{"id":39849,"date":"2024-09-06T09:53:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T13:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=39849"},"modified":"2024-09-06T09:53:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T13:53:15","slug":"notre-dames-riley-leonard-displays-his-faith-off-and-on-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/09\/notre-dames-riley-leonard-displays-his-faith-off-and-on-the-field.html","title":{"rendered":"Notre Dame\u2019s Riley Leonard Displays His Faith Off and On the Field"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_39852\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39852\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/09\/Riley-Leonard_credit-Notre-Dame-Fighting-Irish-YouTube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39852\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/09\/Riley-Leonard_credit-Notre-Dame-Fighting-Irish-YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39852\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Notre Dame Fighting Irish \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Notre Dame\u2019s new starting quarterback, Riley Leonard, is putting his faith in the forefront as he steps into his new role. Leonard previously attended Duke University for three seasons before transferring to Notre Dame. While he revealed that the school\u2019s iconic football history (he\u2019s admitted to watching the film \u201cRudy\u201d every day growing up) and impressive defense were factors in his decision, his own faith and the school\u2019s Catholic heritage were major factors in coming to the Fighting Irish in South Bend, IN. \u201cEvery single person in [hometown Fairhope, AL] that I came into contact with helped me with my faith. I&#8217;m able to bring that [to Notre Dame]. Obviously that&#8217;s the most important thing in my life. When I go to bed at night, I\u2019m not thinking \u2018how many touchdown passes did I throw?\u2019 \u2018Did we win or lose?\u2019 I&#8217;m thinking, did I better my relationship with Jesus Christ? Did I treat my girlfriend with respect? Did I call my parents?\u201d he said during his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theirishtribune.com\/post\/riley-leonard-discusses-his-health-his-notre-dame-experience-and-more\">media debut<\/a> as the team\u2019s starting quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>That faith was on display during the team\u2019s first game of the season against Texas A &amp; M. Leonard could be seen with a cross made of eye black on his cheek as he led the team to a 23-13 victory over Texas. He also wore the Bible verse Matthew 23:12 on his wrist. The verse states, \u201cFor those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.\u201d In a press conference after the team\u2019s win, Leonard shared about the team\u2019s faith off the field. \u201cOne of the biggest bragging points about this team is we have, like, 40 guys show up to our Bible study sometimes every Thursday,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EaaikAi_z9g\">he said<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s really a credit to them. It started with, like, five guys, but it\u2019s grown to 40. This team is just so close. And everything that we do, we do as a unit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy praised Leonard\u2019s faith on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TonyDungy\/status\/1830727497589076392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1830727497589076392%7Ctwgr%5E930c7ae365139887171d8a522233e8bbbd208a56%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crosswalk.com%2Fheadlines%2Fcontributors%2Fmichael-foust%2Fnotre-dame-quarterback-riley-leonard-quotes-powerful-bible-verse-on-national-tv.html\">X<\/a>. Dungy has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/10\/tony-dungy-reflects-on-a-life-lived-for-god-not-football.html\">openly shared his faith<\/a> during his tenure as head coach and since retiring and he shared the video of Leonard\u2019s post-game interview where he shared about the Bible verse on his wristband. \u201cI love it, Riley, keep representing,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0 Leonard and the rest of the team will now move on to face Northern Illinois on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Notre Dame\u2019s new starting quarterback, Riley Leonard, is putting his faith in the forefront as he steps into his new role. Leonard previously attended Duke University for three seasons before transferring to Notre Dame. While he revealed that the school\u2019s iconic football history (he\u2019s admitted to watching the film \u201cRudy\u201d every day growing up) and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":39852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3630],"tags":[3462,3556],"class_list":["post-39849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletes","tag-notre-dame","tag-quarterback"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Notre Dame\u2019s Riley Leonard Displays His Faith Off and On the Field<\/title>\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\/09\/notre-dames-riley-leonard-displays-his-faith-off-and-on-the-field.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Notre Dame\u2019s Riley Leonard Displays His Faith Off and On the Field\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Notre Dame\u2019s new starting quarterback, Riley Leonard, is putting his faith in the forefront as he steps into his new role. Leonard previously attended Duke University for three seasons before transferring to Notre Dame. While he revealed that the school\u2019s iconic football history (he\u2019s admitted to watching the film \u201cRudy\u201d every day growing up) and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/09\/notre-dames-riley-leonard-displays-his-faith-off-and-on-the-field.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-06T13:53:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/09\/Riley-Leonard_credit-Notre-Dame-Fighting-Irish-YouTube.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=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Notre Dame\u2019s Riley Leonard Displays His Faith Off and On the Field","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\/09\/notre-dames-riley-leonard-displays-his-faith-off-and-on-the-field.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Notre Dame\u2019s Riley Leonard Displays His Faith Off and On the Field","og_description":"Notre Dame\u2019s new starting quarterback, Riley Leonard, is putting his faith in the forefront as he steps into his new role. Leonard previously attended Duke University for three seasons before transferring to Notre Dame. While he revealed that the school\u2019s iconic football history (he\u2019s admitted to watching the film \u201cRudy\u201d every day growing up) and&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/09\/notre-dames-riley-leonard-displays-his-faith-off-and-on-the-field.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2024-09-06T13:53:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/09\/Riley-Leonard_credit-Notre-Dame-Fighting-Irish-YouTube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia 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