depression and addiction → Radical discipleship experience → Mentored by a spiritual father → Choosing obedience → Seahawks → Learning identity in Christ beyond football
This Episode Explores
Clint Gresham’s unusual path to becoming an NFL long snapper
Growing up as a sensitive kid in a football culture
His struggles with anxiety, depression and alcohol
The spiritual mentor who changed his life
A radical four-week discipleship experience
Why he chose the Saints over the Texans
Being released by New Orleans and claimed by Seattle
The Christian brotherhood inside the Seahawks
Winning Super Bowl XLVIII and losing Super Bowl XLIX
Learning to sit with pain instead of escaping it
Losing his NFL identity and discovering who he was in Christ
Why protecting your heart shapes who you become
Questions Answered
Who is Clint Gresham?
How did Clint become an NFL long snapper?
What was Clint Gresham’s Christian upbringing like?
How did anxiety and depression affect his life?
How did alcohol become part of his struggle?
Who was Clint’s spiritual mentor?
Why did Clint choose the New Orleans Saints?
How did Clint end up with the Seattle Seahawks?
What was it like winning the Super Bowl?
How did Clint process losing Super Bowl XLIX?
How did he deal with being released by the Seahawks?
What does Clint Gresham believe about identity?
What is his book Becoming about?
What does “protect your heart” mean to Clint?
Podcast Transcript: Clint Gresham on Football, Faith, Identity, Addiction & Becoming
Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen
Meet Clint Gresham
Ric Hansen:Hey, welcome to Amazing Greats, the podcast dedicated to Christian stories from well-known authors, actors, athletes, musicians and business leaders.
Today we have an athlete and author, former Seattle Seahawk and author of the book Becoming, Clint Gresham. He's here to candidly share his life story.
Let's go!
Wow, what a great day for me to have an opportunity to talk to Clint Gresham, live from Dallas-ish in Texas.
Good morning. How are you doing?
For our audience, we're talking with a great Christian man, a husband, a father—and not to mention the fact that you're the long snapper for the Seahawks, a Super Bowl champion, an author and a speaker. And you're not even 40 years old yet.
Clint Gresham:I know.
Ric Hansen:It's exciting to see what's next for you as well.
On my guest hit list for the podcast, I first became aware of you through a friend of mine who saw you speak at a church in Bellevue, east of Seattle.
He came back glowing about what a great speech you had and told me about the book.
I bought the book, devoured the book, loved the book. That was several years ago.
Time goes on, and then I saw The Making of a Champion. Then I talked to Arlen Lawrence, who helped you with your authorship.
She said, "I know Clint. I think I can hook up a Zoom call with Clint."
And here you are.
It's great to have you here. Thank you.
Clint Gresham:It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to this.
Growing Up With Football
Ric Hansen:Well, cool.
Chronologically is usually the best way to get rolling, so let's start with you as a young boy.
I've done some research on you and seen some podcasts and so forth. As I understand it, you're kind of a sensitive young soul as well as a little bit self-conscious.
But you started playing football at a very early age.
Walk us through that early part of your football career.
Clint Gresham:I was a deeply feeling kid, which doesn't really go together with football very often.
Honestly, for most of my life—especially once I got into college and then the NFL—I definitely felt out of place in a lot of ways.
I started playing flag football when I was in fourth grade.
My dad played football at the University of Texas for the Longhorns. He played with Earl Campbell back in the '70s.
When I was a kid, we'd go up to Austin from Corpus Christi and watch these games. We had season tickets.
Going into those games when you're nine years old and there are 80,000 people screaming—I mean, it was one of the most unbelievable experiences.
I fell in love with the game.
When I was in high school, I was a pretty good football player. I got all-city honors and was an offensive guard my senior year.
But what set me apart was that I figured out how to throw a football between my legs.
I had actually played quarterback in seventh, eighth and ninth grade.
But two of the years I played quarterback—in eighth and ninth grade—in the first game, on the first drive, I ran a quarterback sweep to the right side.
In both years, I broke the same ankle, doing the same play, going the same direction.
So we had to figure out how to pivot on that.
I quit playing quarterback and figured out how to throw the ball between my legs.
That worked out.
The Art of Long Snapping
Ric Hansen:There's really a skill and strategy involved in doing what you do as a long snapper, which I wasn't aware of until I saw you explain it.
It's pretty intricate in terms of what you need to do each and every time, right?
Clint Gresham:It's one of those things you don't appreciate until you've either tried it or you've seen a football game when somebody doesn't have a good long snapper.
You never realize how badly you need one until you don't have one.
Thankfully, I never missed any games.
But I remember watching film. This would have been in probably my rookie year, the 2009 season, before I got to Seattle.
Their long snapper got hurt, and the only guy they had on the team who could sort of long snap was Kelly Jennings, who was a cornerback.
I played at 245 pounds. Kelly Jennings was about 170.
I remember watching this film, and every single play he's just getting blown up because that's not what he does.
So, yeah, you don't really appreciate it until you don't have it.
College and the Challenge of Staying Big Enough
Ric Hansen:When you went to college, were you a long snapper right from the get-go?
Clint Gresham:Yes.
I wasn't going to play another position when I was in college. I knew that long snapping was what set me apart.
Ric Hansen:And you weren't a huge guy for college or the NFL.
You talked at one time about struggling to keep your weight on so that you'd be hefty enough to be in that arena.
Clint Gresham:Yeah.
There's actually a chapter in my book where I talk about how I figured out that one bottle of water weighed one pound.
If I was 237 pounds, I'd drink three bottles of water right before weighing so I could get there.
It was difficult for me to keep weight on, for sure.
In terms of my playing weight, I played at 240 to 245.
When I got out of the NFL, I dropped down to about 215.
I've put some pounds on since then because I've got a three- and a five-year-old, so we're eating lots of pizza and chicken nuggets in my house.
Ric Hansen:You've got the dad bod going on now.
Clint Gresham:I'm not that bad!
I still work out very, very hard.
It's a different season of life, and I don't have to be what I was when I was playing.
Growing Up Christian in Texas
Ric Hansen:You grew up in a Christian household because you're from Texas, and that's what you do when you're in Texas, right?
Clint Gresham:One of the things I appreciated about living in the Northwest was that people who were Christians in the Northwest really were Christians.
In Texas, it's part of the culture, which is refreshing in a lot of ways.
People are very wholesome here, and family is very important in the South.
It had its pros and cons.
But the deception I lived under was thinking, "I'm going to church. I'm doing Christian stuff, so I'm good."
My sophomore year, I had transferred to TCU from Oklahoma.
I met with a Campus Crusade guy, and pretty early in our conversation over lunch, he asked me, "If God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into heaven?' what would you say?"
I said, "I'm a great guy. I'm nice. I don't beat up old women. I'm mostly friendly. I have my moments where I'm not friendly."
I started spewing out all of these works, trying to convince this guy that God and I had an understanding.
Even though I was still sort of living in sin, I wasn't as bad as the other guy.
Which obviously was totally missing the point.
He walked me through what sin is.
He walked me through how sin separates us from God, why I needed a Savior, and how it had nothing to do with anything that I do.
When I stand before God, I'm going to point to the guy on God's right and say, "That's the reason I get to come in and be here."
It has nothing to do with me.
That was a pivotal moment for me because I'd always thought it was just about being a good guy.
It's not really about that at all.
Addiction, Anxiety and Depression
Ric Hansen:So many people live under that perception.
I'm glad you brought that up.
When you went to college, that wasn't a great experience at first either, was it, when you went to Oklahoma?
Clint Gresham:No.
As I mentioned, I was a deeply feeling kid.
I struggled in school with ADHD.
I struggled big-time with anxiety and different traumas that I'd experienced in my life.
Eventually, I really struggled with depression, which led to all kinds of addiction.
Mostly, alcohol was my primary drug of choice.
Alcohol was good for me because it made me feel okay in my own skin.
Obviously, it's not good for you, but that's what it did for me.
It made me feel like I was okay in my own skin.
It made me accept myself and feel comfortable around other people because I could also have really crippling social anxiety.
When I was in high school and college, I was big into the party scene.
The whole time, I was thinking, "This is so shallow. There's nothing here. This is so meaningless."
Through those years I believed, "Okay, I'm still a Christian."
But what I didn't understand was the mental side of addiction.
It took a lot of years to really get out of that.
A Radical Discipleship Experience
Clint Gresham:The last two years of college, I had a radical shift.
I went and lived with a family in Southern California for a month and did a discipleship program at a church there right before summer workouts.
I fell in love with God's Word.
The discipleship program was really intense.
It was basically: you've got to listen to about five hours of teaching a week, take notes, go to church twice a week, pray out loud uninterrupted for 10 minutes a day, no secular media, no dating, no going to movies.
It was basically, "We're going to pull every type of worldly influence away from you and flood you with the Word of God."
The fruit of that was that within four weeks, I was a different person.
When I think back on pivotal moments in my life, that month is still producing fruit.
It just goes to show you that the Word of God is powerful.
If you'll give attention to His Word and hide it in your heart, it changes you.
Then you don't have to try so much because it's just what naturally comes out.
The Mentor Who Changed Everything
Ric Hansen:That was because of a mentor of yours who introduced you to that, and you make mention of him in your book.
I think you dedicated the book to him.
Clint Gresham:Yeah, I did.
Ric Hansen:We're talking with Clint Gresham, Super Bowl champion, long snapper from the Seahawks, proud husband and dad.
That person was a huge influence on your life.
Clint Gresham:He was my second cousin and a spiritual father to me.
I know he realized he was making an impact. I don't think he realized how big it really was.
He was just a guy who was available.
He was a 65-year-old man in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, who would just pick up the phone whenever I called.
I love that because I think for so many people, especially as we get older, we start to think that our time is passed.
We come up with all these reasons why God could never use us.
This guy—he just picked up the phone.
It really is simple serving God and following Him and expanding His kingdom.
The best ability is availability.
Showing up is the biggest part.
If you just show up and make yourself available, God can do amazing things in your life.
Choosing New Orleans
Ric Hansen:College wasn't so great in terms of your social life and those kinds of things.
Then you had an opportunity to play in the NFL.
I thought this was funny because you selected New Orleans because they were the Saints.
You felt that being a Christian guy, this was probably where you were supposed to be.
But that didn't turn out to be so much the truth, right?
Clint Gresham:Right.
There's a long story that goes into that.
I was the only long snapper invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in 2010.
Everything in the natural pointed to me going to the Houston Texans, and they were giving me a guarantee.
I ended up not getting drafted. I had to sign as a free agent, which is risky because if you pick the wrong team and get cut, all the other teams have moved on.
I was given a guarantee.
They said they wanted me to be their long snapper for the next 10 years.
They offered a significant amount of money.
I was on the phone with my second cousin, the guy I dedicated my book to.
I got a word from the Lord.
When you get a word from God, that's what you do, no matter what it is.
God shows up in Noah's life and says, "Hey, I want you to build a boat because it's going to rain."
It's a good thing he built that boat.
We don't know what's on the other side of obedience, but if we'll lean in even when it doesn't make sense, we'll see something really powerful that only He can do.
I had this question pop into my mind when I was fielding five different offers from five different teams about where to go.
The statement I heard in my mind, in my spirit, was:
"Who's the only team in the nation whose name speaks of My glory?"
It became clear in that moment.
I felt like I was supposed to go to New Orleans.
It's a nice play on words that sort of worked out, but God has done a lot weirder stuff in the Bible.
For the people who did the weird thing God told them to do, no matter how weird it was, it ended up being great, and they ended up being blessed.
So I went to New Orleans.
I remember calling the coach for the Texans and letting him know that I'd prayed and felt like I wasn't supposed to come there.
He was not impressed at all, which is fine.
The Wilderness in New Orleans
Clint Gresham:I went to New Orleans and it was miserable.
I absolutely hated it.
The city was challenging for me. It was dark and oppressive.
I was living in a hotel room right next to the airport by myself.
It was just not a good season.
But it was one of those seasons in the wilderness that forced me to get on my knees and spend time with God.
I'd go to practice in the morning and get home at about one or two in the afternoon.
I had nothing to do.
So I literally just read my Bible all day, put on worship music and listened to audio teachings all day long.
It was another one of those seasons, similar to the discipleship class, of flooding myself with the Word of God.
It made me confident because I've never been a confident person.
When you put your confidence in something that can't be taken away, now all of a sudden you've got something pretty powerful.
I remember walking into the facility and feeling like, even though I hated this, I knew I was in the right place.
Because of that, I knew God had said to be there.
I could walk in assurance that whatever happened was going to work out.
Cut by the Saints, Claimed by the Seahawks
Clint Gresham:The first day of training camp, I get a knock on my door.
It's a scout for the Saints.
He says, "Coach Payton wants to talk to you."
Sean Payton was the head coach of the Saints at the time.
I thought, "Oh, good. I've got some thoughts about Drew Brees' throwing mechanics. I think we could iron a few of these things out."
So I walk into his office.
I have no idea what's about to happen. I'm so naive.
He says, "Clint, we don't have enough room on our roster, and we're going to have to let you go."
I thought, "Get behind me, Satan!"
No, really, I didn't say that.
I wanted to say that.
I got released.
I felt like the biggest failure in the world.
I walked away from assurance. I walked away from guarantees. I walked away from my dream.
I'd wanted to play for the Texans since high school.
My high-school mascot was the Texan.
It was like I was born to be a Houston Texan, and it was only about four hours down the road from where I grew up.
I got back in my car and started driving back to Fort Worth to figure out what I was going to do next.
I thought I could go work valet because I knew I'd make at least $10 an hour doing that.
Then, 24 hours later, I got a call from the Seahawks.
They said, "We've claimed your contract. We've got a first-class ticket for you tonight at 10 o'clock. Can you be there?"
I'm like, "Well, I got this car-parking thing going on that's pretty lucrative, but I guess I can make it."
What's so awesome about that story is that I get picked up at the airport by Pete Carroll's son.
When I was in high school, I begged my dad every week to send highlight film to USC because I wanted to play for Pete Carroll so badly.
My first couple years in the NFL with Coach Carroll, I kind of fanboyed a little bit.
I was very much like, "Oh my gosh, it's Pete Carroll."
Even when he fired me, I was like, "Gosh, I still like you."
He's made such an impact on my life as a man, as a husband and as a father.
He's an amazing individual.
I've never met anybody like him.
I get picked up at the airport by his son. It's 12:30 at night.
We're driving into Bellevue, and he's going to drop me off at the hotel.
His phone starts ringing, and it says "Dad" on it.
Coach Carroll is calling.
It's 12:30 at night, and he's coaching practice in about five hours.
He's calling to check on me.
His son picks up the phone and says, "Yeah, I got it. I got him here. I just picked him up."
Then he hands the phone to me.
I'm over the moon because, again, I wanted to play for Coach Carroll so badly.
And the rest is history.
I was able to play for six seasons, which was six years longer than I expected to play.
I played in enough playoff games for it to be its own NFL season.
I got to be a part of two Super Bowls and win one of them.
It was a dream come true.
I trace it all back to being on the phone with a mentor who gave me permission to believe a crazy thing God told me to do.
I really needed that guidance in my life.
Had I not had that, I would have gone to Houston.
I'm sure it would have been fine, but it wouldn't have been what it was in Seattle.
What we had in Seattle was something special.
The Brotherhood of the Seahawks
Ric Hansen:You're hearing the Christian story of former Seahawk Clint Gresham on Amazing Greats.
That was a monumental, legendary period of time for the Seahawks.
And you, on top of all of that, created a brotherhood—or at least were part of a brotherhood—of other Christian guys that was unique, too.
You all became close, and The Making of a Champion was kind of the fruit of that camaraderie with Russell Wilson, Sherman Smith and all of the guys.
Tell us a little bit about that relationship in the locker room and outside the field.
Clint Gresham:There's nothing like the locker room.
I miss that the most.
If you ask any former football player, "What do you miss most about playing?" it's never the games.
It's, "I miss the locker room. I miss the camaraderie."
That's really hard to replicate.
Once you've experienced it on that level, it's very difficult to replicate once you're out of the NFL.
We had some really special guys on the team.
We put together this film called The Making of a Champion, which ended up being prophetic.
I felt like the Lord told me to call it that in August.
We spent $20,000 putting this thing together and assembling a team of volunteers to pass it out at one of the games.
While all that was happening and we were filming, I was competing for my position with a guy who was far better than me.
Praise God.
I felt like He told me to do this thing and make this video.
That guy ended up getting released because he had one bad game, and it was a game that I happened to play pretty well in.
I ended up making the team.
We put the film out.
It's got hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
Then that year we ended up winning the world championship.
How do you do that?
It was a really, really special season of life with some really special guys.
What It Feels Like to Win the Super Bowl
Ric Hansen:Tell us a little bit about what it feels like to be in the hunt for the Super Bowl, preparing for the Super Bowl and then after the Super Bowl.
What does that whole Super Bowl experience look like?
Clint Gresham:It's not even real.
It's something you see your entire life.
You watch every year, and especially as a young man—or even as a kid—how many 10-year-old football players, if you ask them, "What's your dream?" say, "I want to win a Super Bowl."
To actually have a chance to go and live it was so surreal and bizarre and wonderful and fun and stressful.
It was a slew of different emotions.
The 2012 season, when Russell was a rookie, was really when we realized we had something special.
Everybody was on their rookie contracts and guys were hungry.
We were hungry.
We knew we were special and different.
What's incredible about that is when I think about the 2010 and 2011 seasons, we were 7-9 both years.
The first year we went to the wild-card game and beat the team that cut me—the New Orleans Saints.
Go God!
When we were 7-9 both of those years, Pete Carroll had us convinced we were the best in the world.
We weren't the best in the world. We were 7-9.
But we all thought that.
His language...
Proverbs says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit."
All day long we're speaking words.
Tens of thousands of words, if not hundreds of thousands of words.
They're either death or life.
Pete Carroll's ability to create culture and use words to shape the belief of a group of people was like watching a master class.
To be 7-9 and think you're the best in the world is kind of silly.
But then it ended up happening because you just keep speaking it.
We were able to go to two Super Bowls.
Losing Super Bowl XLIX
Clint Gresham:Losing the second one was a brutal experience.
We're on the one-yard line. We're about to win back-to-back Super Bowls, which hadn't been done in 10 years.
Then we throw an interception on the one-yard line.
That was not a fun process.
Winning the Super Bowl—the actual game—feels like a TV show.
It all feels surreal.
I also didn't feel like the stadium was very loud, which I don't know why that is.
Maybe it's because the type of people who can afford a $40,000 ticket are a little more reserved.
Ric Hansen:It could be.
Clint Gresham:That's just a guess.
But after the Super Bowl was so much fun.
We had this huge party. Macklemore played.
Then three days later we had the Super Bowl parade, where it seemed like the entire state shut down for a day.
A million people poured into downtown Seattle and filled the streets.
I remember this one moment in the parade.
Well, it wasn't just one moment—it was every block.
Every intersection had two blocks of people in either direction.
It was so crazy how many people were there.
Everybody was pushed together.
I'd stand up on top of this truck and go to one side and yell, "Stay!"
Then I'd go to the other side and yell, "Hawks!"
It was crazy.
Then it was like a honeymoon after that, which was a lot of fun.
But it also created a lot of pressure because going to back-to-back Super Bowls almost felt like, instead of two seasons, it was just one long season.
People don't realize you really don't get that much time off.
If you go into the playoffs and then the Super Bowl, you've got five or six weeks less off time than all the other teams.
You play in the Super Bowl the first week of February, and you're reporting back April 15.
You get a little bit of time off, but it's all about the next one.
Where Was God When We Lost?
Ric Hansen:Let's talk about the second Super Bowl briefly, where it didn't turn out the same way you had hoped.
Have you justified, "Where was God in that moment?"
Clint Gresham:I don't think like that.
God is going to get His glory no matter what.
I've never believed that because I prayed more, therefore I deserve this.
In my mind, that's so shortsighted and doesn't take into account the infinite expanse of who God is and His wisdom.
I've never felt like we got gypped or anything like that.
The fact that we were even there was miraculous.
It also helps soften the blow a little bit that we won the previous year.
But the way that we lost was really hard.
I'm not going to lie. That was a tough one.
That's life.
You're going to win some. You're going to lose some.
Are you going to glorify Him in the good times and not in the bad times?
That doesn't make sense.
After we lost the game, I was the guy who did all the pregame and postgame prayers.
Coach Carroll asked me to do that.
One of the best compliments I ever got happened after we lost the playoff game in 2012 to the Falcons.
The whole defensive line was on the back of the bus.
They got their hands on a microphone and were giving guys shout-outs and talking trash.
One of the guys in the back said:
"Shout-out to Gresh. I ain't ever heard a white man pray like that. That man can pray."
I thought, "That is one of the coolest compliments I've ever gotten."
That man can pray.
So I did all the pregame and postgame prayers.
We're in the locker room after we'd just lost, and guys were having very mixed reactions.
Some guys were trying to say, "We're going to get better next year."
Some guys were losing it.
Understandably so.
Coach Carroll says some words to the team, then looks at me and says, "Okay, Gresh. Talk to us."
That meant for me to pray.
I had no idea what to say.
There's really nothing I could say that was going to make that moment not painful.
I think the belief many of us have about pain is that we're just trying to make the pain go away.
What we really need to do is be okay with it.
The second we start running from our pain, that's usually the moment we begin the process of a new habit that's not good, a new addiction, or an addiction that's been with us for years.
It was a really teachable moment for me.
Am I okay enduring and sitting in this painful moment without reaching for something external?
Because that's what life is.
Life is going to beat us up.
If we can have the inner fortitude to realize that God is with me in the belly of the whale—He's here, He's with me, He's inside of me—He will never leave me, He will never forsake me.
If I keep turning back to what He says in His Word about Himself and what He says about me, then I don't need to reach for something else.
I know that God is perfecting something in me that I otherwise wouldn't have had.
And that's what I really want.
We have to learn to be okay when we don't feel okay.
The Prayer After the Loss
Ric Hansen:If you don't mind me asking, what did you say?
Clint Gresham:I don't remember.
I blacked out.
Just, "Lord, we pray that You get glory. Help us to bounce back."
It was not one of my most stellar prayers because I was hurting.
We were all hurting.
It was painful. It was really, really hard, and emotions were flying high.
But we came back the next year and got to the playoffs again.
It was a very special several years.
Unfortunately, we didn't win a second one, but we did get one, and that's rare.
The End of His NFL Career
Ric Hansen:Then you played two more seasons, is that right, beyond that second Super Bowl?
Clint Gresham:I played one more season after that.
The 2015 season was my last one.
Ric Hansen:How did that feel? It must have been hurtful to be let go from the Seahawks.
Clint Gresham:Yeah.
I had two more years on my contract.
The comment I made earlier about it feeling like one long season—the grind of it really got to me.
The stress and constant pressure, as a deeply feeling person, took a major toll on me.
My last season, I didn't play well.
I didn't play well at all.
The thing about the NFL is you don't get that long of a leash.
If you're not playing well, you're not going to last.
Unfortunately, that's what happened with me.
That's always been something that's been really hard for me.
This is something I've had to work out with the Lord.
What I hear from the enemy is, "If you were just a little stronger, then this is what it would have looked like."
In my sinful, natural mindset, more time in the NFL means more glory for God, and that's better.
God doesn't think like that.
That's how I think because I see a big platform.
But there's really no difference between glorifying God in front of a bunch of people and glorifying God in front of my neighbors.
That's something I've always wrestled with.
If I just had a little bit more strength, maybe I could have played longer.
But I've really come to a place of peace about that.
It took a long time.
I had to do a lot of deep work on myself and become compassionate with myself instead of being so hard on myself.
When I think of my inner voice and my inner critic, it has very high standards, but it's kind of mean.
I can see the faces of several coaches I've had in my life.
I've had to really talk back to that inner voice because it's not God.
God speaks to us kindly, and that's how I want to speak to myself as well.
Who Am I When I'm No Longer a Seahawk?
Ric Hansen:In this process, and in the book, you spend a bit of time talking about identity and how we attach our identity to what we do, where we work and what kind of job we have.
When you have a high-profile career—or anybody does, whether they're a teacher or a craftsman—and then they're not that anymore, they deal with, "So what am I now?"
You went through all of that.
It's really outlined well in your book, Becoming.
I'd encourage our audience, if you haven't already, to read that book.
It's really helpful in that regard.
My background is radio, and you have this kind of egocentric career going on where you're being taken care of and you're special.
Then all of a sudden you're not anymore.
That's tough.
How can you help us understand how to deal with that?
Clint Gresham:It's inevitable.
All of us are going to put our sense of worth and value in the thing that gives us the greatest sense of significance.
Just knowing that is the biggest part of what I know.
It's inevitable that we're going to place our sense of worth in what we do because what we do is so closely tied to our calling.
But I think it comes down to coming before the Lord and telling Him:
"God, no matter what I'm doing—whether it's playing professional football, speaking in front of thousands of people, writing a book or being a dad jumping on the trampoline with my daughter—whatever it is, I want to glorify You."
What I do is not who I am.
Those are two separate things.
Who I am is a son.
I am a son of God.
If I continue to place my focus on that, then whenever the transitions of life come—which they will—they're not going to rock us.
But the second we start holding tightly to, "This is who I am, and this is what I've always done," we have to be open-handed with our calling and our career.
We're all going to have different seasons of being moved around.
Mine was really hard because there's a lot of glory that comes with playing professional football.
That's intoxicating.
Especially for somebody who didn't like himself, and now all of a sudden people want my autograph and want pictures with me.
I'm so thankful that God radically got hold of my life before I got into the NFL.
Because the NFL will make you decide who you're going to be.
Thankfully, I was solid in my faith.
Clint's Life Verse: Protect Your Heart
Ric Hansen:This has been absolutely a joy.
I always like to ask if you have a verse, a life verse from Scripture that you lean on.
I know you might have a few, but what would you say would be one?
Clint Gresham:When I really think about it, it's:
"Protect your heart with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life."
The word "issues," if you go back to the Hebrew, means borders.
In other words, whatever you let into your heart will determine the borders of your life.
It will determine how far you go in any direction, positively and negatively.
Right after that, in Proverbs 4, it talks about your eyes and your ears.
Whatever we let into our eyes, whatever we let into our ears, is going to go into our heart.
Then, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, which goes into our ears and further perpetuates who we are.
Going back to the seasons of my life when I was very, very diligent about what I watched and what I listened to, I was telling my wife this the other day:
When I became a Christian, I used to cuss a lot.
After I became a Christian and did that discipleship class, it was probably two or three years later that I realized, "I don't cuss anymore."
It wasn't because I was trying not to cuss.
It just happened.
I just stopped cussing.
And I realized the reason was that I stopped listening to music that contained cussing.
That started the process of slowly changing my heart until I stopped doing it.
Then I stopped hearing it.
So, protect your heart with all diligence.
Whatever you do, protect your eyes and protect your ears because it will determine the person that you will become.
Closing
Ric Hansen:Great.
Thank you again so much.
I wish you all the best.
God bless you.
We'll watch for your book and your speaking engagements, and we'll pray for your continued wisdom.
Clint Gresham:Thank you so much.
All right. Thanks for having me.
God bless.
Ric Hansen:That could be one of the best conversations ever on Amazing Greats with Clint Gresham.
So great to hear his life stories of the struggles and his trials.
Please share with your friends and family, subscribe and hit notifications so you'll get notified when another Amazing Greats podcast is available.
Until next time.
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