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After blunders and miscues for more than half the game, Frank Reich and the Bills were in trouble. Early in the third quarter, the Bills were trailing 35-3.
"You know, I can honestly tell you, I never thought for sure we were going to win," says Reich. "I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be. Of course, the game ends, and we have this incredible come-from-behind victory."
But this wasn’t just any come-from-behind victory. Frank Reich had just led the biggest comeback in the history of the NFL: a 38-35 Buffalo win. And a song provided his inspiration.
"My sister had called me to tell me about a song she had heard that she had thought was incredible, and it reminded her of me and wanted me to hear it, so I listened to the song. The song was 'In Christ Alone.' I opened it and listened to it, and, basically, for three to four straight days, listened to it every free second I could," he says.
Frank was so inspired by the song and the role it played motivating him during the comeback he shared it with the world in his post-game press conference.
"As I stood behind the podium, typically they just start firing questions at you, and I just said, 'Before you ask me any questions, I want to share the lyrics to a song that have inspired me this week. Then I read the lyrics to 'In Christ Alone:' 'Christ alone will I glory, though I could pride myself in battles won, for I have been blessed beyond measure, and by his strength alone I overcome.'
"After that whole game was over and the lyrics were read, it seemed as if that song was written for that one game in time," Reich continues. "What I have since realized is that the song and the lyrics are really about everyday Christian living. In every victory, let it be said of me that my source of strength and my source of hope is in Christ alone."
Christ was also the foundation during Frank’s senior year at Maryland when another astonishing comeback was a sign of things to come.
"I kind of stepped in my senior year to become the starting quarterback, but I got injured. Actually, it was in the fourth game of the season," Reich recalls. "I separated my shoulder, and in many respects I felt like this was it, my whole life was going down the tubes. It was through that injury that God rocked my world, and He really brought me to a place where I needed to fall on my knees before Him and confess that football was first in my life. The injury wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t play again. The problem was the guy that took my place played so well that when I got healthy again, they didn’t want to put me back in."
But then Maryland was getting blown out by Miami 31-0 at halftime. It was in the locker room that the coach made the announcement that Reich was going to start the second half. Frank threw for 260 yards, connecting for three touchdown passes, and running for another. He rallied the team to a 42-40 win.
Most people look back over Frank's career and recognize him for the greatest comeback in college football history, orchestrating the greatest comeback in NFL history. When asked if either of those accomplishments compared to knowing Christ as his Savior, Reich explained, "In the scope of things, it’s insignificant, but I don’t want to downplay the significance of God works in real people in real life situations. I know football is not all that important in the whole scope of things, but the fact of that matter is, that was the profession, that was the mission field that God put me in. I often use the analogy of a car. I tell people that football is the vehicle, the car, if you will, that God placed me in to take me through a season of my life. Just like a car, God used sports, football, to take me to certain cities to meet certain people to learn certain things to do certain works, I believe. But just like the car I drive, or that anybody else drives, it’s a depreciating asset. It has zero eternal value. And so sports will one day have zero eternal value."
The man best known for leading the greatest comebacks in college and pro football history is now focused on leading others to a faith in Jesus Christ. His playing field is now a mission field. And it all starts here, at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"Right now I’m having the opportunity to travel around the country, work with churches --- all different denominations, all over the country -- and it’s wonderful and I’m extremely blessed to be able to do that. My wife and I have been really diligent in praying about the possibility of pastoring a church and planting a church one day. I’ve come here to seminary to get some kind of formal training to get prepared for a lifelong ministry. God is the creator of the heavens and earth. God has created each one of us, and He has a plan for us to have an intimate relationship with Him. When we submit our lives to that plan, that’s when I believe He really sets us free for the first time. For those that sit and wonder what God’s plan for their life is, I think it’s clear that His plan is for salvation in Christ and in Christ alone."
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