The NFL and AGO??
You are about to find out how AGO and yes, the NFL, relate. Ben Malcolmson(Π-42) is a Pi alumni who attended USC in the early 2000s with not just an incredible story but "an authentic voice for the power of simple obedience and trust for what can happen when a believer allows God to work in a life."
The story of a football walk-on:
Ben grew up in Dallas Texas and was a cross country and track runner in high school but had no intentions of playing collegiate sports. He attended USC because of the academics and to experience a new place to live. While a student, he covered the sports section in the school newspaper, The Daily Trojan. The Trojans football team was ranked number one in 2006. The football team had won national championships back to back in 2003 and 2004 under the command of Pete Carrol, the current head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. As a writer for a newspaper, one is always on the lookout for a good story. Ben wrote this, "I saw an ad for football tryouts and I thought that would be a cool story to write about. I thought the best way to do that was to actually go through a tryout instead of just writing about it. I had no intention of making the team. I hadn’t played football since the fifth grade..." He began running to get in some sort of shape but nothing too strenuous. The day of tryouts came and Ben was overwhelmed with the intensity of not just how physically demanding the drills were but how everything was so unfamiliar and new. Ben found himself amongst 30 walk-ons and a whole coaching staff who were all saying, "Oh its the newspaper guy." The list of players who made the cut was announced two days after the tryout, "I was going to go in right when it was posted just to get a reaction from all the other people that tried out and made the team...I wasn’t going... to see if I had made it." To his complete shock his name appeared on that list and after approaching head coach Peter Carroll to make sure there was not some sort of mistake, it was confirmed, Coach Pete wanted him on the team.
This opportunity Ben had to play for the football team, would mark the conception of a grander plan God continued to unfold in years to come. After graduation, Pete Carroll offered Ben an opportunity to design a website for the USC football team. This lead to a bond between that two that then prompted Pete to offer Ben a position to come on staff with the Seahawks, when Pete took the position. "Ben moved to Seattle and served as Carroll's chief of staff, overseeing many of the coach's on- and off-field initiatives over 11 seasons with the Seahawks." Ben's story is encapsulated in his book, Walk On, which you can look at and purchase at the amazon link at the bottom.
I had an opportunity to reach out to Ben and he shared with me how AGO was influential in his career and story, "AGO was instrumental in teaching me the importance of living on mission for Jesus, and that impact played out massively during my one season on the USC football team and then the next 14 years of working as Coach Pete Carroll's chief of staff. Without the discipleship and fellowship from AGO brothers during my college years and beyond, along with the fraternity's commitment to 'winning others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ,' I would've missed out on the fullness of living life in pursuit of God and his purposes in daily life."
Ben currently conducts speaking engagements
To get a more in-depth look into Ben's story please click the links below to purchase and read his book!
What draft picks are you most excited to have on your NFL team this year?? Drop it in the comments below!