Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud was a Heisman Trophy finalist in the last two seasons with the Ohio State Buckeyes. He's one of the top quarterbacks in this draft class. But he's also the son of a pastor, and he's not ashamed to speak about his Christian faith.  

Being in the spotlight can make that challenging, and Rob Maaddi recently asked C.J. how he handles that adversity, especially growing up in a Christian home and having the expectation on you to continue on in the faith. 

“So, I grew up in the church. My father was a pastor, and that was a lot of my early upbringing, man. Just a lot of Christmas, a lot of Thanksgiving, a lot of holidays in the church and I kind of fell away from it when I was around 11-12 years old.” 

Stroud moved away from Christ in his adolescence, but God had a plan for His life, and in college, he began to mature in his faith.

“Then when I got to college, I found to know Christ for myself, so definitely something that I'm still learning to this day. I'm definitely not perfect in any means or way. I am a Sinner and I definitely do repent of my sins.” 

For Stroud, his relationship with Jesus keeps him humble and focused on the right things. 

“So but it, like you said, does keep me grounded, it does keep me humble just because I know anything can be stripped away at any point, and that's something I went through as a child.” 

As Stroud enters an important phase of his life, entering the NFL, he recognizes his God-given assignment isn’t first and foremost to play football. 

“So that's something I feel like God put me on this pipe from platform to do to, to preach his word. And I definitely think that I continue to do that.”