{"id":3314,"date":"2013-06-22T19:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T23:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=3314"},"modified":"2013-06-22T23:59:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-23T03:59:28","slug":"a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with NFL champion tight end Billy Bajema"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Going into the 2012 season, veteran tight end Billy Bajema didn&#8217;t know if he was going to make an NFL roster. But some injuries opened the door for him to join the Baltimore Ravens. As it turned out, barely making a team led to a championship ring as the Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers at Super Bowl XLVII.<\/p>\n<p>In this video interview, Bajema talks about what it means to be created for greatness and how his faith has compelled him to always give his best:<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/68503186?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Going into the 2012 season, veteran tight end Billy Bajema didn&#8217;t know if he was going to make an NFL roster. But some injuries opened the door for him to join the Baltimore Ravens. As it turned out, barely making a team led to a championship ring as the Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,384,5,455],"tags":[309,1282,8,1287,285,1290],"class_list":["post-3314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-football","category-sports-features","category-video","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-billy-bajema","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl-xlvii"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A conversation with NFL champion tight end Billy Bajema - 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\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.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 NFL champion tight end Billy Bajema - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Going into the 2012 season, veteran tight end Billy Bajema didn&#8217;t know if he was going to make an NFL roster. 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As it turned out, barely making a team led to a championship ring as the Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-22T23:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-06-23T03:59:28+00:00\" \/>\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 NFL champion tight end Billy Bajema - 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\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A conversation with NFL champion tight end Billy Bajema - Inspiring Athletes","og_description":"Going into the 2012 season, veteran tight end Billy Bajema didn&#8217;t know if he was going to make an NFL roster. 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As it turned out, barely making a team led to a championship ring as the Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html","og_site_name":"Inspiring Athletes","article_published_time":"2013-06-22T23:00:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-06-23T03:59:28+00:00","author":"Chad Bonham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html","name":"A conversation with NFL champion tight end Billy Bajema - Inspiring Athletes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-22T23:00:41+00:00","dateModified":"2013-06-23T03:59:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2013\/06\/a-conversation-with-nfl-champion-tight-end-billy-bajema.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A conversation with NFL champion tight end Billy Bajema"}]},{"@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 &amp; 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\/3314","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=3314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}