Big players make big plays in big games.
Football coaches across the nation repeat that mantra on game day.
In the NFL, teams often match up so evenly that only a few big plays decide the outcome.
Typically, game-changing plays come from premier positions such as quarterback, running back, wide receiver or pass rusher.
Rarely does someone say, “Man, that 330-pound defensive tackle broke the game open on that one.”
Those are the guys who go to war in the trenches. They rarely make plays worthy of a SportsCenter highlight.
Rarely.
A Big Play on Football’s Biggest Stage
Flash back to Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The fourth quarter begins with Green Bay leading 21-17. However, the Steelers have the ball on the Packers’ 33-yard line and threaten to score.
On the first play of the quarter, Pittsburgh runs the ball. Clay Matthews meets running back Rashard Mendenhall while Packers defensive tackle Ryan Pickett joins the tackle and helps disrupt the play.
Mendenhall loses the ball, and the Packers recover.
Green Bay scores on the following drive and eventually wins the Super Bowl 31-25. It was a big night for Ryan Pickett.
Yet that night may not mean quite as much to Pickett as the night he met his wife, Jennifer.
A Trip for Chocolate Changed Everything
During Ryan’s rookie year with the St. Louis Rams, he traveled to Atlanta for a road game against the Falcons.
The night before the game, Pickett got hungry, hopped into his car and drove to a mall.
“I wanted chocolate,” he says.
At the same time, a young college student returned to the mall where she worked. She needed to pick up a pair of jeans she had left behind.
The two pulled into parking spaces beside one another. When they stepped out of their cars, they noticed each other and began talking.
They talked for 3 1/2 hours that night and began a relationship.
For Jennifer, meeting Ryan answered a prayer.
“Before I met Ryan, I was fasting and praying that God would send me my husband.”
Meeting Jennifer also became an act of God’s grace in Ryan’s life.
Before he met her, he lived a party-driven lifestyle far removed from Christian faith.
As their relationship grew, Jennifer faithfully prayed that Ryan would submit his life to Christ. God soon answered those prayers.
“One day, I woke up and was tired of what I had been doing, and I gave my life to Christ,” Ryan says. “I found who I was in Christ and started doing everything for Him.”
Making a Difference at Home
Ryan now approaches everything he does as an act of worship to God. That includes working hard on the field, loving Jennifer and being a daddy to six children.
In a time when many people view a large family as a burden, the Picketts see things differently.
“Having six kids is awesome,” Jennifer says. “We know that God has blessed us with the kids we have.”
Even after a hard day on the field, Ryan comes home and joyfully jumps into action with his children.
“He comes home from work every day, and he helps with homework,” Jennifer says. “We put the kids to bed, and we read the Bible to them. As the spiritual leader, he takes time to explain the Bible to them. I know he’s tired, but he still does it.”
Ryan realizes that, 10 years from now, the difference-making plays he made in big games will have faded into distant memories.
Making a difference as a daddy will mean more to him than any game-day memory.
He is setting the tone for his family as he leads them toward Christ.
Ryan also serves foster children through the Ryan Pickett Foundation. He runs a recruiting service for high school athletes called the Recruiting Factory.