{"id":2960,"date":"2012-09-04T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=2960"},"modified":"2012-09-04T04:59:20","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T08:59:20","slug":"a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg (Photo courtesy of Cleveland Browns)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the University of Nebraska, Eric Hagg initially thought he was going there to play football. But what he didn\u2019t realize was how much his life would change away from the game. Through the influence of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and some close teammates, his burgeoning faith in God grew exponentially.<\/p>\n

Now in his second season with the Cleveland Browns, Hagg has worked his way into the starting free safety spot and hopes to increase his influence inside the locker room and around the community. In this Inspiring Athletes interview, Hagg talks about his time at Nebraska, his appreciation for FCA and what it means to be a Christian on the football field:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: Tell me a little bit about your spiritual journey.<\/p>\n

Eric Hagg: I went to an FCA camp at Northern Arizona University my junior year of high school. I met Prince Amukamara (now with the New York Giants) there and we became good friends. We went to that camp our senior year too. I always knew a little bit about God and about prayer but I started to learn more about Christ and what He did on the cross for us and what it means to have a relationship with Him at those camps.<\/p>\n

Bonham: You got even more involved with FCA at Nebraska. How did that make a difference in your life?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eric Hagg (Photo courtesy of Cleveland Browns)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hagg: FCA teaches you about being a Christian on and off the field. We had a strong FCA Bible group at Nebraska. That helped me to grow spiritually. Coach Ron Brown and our chaplain Matt Penland worked together to help us grow in that relationship. We learned how to do focal points. We learned out to honor God on the field by talking to Him. He\u2019s out there with you just like He\u2019s with you everywhere else off the field.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Tell me more about focal points and that idea of living out your faith on the field.<\/p>\n

Hagg: I wrote a scripture on my arm or a cross so that once I saw it, it reminded me what I was doing out there, who I was playing for and who my audience was. Every time we stepped off the field, we\u2019d get a quick little prayer in. It wasn\u2019t like we were perfect or doing it all the time, but we were recognizing that God was with us and in us. Otherwise, we would\u2019ve been playing for ourselves. If you’re a person like me, you might over think or hesitate or play lackadaisical or fearful sometimes. On the flipside of that, you can play too confidently, too cocky or play all for yourself. But (the focal points) just keep me humble, reminding me who I’m playing for and where I got my abilities from.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Tell me about one of your relationship with former Nebraska teammate Roy Helu Jr. (now playing with the Washington Redskins).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eric Hagg (Photo courtesy of Cleveland Browns)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hagg: Roy is one of my best friends. I would consider him my brother along with Prince. Roy is very talented. He\u2019s very fast, very elusive. He breaks tackles. He can shake people. As hard as he worked on the field, he was also a hard worker off the field. He asked lots of questions. He was always praying. He always wanted to know if he could be praying for other people and helping other people out. Of course, he\u2019s not perfect, but he was a really good person off the field.<\/p>\n

Bonham: As a young Christian in the NFL, what is your message to people who look up to you?<\/p>\n

Hagg: I\u2019m a follower of Him but I hope people know that people like me are not perfect and there are things on the inside that I struggle with just as much anyone else. We all need everyone to band together in a community and help each other out.<\/p>\n

Be looking for more interviews with current NFL athletes this season including Roy Helu Jr., (Washington Redskins), Prince Amukamara (New York Giants), Chris Kelsay (Buffalo Bills), Gerald McCoy (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Chris Chester (Washington Redskins).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the University of Nebraska, Eric Hagg initially thought he was going there to play football. But what he didn\u2019t realize was how much his life would change away from the game. Through the influence of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and some close teammates, his burgeoning faith in God grew exponentially. Now in his second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,384,382,5],"tags":[1198,1201,1197,443,1192,214,21,1199,619,1195,8,1193,780,1196,1200,1194],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-football","category-qa","category-sports-features","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-chris-chester","tag-chris-kelsay","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-eric-hagg","tag-fca","tag-fellowship-of-christian-athletes","tag-gerald-mccoy","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-prince-amukamara","tag-ron-brown","tag-roy-helu-jr","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-washington-redskins"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg - Inspiring Athletes<\/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\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the University of Nebraska, Eric Hagg initially thought he was going there to play football. But what he didn\u2019t realize was how much his life would change away from the game. Through the influence of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and some close teammates, his burgeoning faith in God grew exponentially. Now in his second…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-04T12:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-04T08:59:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/09\/Hagg_Eric002-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Bonham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A conversation with Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg - Inspiring 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\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A conversation with Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg - Inspiring Athletes","og_description":"At the University of Nebraska, Eric Hagg initially thought he was going there to play football. But what he didn\u2019t realize was how much his life would change away from the game. Through the influence of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and some close teammates, his burgeoning faith in God grew exponentially. Now in his second…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html","og_site_name":"Inspiring Athletes","article_published_time":"2012-09-04T12:00:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-09-04T08:59:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/09\/Hagg_Eric002-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Chad Bonham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html","name":"A conversation with Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg - Inspiring Athletes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/09\/Hagg_Eric002-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2012-09-04T12:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-04T08:59:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/09\/Hagg_Eric002-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/09\/Hagg_Eric002-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/09\/a-conversation-with-cleveland-browns-safety-eric-hagg.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A conversation with Cleveland Browns safety Eric Hagg"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/","name":"Inspiring Athletes","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Chad Bonham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/?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\/inspiringathletes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1","name":"Chad Bonham","description":"Chad has been working in mass media for over 20 years. Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2967,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions\/2967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}