Most of my career in the NFL was scary and uncertain. Only 2 percent of college football players make it to the NFL, and even when I made the team, I could get cut at any time. To survive as long as I did was a great blessing, but living without a fallback was hard. It took a lot of faith.
In the NFL, you go from team to team, year to year, bouncing around the country. It seems glamorous, but most people don’t see the less glamorous parts. It’s a hard way to live. And it’s a hard way for couples to live too; that’s one reason why there’s such a high divorce rate among professional athletes.
What helped is that I knew where I stood. I had a firm foundation in Christ, and I consistently did all those things that kept me close to Him and Heavenly Father.
You might not face a career path that is filled with so much pressure and temptation, but in my case, being a professional athlete exposed me to a very different lifestyle than I was used to. For example, when we arrived in big cities and traveled in the beginning, my teammates immediately wanted to go out and participate in different activities that were not aligned with gospel standards, and I knew right then that I couldn’t straddle Zion and Babylon. I couldn’t answer “let me think about it” in order to appease them. Instead, I needed to be firm in my faith and explain why I couldn’t join them.
I was fortunate that I was married while I was in college. When I went to the NFL, my wife and our six-month-old baby were with me. We were married in the temple, and I knew what those covenants meant to me and what they required of me. So I would tell my teammates, “No, I don’t do that.” And when they pressed, I’d say, “My wife and I were married in the house of the Lord where we made sacred covenants. Those covenants are more important to me than anything else.”
And the odd thing is when they asked me those questions and were absolutely certain about what kind of person I was, those same teammates began to protect me and respect my standards and covenants. It requires courage to stand up for what you believe and cherish.
Facing so much temptation was scary in the beginning, but relying on Heavenly Father and remembering the sacredness and meaning of my covenants in the face of pressure always helped me stand firm on the covenant path in my career. You can do the same in any circumstances you find yourself in throughout your journey.
March 2023
Liahona
Vaiangina Sikahema
