ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Super Bowl Sunday is just around the corner and like in past years, a former NFL player will be paying a visit to Liberal.
John Earle, who played for multiple seasons in the NFL and Canadian Football League (CFL), will be visiting Liberal next week, and as he tells it, his career was a bit of a winding road.
“I started my football career in college when I played at Independence Community College in Kansas, which was neat coming from New Jersey. From there, I went to Western Illinois University and then in 1992, I was drafted in the 11th round by the Cincinnati Bengals, and I later played for the Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Stallions (CFL), and then finished with the St. Louis Rams,” Earle said. “I also spent some time with the Canadian Football League during my career. My twin brother, Guy, and I have a ministry called Think Twice Ministries and about 90 percent of our work takes place in jails and prisons throughout the U.S., and people always think it's neat how, between the two of us, we have a decade in the NFL, seven different teams and three championship rings.”
Earle said his call to the ministry happened shortly after his retirement from professional ball.
“It was in 1996, I had recently retired from playing and I was still thinking about what I wanted to do, whether it was continuing to play or finding a coaching position somewhere, or maybe do some type of ministry,” Earle said. “My wife and I were living in her small hometown and contemplating our next move, and there was one afternoon when I visited the high school weight room for a quick workout, and there were some of the football guys in there. We were hanging out and talking and doing our workouts and when I left, I remember having the strongest feeling of how that was what I needed to do, mentor and preach to young people and being that positive influence. A few months after that, I had an opportunity to join a ministry, Sportsworld, which I was part of for about 12 years, and I actually was able to go through Liberal about 20 years ago through that program.”
And that work, Earle said, has taken him to many, many places.
“In my time doing this, I have been able to visit every state except Alaska, which I still want to make happen at some point. I've also been to Europe a couple times and Africa, and a few other places overseas,” Earle said. “My brother and I are in a different prison unit every weekend, and being able to share Jesus's word is amazing. We don't do the chapel services or the more formal stuff, we visit with the general population inmates and those more hardened people, and I always say if w don't hear at least one expletive while we're talking, we're not doing our job, because those are the people we want to reach the most. Being twins, we've got a great bond, and we've always enjoyed a lot of the same things in life. We grew up going to church and grew up Catholic, so we had a religious background, but not really that deep relationship with Jesus. For me, I got my calling my senior year of college, and then Guy followed a couple years later. When I was doing Sportsworld, he was part of a program called Power Team, which I actually joined for a little while. We were both kind of ministry-minded, and we'd been talking at different schools separately, until we were both scheduled to speak at a school in Indianapolis, so we came together and did that, and the students and staff there loved it. It was a little while after that when we decided to go into ministry together and start Think Twice Ministries.”
Earle will be appearing at Faith Tabernacle Church Sunday as well as a few area schools, and he said he was excited to be invited to the area.
“It was a little more than a month ago when I was contacted, and I was totally on board. I know Steve Grant has visited there the past couple years, and he suggested me to visit, which I was excited for since I love ministering and talking to young people,” Earle said. “To me, it feels like our young people today aren't fully thinking for themselves anymore and have no direction or vision, and I'd love to play a small part in helping put them on the right path. I'll be speaking at Seymour Rogers Middle School the morning of Feb. 7 and then at Forgan High School that afternoon, and then I'll be visiting Eisenhower Middle School and Turpin High School Feb. 10. First and foremost, I'm excited to help spread God's word when I speak at Faith Tabernacle Church Feb. 9 both during the regular service and then during the Super Bowl halftime show. I experienced a pretty major heart attack New Year's Eve, which involved 100 percent blockage in my widowmaker and a blood clot right behind it, and the doctors later told me I was 99 percent dead. When you're laying on a gurney and hear that sort of prognosis, it really makes you think about what's important, and while I wasn't necessarily afraid to die, I was living that moment out, and it was kind of terrifying. I remember thinking 'God, if you take me today, I'm fine, but if you decide to give me some more time, I'm fine with that too.' I definitely count my steps gratefully every day since then, and the opportunity to minister to people and encourage people is the best.”
With his school appearances, Earle said he hopes the students take away some truths.
“With my school visits, I'll be talking to the students about having an elite mindset,” Earle said. “Young people today have so many external influences pushing and pulling them around, so they aren't able to fully think straight, so I want to challenge them to think more clearly. When you have that elite mindset, you think differently and ultimately live differently because you understand things better. We all have struggles in life, and having that elite mindset allows you to help overcome those. I feel like young people don't fully have the truth since they're being pushed and pulled in so many directions and have so many influences vying for attention, and I want to help these young people have a more firm foundation for going out in the world.”
Overall, Earle said, he is looking forward to his upcoming visit.
“During the church service, I'm going to be talking about what does it look like when your faith in yourself helps put you in a position to experience God's glory in your life. I always pick out a passage or two and inject some of my own stories and experiences, and there are definitely a lot of them. If people want to hear a good message about relying on God in life, I'd definitely encourage them to come out that morning,” Earle said. “I wasn't really a huge superstar during my career, and I had my struggles at times, but God took me on this journey so I could help other people. God is helping me use my career as a platform to help bring Him glory and share hope and encouragement to everyone I talk to.”
