{"id":37704,"date":"2024-07-01T13:22:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T17:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=37704"},"modified":"2024-07-02T08:46:46","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T12:46:46","slug":"matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Slater Encourages Young Athletes to Rely on Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
WEBN-TV \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NFL legend Matthew Slater recently shared some words of encouragement while accepting an award at the 2024 K-Love Fan Awards. The three-time Super Bowl champion and 10-time Pro Bowler with the New England Patriots received the Sport Impact award, which recognizes a coach or athlete who has stayed true to their faith. While accepting his award, Slater shared his advice to any young Christian athletes that may be watching. \u201cStay true to the seeds that God has planted in your heart — they\u2019re going to be tested, they\u2019re going to be talked about,\u201d he said. \u201cBe true to who God made you to be. Stay authentic. Keep the main thing, the main thing. One of the challenges that comes with being a professional athlete is identity. And I think for a lot of people, they like to place their identity in what they do, especially when the world is telling you how great you are and how much they enjoy the entertainment that football brings. Remember, your identity is in Christ, and He has you where you are so that you can continue to be an ambassador for Him in every arena that you\u2019re in. \u201cStay rooted in who you are in Christ,\u201d he added. \u201cBecause that\u2019s going to be ultimately what sustains you well beyond the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slater, who currently works as an advisor to the Patriots and is considered to be one of the best special teams players in NFL history, said that receiving the K-Love Sports Impact award makes him a bit uncomfortable. \u201cI don\u2019t want the focus to be on the story. I want it to be on the Author,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope that the people that have been around me understand that none of the credit should go to me. My journey has been a very unique one. And there\u2019s no way of explaining it without saying that it\u2019s all due to the goodness and mercy of\u00a0Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NFL legend Matthew Slater recently shared some words of encouragement while accepting an award at the 2024 K-Love Fan Awards. The three-time Super Bowl champion and 10-time Pro Bowler with the New England Patriots received the Sport Impact award, which recognizes a coach or athlete who has stayed true to their faith. While accepting his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":37800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew Slater Encourages Young Athletes to Rely on Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The NFL legend shares some words of encouragement to young Christian athletes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew Slater Encourages Young Athletes to Rely on Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The NFL legend shares some words of encouragement to young Christian athletes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-01T17:22:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-02T12:46:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/07\/Matthew-Slater-02_credit-Joe-Jacobs-WEBN-TV-Flickr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leigh Pizzutilla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew Slater Encourages Young Athletes to Rely on Faith","description":"The NFL legend shares some words of encouragement to young Christian athletes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew Slater Encourages Young Athletes to Rely on Faith","og_description":"The NFL legend shares some words of encouragement to young Christian athletes.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2024-07-01T17:22:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-02T12:46:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/07\/Matthew-Slater-02_credit-Joe-Jacobs-WEBN-TV-Flickr.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Leigh Pizzutilla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html","name":"Matthew Slater Encourages Young Athletes to Rely on Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/07\/Matthew-Slater-02_credit-Joe-Jacobs-WEBN-TV-Flickr.jpg","datePublished":"2024-07-01T17:22:11+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-02T12:46:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a"},"description":"The NFL legend shares some words of encouragement to young Christian athletes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/07\/Matthew-Slater-02_credit-Joe-Jacobs-WEBN-TV-Flickr.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/07\/Matthew-Slater-02_credit-Joe-Jacobs-WEBN-TV-Flickr.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"WEBN-TV \/ Flickr"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/07\/matthew-slater-encourages-young-athletes-to-rely-on-faith.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew Slater Encourages Young Athletes to Rely on Faith"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a","name":"Leigh Pizzutilla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","caption":"Leigh Pizzutilla"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/lpizzutilla"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37704"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37809,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37704\/revisions\/37809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}