JTH: Keeping with the football theme, and I’m going to put you on the spot here, I want you to tell me, in your opinion, who’s the best wide receiver you’ve ever faced?
JP: Honestly, Brandon Marshall. Brandon Marshall and Calvin Johnson, man. It’s probably between those two. The size and the speed. They’re freaks. Probably those two, man. Yep.
JTH: Best quarterback?
JP: Oh, Aaron Rodgers, hands down.
JTH: Is he like that?
JP: Yep, hands down! The thing that makes you mad about Aaron Rodgers is he’s just so cool, man! It’s like, let something faze you. Oh, yeah, I’m an Aaron Rodgers fan now. He’s probably the best to me. Aaron Rodgers.
JTH: Growing up, who was the football player that you looked up to and was the guy that you said, “Man, I want to be like that guy when I play”?
JP: Back when I was playing offense, it was Barry Sanders. When I was playing running back, it was Barry Sanders. And defensively, I grew up a Pittsburgh fan and Troy Polamalu. I loved Troy Polamalu when I was younger. I tried to model my style after him and Ed Reed.
JTH: In the course of a typical NFL week, how much would time would you say that you spend studying opponents, tendencies, and that type of stuff?
JP: Every day. The only day I really don’t spend studying is Sunday, the day you’re playing the game. There’s always something that you can break down. We got iPad’s now that you watch film on. You can look at something basically every day. They’re studying you looking for your weaknesses so you gotta look for theirs. It’s a constant evaluation process.
JTH: So, with that time investment, with you being a believer, how difficult is it to manage spending time with the Lord and focusing on football at the same time?
JP: Sometimes, it’s hard, to be honest with you. You know, you go to the facility all day, you’re working. You come home, you’re tired. You try to get something to eat and then you’re just trying to relax. The things that I’ll do is, I’ll get up and I’ll read a devotion every morning. And I’ll try to take whatever the devotion is covering that day, I’ll take the Scripture from that, and I’ll try and study that. And then when I get home, when I wind down a little bit, I’ll go back over what I read in the devotional, or what I read through in the specific verse, chapter or whatever it may be. I try to keep myself on a schedule; I guess you would say, a routine, where you’re not being neglectful. You keep your mind refreshed.
JTH: In your experiences in the league right now, what percentage of the players in the league would you say are believers, are Christians?
JP: Man, that’s a good question! I’ve never had that asked before! I would say, just through my experience, I would say a good 90, 95%.
JTH: With that many players being believers, do you guys ever have any discussions about your faith? Is that a common thing in the league?
JP: Oh yeah, man. I remember one time when I played for the Carolina Panthers. Training camp actually. It was me and a bunch of guys; we were sitting in the dorms. It’s was about 10 o’clock at night. Everybody’s kind of hanging out. I’m trying to remember how it even started because I think we were all playing Mortal Kombat, I think. And then it came out of nowhere. Guys got into what they believed in, and then you had the guys that questioned certain things. Questioned what you believed, question your faith, and it lead from there. There’s a good percentage of guys that are believers. You know, you got your Bible study that you have with your guys. You have guys that pray. Everywhere I’ve been, Carolina, Washington, and New Orleans, we always pray as a group. The faith acts are being shown throughout the league, just in different ways.
JTH: In all your stops, have you found that there’s one guy who’s like that pastor-figure? That guy that if you have problems you can go talk to him?
JP: Man, that’s funny that you said that. There’s a guy that I played with named C.J. Wilson in Carolina. C.J. is a guy that I look up to. And he probably doesn’t know this. I’ve never told him this. He went to Baylor and we’re both from the Dallas area. C.J. was a guy, I think he was two years older than me, and I remember when I got in he just kind of took me under his wing from life aspects to faith to how you handle the ins and out of just playing ball. I still talk to C.J. to this day. I’m like, “C.J. man, how do you handle this?” If something comes up where I feel like I’m being challenged, or I can’t handle this, he’s one of the guys that I go to. He’s been in the same footsteps that I’ve been in, so I try to lean on the wisdom from him and apply it to my own situation. C.J. has been a big part of my spiritual life and my spiritual walk.
JTH: Have there been any opportunities that you’ve had to witness to somebody in the league who wasn’t a believer?
JP: There was a guy I played with in Carolina and, actually, I learned a lesson through him. I didn’t even know I was doing anything. I want to say it was my second year, and I think he grew up Jehovah’s Witness, I can’t remember what it was. He just kind of did his own thing. He wasn’t really a believer in anything. He didn’t know what to classify himself as. We would go hang out, say we would go bowling, and guys would be out doing what they do, having their drinks or whatever. I would be out with them, but I wouldn’t drink or do anything like that, I’d just be hanging out. And I remember one day, he came and he asked me, “How do you do it?” I didn’t know what he was talking about. I was like, “How do I do what?” He goes, “How do you hang out with, us but you don’t drink, you’re not really on these girls like that. How do you do it?” Then, I was like, “Man, first off, it’s just not me.” And then I just told him I had a belief system and I ended up sharing my faith with him a little bit. I didn’t beat him over the head with a Bible or anything. I just walked it out. Then he finally came to me one day and he eventually got saved, and now he’s leading small groups in his church now. And he told me this, he said, “Man, I had a lot of guys that came to me and tried to share the Gospel with me and this and that but I learned more by just watching you versus you saying anything to me.” And that taught me a lesson because you never know who’s watching.
