ESPN football broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit was in Montana at Fresh Life Church with pastor Levi Lusko for Super Bowl Sunday. As a child, the last thing Herbstreit wanted to do was be in front of a camera. He recalled of his childhood self, “I was always really, really quiet.” As he moved from school to school, Herbstreit felt he wore the label “new kid” everywhere he went, causing him to become a recluse in the lunch room, classroom, library, etc.
However, Herbstreit was social in two places: the gym and recess. He said, “Gym and recess were places where I came out of my shell.” As he grew up, Herbstreit fell in love with football and wanted to play college football at Ohio State University, like his dad. He felt the field was one place he could be free to be himself. As he bounced around from school to school in his childhood, there was no church he could call his home, but that didn’t stop God from capturing Herbstreit’s heart.
He told Lusko and the rest of Fresh Life Church, “I think one thing I just felt very blessed to have is this: I feel like everybody has kind of a hole inside them, in your soul, and for me, God just built me in a way where I’m wired that I’m connected to that. There’s an awareness since I was little.” He continued, There’s something more to life than materialistic things. I’ve always been in tune with a voice inside me, a Holy Spirit inside me. So I think through my trials and tribulations, that’s always been there for me.”
Towards the end of his time with Lusko, Herbstreit closed with a prayer of thankfulness and openness to God. He prayed, “I’m just thankful for being in a position in my life to have an opportunity to share my story and the things that I’ve been through — the good and the bad. I’m just so thankful that You’ve been along this ride with me. There are times I feel I don’t deserve Your grace; I don’t deserve Your love. But I know because of people like Levi and JW and others who are in my life; I know that I can persevere through it.
He continued, “I know there are people right now, not only in the prisons but all over this country and all over the world, that are struggling with their own demons and with their own pain that they deal with. I’d just love to pray for those people and let them know that there are answers. And that answer is Jesus.”