NFL Lineman Mark Asper Shares Why the Gospel Is the Greatest Team Sport Ever

The night before the 2012 Rose Bowl, Mark Asper was halfway through his third plate of prime rib at Lawry's steakhouse in Southern California when his wife Michelle grabbed his arm. A man at the next booth was choking, and the chef trying to help could not get leverage. Mark stood, all six foot seven and 315 pounds of him, reached back to a skill he learned as a Scout, and saved the man's life. Reporters swarmed him afterward, and Mark gave the credit where it belonged, to the leaders who taught him and the Lord who put him in the right booth on the right night.

That moment sits at the center of the story Mark Asper tells on Why We Believe with host Nathan Gwilliam. Long before the NFL Draft, before All Pac-12 honors at Oregon, before a national championship in Latin formation ballroom dance, Mark made one decision that shaped his life more than talent ever did. He decided to serve the Lord first. What followed, he says, was a path prepared for him at almost every turn.

The Choice That Came Before Football

Mark Asper grew up in Idaho Falls, the youngest of six, raised by a devout mother and carried along by a ward family that drove him to practices his working parents could not always reach. He never found a single lightning-bolt moment of testimony. Instead, during a Sunday School lesson on the gifts of the Spirit, he recognized his own gift, the ability to believe the testimonies of those who know Jesus Christ. His mother bore witness, his bishops bore witness, his teachers bore witness, and it rang true to him again and again.

By his sophomore year of high school, college recruiters were writing letters to a kid who had never watched a full college football game. Through the whole recruiting whirlwind, one commitment stayed locked in place. His Sunday School teacher asked him nearly weekly if he would serve a mission before he played, and the answer grew firmer each time she asked. When the moment came to tell the coaches, Mark had a speech prepared and expected a fight. Oregon's head coach simply said he understood and that the team would be ready when Mark came home.

Two Years in Barcelona

Mark checked the box for a foreign-speaking mission and opened a call to Barcelona, Spain, a place no one in his family had guessed. Spain proved a hard field. Most people he met were culturally Catholic or wanted nothing to do with organized religion, and rejection came daily. The missionaries there leaned into obedience with exactness, seeking the extra measure of spiritual help the work required.

The sweetest fruit came through a recent convert named Enric, who spoke Spanish, Catalan, and French. When Mark and his companion found two Christian men in Barcelona who spoke French, Enric translated lesson after lesson, sharing his own fresh conversion as he taught. In the end, Enric performed their baptisms in French in the Barcelona chapel. Mark watched a native Spaniard bring two men to the waters of baptism and marveled at how the Lord gathered the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

The mission also rewired how Mark handled failure. He learned to treat every rejection as a learning experience and move to the next door. Years later, when his Oregon coach preached an up-tempo philosophy of moving fast past mistakes, Mark realized the mission field had already trained him for it.

Standards That Teammates Protected

Back in Eugene, Mark braced again for confrontation that rarely came. He set his standards early and lived them plainly, and his teammates took it on themselves to protect them. They picked up soda for him on team outings, steered group plans away from places he would not go, and showed up at his daughter's first birthday party with a giant remote control car. The team became a family.

The pattern held in the NFL. Drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round in 2012, Mark went on to dress for teams including the Vikings, Jaguars, Giants, Broncos, Dolphins, and Patriots. In one locker room, his fellow linemen unloaded a lifetime of questions about the Church, and Mark walked to the whiteboard, erased the play diagram, and sketched out the plan of salvation. More people were curious than confrontational, he found, when he simply answered with patience and good humor.

He found the sacrament wherever he played. With the Vikings, a Latter-day Saint staff member arranged a sacrament meeting inside the team hotel before games. In other cities, Mark found the nearest chapel and caught an early meeting on the way to the stadium. Seven teams, seven cities, and seven sets of local leaders willing to make it work. He took to heart the counsel to show God his effort rather than hunt for excuses, and asked one question in each new city: How can I make this work?

The Hallway Where They Were Not Alone

The NFL also took things from Mark. He counts being released eight times, each one a firing from his dream job, each one a blow to an identity built on football. The harder blow came in Buffalo. Newly drafted, with Michelle newly arrived and pregnant with what would have been their third child, complications rose fast. Relief Society sisters they barely knew stayed with their kids so Michelle could reach the hospital.

In the middle of the night, in a quiet hospital hallway, Mark and Michelle stood as the only two people they knew within a hundred miles. They lost the baby. And then, they both say, the loneliness suddenly washed away. They felt watched over and taken care of, certain their children were safe and certain that because of the temple and its covenants, the child they lost would be theirs in the eternities. The Lord's watchcare reached a hallway in Buffalo the same way it had reached a recruiting office in Idaho Falls.

The Greatest Team Sport Ever Invented

Ask Mark Asper why he believes and he answers with hope. He chooses to hope, to believe, and to have faith in Jesus Christ because the joy he feels close to the Savior outweighs anything football gave him. He watched teammates chase manufactured happiness and found his own in being a husband to Michelle and a father to six daughters, each one different, each one loved.

Mark likes to say football is the second greatest team sport ever invented, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is the first because its members pull toward the same goal and love each other along the way. His life reads as the proof. A path prepared before he could see it, standards protected by teammates, covenants that held in a hospital hallway, and a Savior who kept opening doors.

Mark's witness offers a pattern anyone can follow. When we choose to serve the Lord first, He prepares the path long before we can see it. Believing on the testimony of those who know Jesus Christ is itself a gift of the Spirit. Living gospel standards openly invites others to lift us rather than pull us down. Temple covenants can turn even the loss of a child into the hope of an eternal family. And keeping the Sabbath holy means showing God our effort, not checking a list of rules.

If Mark's story stirred something in you, listen to the full conversation on Why We Believe, and ask where the Lord may already be preparing your path. Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for reading this week's blog post inspired by the Why We Believe show. If you are interested in more stories like this, you can check out our other blog posts and episodes at WhyWeBelieve.com, or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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