During the 2018–19 National Football League season, two teams that opened a lot of eyes with their great play were the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams lost in the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots, while the Chiefs lost to those same Patriots in the conference final. Both those teams have placekickers that are rated highly in the league, both having kicked game-winning field goals under pressure during their team’s success last year. Both these young men, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker and Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein, also place God first in their lives.

Butker, a 24-year-old Georgia State graduate, is so in love with his faith that he still serves at a Traditional Latin Mass. During a recent interview with Eternal Word Television Network, he talked about his journey beginning like many others, a path that many Catholics in general, specifically athletes, go through.

In late high school and university he started to question his faith, and he felt he was just going through the motions as a Catholic. “I found I was playing different roles for different situations in my life,” states Butker. He even looked into different religions until a teammate in Georgia spoke to him about Catholicism answering all of his questions, even touching on some deep metaphysical issues.

Here is a great example of apostolate that Butker so much appreciated and now pursues with his own friends. We are all called to engage in this apostolate with others even if we don’t feel comfortable with it. We could be the one person who changes the life of a friend.

The next step in returning home to his faith was visiting his pastor. After the meeting, Butker went to confession, and then the skies opened. He felt the peace and love of God. He and his wife, who is a convert, grew deeper in love with the liturgy and the depth of history and meaning in the Mass. They began attending the Traditional Latin Mass and in fact worked with his pastor to organize a regular Solemn High Mass. “It is amazing to think of this being the same Mass that St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas attended.”

Incredibly, despite his career demands he serves at the Latin Mass regularly. He feels in this form that there is an incredible reverence for the Eucharist, which gives such rich meaning to the Mass. When he is asked about praying for his team’s success, he said he doesn’t do this; his priority is helping himself and his family become saints.

Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein, a doting father of four children, feels that his children prepare him for his pressure-filled football experiences since they help him be prepared for the unexpected. He recalls the intense feeling he faced before he kicked a record 57-yard field goal in overtime to put his team into the Super Bowl. His love for his wife and children reflects his priorities in life. Zuerlein has read Jason Evert and St. John Paul II in relation to family. So he declares, “Marriage is for selflessly raising children well.”

Also close to Zuerlein’s heart, thanks to his Catholic faith, are apologetics and pro-life issues. “There is confusion if the faith is not taught well,” he says. “People see Catholicism as a set of rules not realizing that they are based on love; as if being in love doesn’t involve conditions. These are not even obligations since they are done out of love for others.”

Much like fellow kicker Harrison Butker, Zuerlein says his main focus in this life is to get his soul and the souls of his family to heaven.