An NFL All-Pro came on “The Pat McAfee Show” Wednesday to discuss curious comments made about him by his own team’s front office.
But he left the show with an incredible on-air prayer with the show’s co-hosts.
How cool is that?
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson — a four-time Pro Bowler, as well as an NFL All-Pro first-timer who led the league in sacks last year — appeared on McAfee’s eponymous show to discuss a wide range of topics, including fishing and remarks made by the team’s executive vice president.
According to ESPN — which also airs “The Pat McAfee Show” — Bengals executive vice president had some frank words about Hendrickson, who was negotiating a new contract with the team.
“I think he should be happy at certain rates that maybe he doesn’t think he’d be happy at,” Cincinnati EVP Katie Blackburn had said at the NFL’s annual owner’s meeting on Tuesday.
“I think some of it is on him to be happy at some point, and if he’s not, you know, that’s what holds it up sometimes,” she added. “So, you know, it takes him to say yes to something, and also, we have all the respect in the world for him.”
Hendrickson responded: “First off, yesterday was April Fools’ [Day] so I was traded to all 31 teams and had like a hundred different contracts. The one thing I was hoping was an April Fools’ joke [was those comments]. Called my agent [Harold Lewis], found out it was not, and that was a little disappointing because the communication has been poor over the last couple of months.”
The haggling over a new deal is not entirely surprising on its own, given the rather fungible nature of most pro football players that don’t play quarterback. These sorts of protracted contract disputes are nothing new for defensive players.
Still, Hendrickson is only 30, and is coming off back-to-back 17.5-sack seasons. And he’s one of the league’s better defensive ends at handling both the run and the pass.
So the Bengal Pro Bowler may very well have a legitimate gripe with his current contract situation with Cincinnati.
But that hasn’t made him bitter.
No, Hendrickson knows full well where all glory should always be — but it was who prompted him that made this noteworthy.
“You wanna say a quick prayer for us here? For the boys?” McAfee asked, without a hint of chicanery.
Without missing a beat, Hendrickson responded, “Yeah, let’s do it.”
The Bengals standout then prayed: “Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for all the opportunities we have and the time for fellowship, and to glorify you. Strengthen us in our time of need, continue the good work that you started within all of us, and obviously to glorify you with the platform that we have and today, it’s this show.”
He concluded, “To you be the glory, honor, and power forever and ever. Amen.”
You can watch the whole segment below, with Hendrickson’s prayer coming in the final few minutes:
The rest of the crew on McAfee’s show all gave their respective “Amen,” before McAfee signed off the show by asking God to make sure Hendrickson gets paid what he’s worth.
While McAfee has never confirmed his faith (apart from a decade-old then-Twitter post admitting his father was “catholic”), this isn’t the first time he’s brought up faith on ESPN airwaves.
He recently spent time on his show discussing what true salvation looks like.
As for Hendrickson, there could be a very simple reason that his front office is so stubborn about giving him a new contract.
The Bengals are the rare NFL team that has decided to pony up for not one, but two franchise receivers in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
Per ESPN, Chase received a four-year, $161 million deal, with $112 million of it guaranteed, while Higgins received a four-year, $115 million deal, with the first two years fully guaranteed.
That’s a complete anomaly in today’s NFL, where many of the perennially successful AFC franchises, such as the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, have opted not to lavish any receiver with a rich deal, and instead spread that potential spending money around to other positions.
Most competitive teams will pay big bucks for one game-breaking receiver.
But paying big bucks for two? That could cost the Bengals Trey Hendrickson.
And based on character alone, that would be a major loss for a Bengals team hoping to make a deep playoff run next year.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Incredible: NFL All-Pro Leads ESPN Personalities in an On-Air Prayer appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.