When Our Best is Required

Tae Crowder played football for Georgia from 2015-19. He was not a highly recruited player when he was signed as a running back out of high school. He was offered a scholarship at the last minute when another RB that Georgia was recruiting went elsewhere. While a very good 3 sport athlete, he didn’t make it as a running back at the college level. He was moved to linebacker and gave him an opportunity to play on special teams to try to make a contribution to the team.

In 2017, Crowder’s 3rd year, Georgia played Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl and he was a starter on the kick return team. Oklahoma scored a TD with about 10 seconds to go before halftime to go up by 17 points, 31-14. Oklahoma kicked off and surprisingly kicked a low, squib kick that was coming near Crowder on the front row where he played. Crowder instinctively snagged the ball out of mid-air and immediately went down to keep the clock from running any further. Georgia had time to throw a quick sideline pass to get in field goal range and then their kicker made a 55 yarder as time expired to cut the lead to only 14 points. Georgia was able to tie the game in the second half by the end of regulation and then won it in overtime. This seemingly insignificant play made a tremendous difference in the outcome of the game.

Tae Crowder was out on the front line of the kick return team in part because he had great hands. He played shortstop in baseball growing up and had taken thousands of reps snagging balls out of the air. He had no way of knowing that this skill would be used one day to help Georgia win the Rose Bowl.

Crowder finally became a starter his Sr. year at UGA and was actually picked the in the NFL draft. Interestingly enough, he earned the dubious honor of being named Mr. Irrelevant which is given annually to the last player picked in the draft. The last player rarely ever makes it on an NFL roster even for one year. Tae Crowder beat those odds and is currently a starting linebacker for the NY Giants. Needless to say, I love this story!

I heard a recent definition of greatness as “being at your best when your best is required.” I love this as well. As it correlates to Tae’s story, his great moment in college came when he was able to use a skill from a completely different sport. I believe that God works though us many times as well. Many experiences that we have prepare us for moments when “our best is required.” One challenge is that we don’t know when these moments are going to come. How do we prepare ourselves for them - to be at our best when our best is required?

I believe that if we are abiding daily with God, not weighed down by unrepentant sins, and we work on our sanctification by trying the become the best version of ourselves, we will be best positioned for those moments “when our best is required.” We typically don’t get time to prepare in the moment or go through a dress rehearsal, we just have to be ready - ready for “greatness.”

Get well Will! We love you!

Stay hungry,

Big E

Matt. 5:6