With all the talk of Michael Sam entering the NFL as the first openly gay football player, there are still ambassadors for Christ in the professional sport.
Former New York Jets running back Curtis Martin is one of them. Now 41, the Hall of Famer donned the number 28 on his white and green jersey—for religious reasons.
“They only had the number 39, which I thought was horrible, and then I finally got a chance to get number 26 and shortly after that when I took number 26 a guy got cut and his number was 28 and I was speaking to someone about what numbers, what options I had,” Martin told Pro Football Talk on NBCSN “And at the time I was speaking to a pastor and I told him what numbers were available between 26 and 28, and he said 28.
“He said because that is a really important Bible verse,” Martin explained. “It’s Deuteronomy 28, and he said that it talks about the blessings for obedience and all that. So I took the number and Deuteronomy 28 became my only ritual before every game. I would read it and that’s the reason why I wore number 28.”
And such are the blessings for obedience. Martin retired having raked up the fourth highest total of rushing yards in NFL history. He was selected as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
