Ryan Succop's Hope is in Christ, Not Kicking
He knows his week to week status in football is vastly different from his standing before the Lord.
By Faith on the Field Staff, September 25, 2022
Ryan Succop is a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a placekicker and a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Superbowl winning team. He took a few minutes to sit down with our own Rob Maaddi to discuss this season. Ryan, as a believer in Christ who is also a professional athlete, he feels the tug of personal success but also of living for Jesus. This was no more apparent than after his Superbowl victory.
“I think when I look back on that, I think there are a lot of really cool things that happened along the way. Obviously, to play the game, we play a game at a really high level and it's incredibly difficult to win the Super Bowl. So it is very rewarding being able to do that and be a part of that at the same time.
For me, I think when I look back on that, like cooler than the ring, cooler than actually like holding up the Lombardi Trophy, Cooler than doing all those things, Was just like Seeing the way that God was working through all of that in my life and a lot of our teammate's lives, just kind of seeing, seeing that just come to life the way that it did. And there's just so many things that happened along the way where you look back and you go, man, this is just really powerful, seeing the way that the Lord works. And that's what I remember the most about that.”
Listen to the episode here:
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Ryan plays a position in football that can be a week-to-week evaluation on whether he plays, depending on how well he kicked. That could seem fairly tumultuous. But for Ryan, he finds his stability in life in other things. The most important thing in his life is his relationship with God.
“Probably the biggest (priority) honestly is, is my faith. I think early on in my career, even now, it's a battle. I would be lying if I said we don't still struggle with this, but I think it's so easy to get consumed with our performance, especially when we do something that has so many eyeballs on it as the NFL. It's very easy to be consumed by that, and when that's good, we're good.
But then the problem is when that's not good are we going to be on that rollercoaster, because I don't think that's a good way to go. And I think for me, I've been really fortunate to kind of get to the point where I love to play the game, I love football, I love working at it, but it's not the most important thing in my life. My relationship with the Lord is the most important. My family comes next and then on down the line it's football, and I can truly say that.
And so in a way, it takes the pressure off because it allows me to go out there and be free where it's like, ‘Lord, I know you, you've got me here, I'm going to go out, I'm going to give it my best, I'm going to trust you.’ And it frees you up and it allows you to go play with a sense of peace that I don't think I would have if I if I didn't have that faith.”
