Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp will always put his faith over football.
“Because of my faith in Jesus, I know that I will never allow what I do to force its way into taking away from what I know my purpose is here,” Kupp, 32, shared at the Arise With the Guys men’s ministry event in Minnesota on Saturday, April 18.
During his football career, Kupp has had the opportunity to win a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022. More recently, he helped quarterback Sam Darnold and the Seahawks become NFL champions in February.
“I was made to play football, not to go do football things or to win Super Bowls,” Kupp said via Relevant Magazine. “I was made to play football to be on a stage, to be able to point to Jesus, to be able to call people to Him, to be able to live a life that reflects Jesus in every way.”
One person who has helped Cooper grow in his religious faith is his wife, Anna Marie Kupp.
The high school sweethearts got married in 2015 and have since welcomed three children together.
“My wife has been such a huge impact on me in my faith and in my journey to becoming a husband, a father, the father I want to be,” Cooper said, crediting“divine intervention” for the reason the pair were brought together.
The couple met at a high school track meet, where Anna Marie presented Cooper with a medal from an event.
“I knew that she was the one that I wanted to marry when we had first met back in high school,” Cooper told ESPN in February 2022. “I told my mom the day I met her, ‘I’m going to marry this girl.’”
The NFL player added, “We just were so aligned in terms of what our goals were and what we wanted to do moving forward and what we wanted to be about as a couple. And the belief that football was the community, was the place that I was supposed to be, that we were supposed to be, and that’s where God placed us.”
As Cooper prepares to suit up for another season with the Seattle Seahawks, the former Super Bowl MVP believes he has a higher power guiding him both on and off any football field.
“I know that I’m so small,” he shared during his latest ministry event, which also featured NFL coach Tony Duny, sports analyst Chris Broussard and former NFL player CJ Ham. “I just humble myself and pray, ‘Your plan is perfect, you have placed me here and all I want to do is to serve you, glorify you and that is where my identity lies.’”
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