A recent wave of NFL players publicly professing their faith, including Bucky Irving's baptism hours before a game, highlights a growing spiritual movement within professional football.



An NFL player baptized on Sunday, just hours before his home game, is the latest sign of a growing movement of professional football players publicly professing faith in Christ.

Tampa Bay starting running back Bucky Irving was baptized Sunday morning at a local church, the same day his team was set to face New Orleans at Raymond James Stadium.

A now-viral video shows Irving standing in baptismal waters, sharing his testimony before being submerged.

“I felt like I hit rock bottom in my life about two months ago, and God was the only person that I could lean on,” he told the audience.

Jacksonville’s Travis Hunter, Kansas City’s Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, and Detroit’s Terrion Arnold also were baptized this fall.

Irving has been increasingly vocal about his faith. Irving’s 15-year-old brother was shot and killed in 2022 – a tragedy that Irving said impacted him deeply.

“I really tapped into [my faith] when my little brother got killed,” he said in an Instagram video posted this fall. “God has a different plan for each and every one of us, and we don't know what that story or that journey looks like, but just being able to carry [my brother’s] legacy with me each and every day, I know he's watching me, and I know he'll be very proud of me.”

Meanwhile, Irving said he’s trusting God to carry him.

“I never question anything that He has put me through [or] He's going to put me through, because only He knows the journey that He got me on,” Irving said. “As long as I just wake up every day, and before I even text anybody or get on my phone, I'm reading Scriptures. I'm thanking God for waking me up. It's a blessing, man, just being there to thank Him every day, each and every day.”

He lists Philippians 4:13 on his Instagram profile and urged fans in an October post to pursue faith in Jesus.

“We worry about the wrong things in life we need to come together as a community love one another and follow faith in Jesus name we all gotta come together,” he wrote. “... Can’t hide no more I gotta open up. I’ve been in this shell for too long. GOD is real.”

Irving was drafted in the fourth round of the 2024 draft out of Oregon.

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