Jared Veldheer
Episode 281
17 JUNE 2024
He is a veteran of 12 years in the NFL as an offensive tackle, including having come out of retirement three times – as recently as this past December! He was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft and, in addition to that team, went on to also play for the Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, and Indianapolis Colts, appearing in a combined total of close to 130 games, counting regular season and playoffs. He even spent time in the New England Patriots organization. He had been a First Team All-American in college and is a fitness and health enthusiast who just launched the “Big Serious Show,” which he is releasing weekly on his YouTube channel.
Notable guest quotes:
“I grew up… Catholic… I attended Holy Spirit Elementary School.”
“I was able to earn a scholarship in football and went to Hillsdale College and that’s really where my love for football started to grow and I continued to get stronger, faster, was around a great group of guys, and it just really started to take off from there.”
“I did not show up my freshman day, reporting day, with NFL anywhere in my radar. It was the furthest thing from my mind. I got there I wanted to become a doctor or some kind of medical professional.”
“As I matured in my (NFL) career, my prayer life definitely matured.”
“There was this trickle effect, and it was probably just God nudging me towards Him, like, ‘Hey, I’m here, like, I’m here for you. Let’s do this together. You don’t have to do this by yourself’.”
“I remember my year with the Denver Broncos… it was amazing how just having that active prayer life and being able to communicate and talk with God, it just took a lot of the burden off, took a lot of that load off my shoulders and I was really able to enjoy my time more.”
“I want to express all this gratitude that I have for this amazing life that He’s blessed me with and (I) just really got into a great routine of whenever I would feel that overwhelming gratitude within me or just, you know, if it was being thankful for a sunny day with birds chirping, to just stop in that moment and say thank you and just be grateful for the life that He’s blessed me with.”
“I was the lunch lady for our kids’ elementary school, for St Paul the Apostle Elementary School in Grand Rapids, Michigan… and it was a lot of fun. I wanted to try to take my love for cooking and nutrition and apply it to how I would want to feed my kids and a whole school. So, (I) went in there and we really created a program. I was able to take real whole foods, cook them, and provide a healthy balanced lunch for the kids.”
“Waking up in the morning I throw on some coffee and put my phone open and first thing I try to do is go into that app and read the readings and Psalms and say a prayer and be able to start my day like that.”
Related link:
Jared’s official YouTube channel
