Tom Hager

Mar 7

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Tom Hager is the Co-Founder of Athletes for God, and author of The Ultimate Book of March Madness - The Players, Games and Cinderellas that Captured a Nation. Tom grew up as an aspiring journalist in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Thanks to the help of thousands of readers, word the "aspiring" was taken off his job title. His career eventually took him to Pullman, Washington. During his four years covering the Washington State University football team he went through a series of challenging experiences that brought him closer to God. As Tom says, “The Bible is filled with stories of broken people who have made made mistakes in their past and became some of God's most passionate disciples. I think I'm no different.”

In January of 2017 he moved to Denver, where he met Jake and started working for the Colorado Rockies. Together, they created Athletes for God came in February of 2018, which has continued to grow ever since. Tom now resides in Green Bay, a few miles down the road from Lambeau Field, and the ministry of Athletes for God continues to grow.

The stories of Faith Driven Athletes, told by Tom Hager…

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But once again I put my trust in God, and His plan. If there really was a time to tear down and a time to build, as the Bible verse says, I think I witnessed it that season.

If my teammates and this community have taught me anything, it's that you don't have to share a bloodline to be family. After what the people here have done for me and my parents, that word has taken on a new meaning.

Looking back now, it's amazing how close I was to never playing in that game. How close I was to giving up on the sport. To giving up on myself. To giving up on my dreams. But God has never given up on any of us, so why should I start the idea of quitting with my own career?

Believe in what you want to do. If you want to do something, then go out for it. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it.

Before I say the Lord's Prayer with my teammates, I get dressed in my helmet and shoulder pads and just sit in my locker and say the prayer individually. Near the end of the prayer it says “lead us not into temptation” and as athlete, one of those temptations is to doubt yourself.

As I've gotten older I've realized that God sometimes uses your adversities to catapult you higher, but the way a catapult works, it has to bring you down before it can launch you forward.

It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you’ve made over the course of your lifetime. In my 81 years on this planet I’ve made plenty. But what counts is that you continue to battle, and to make the newest day your best.

When you’re no longer on the field, you remember that your identity is really in being a child of God. This might sound hard to believe, but I’m actually thankful I tore my ACL, because without the injury I don’t know if I am able to keep those priorities straight.

They had won 7 of the last 8 national championships and were sitting on a 36-game winning streak. But nothing could've prepared NDSU Football Head Coach Matt Entz for what was about to happen.

I don't like to focus too much on my past, because then it stops becoming your past and starts to become your present. However, my story is a special exception, because it shows people that it's never too late to rediscover God, and that we can overcome anything in our past. I like to tell people these days, if God can forgive you for whatever you have done, then why can’t you!

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