Now, I’m not going to lie to you… God has been good to me, real good. I have had the opportunity to see and experience some pretty awesome things.

A few months ago I was able to participate in an amazing charity event called “First things First”, a large Flag Football/Auction event hosted by Arizona Cardinals quarterback, Kurt Warner.

The team that I have played on has won the event the past 3 years, but that is neither here nor there…

Anyways, the event starts on a Friday night with a large banquet, auction and some competition festivities for all of the participating teams. Amidst all of the food and festivities, there are also a bunch of pro NFL athletes that make appearances throughout the night (and act as quarterbacks for all of the participating teams the next day!).

Sage Rosenfels, Kurt Warner, Brad Johnson and Brian Griese

Once the festivities and competitions end, everyone calls it a night and prepares for a massive and highly competitive flag football tournament the next day!

Saturday morning, check-in. At the Arizona Cardinals practice facility! All of the participating teams/players are given free gear, access to the Cardinals locker rooms and basically treated like a pro athlete for a day!

Our locker room digs!

Prior to gearing up for the games, there is a voluntary chapel service that is run by the Cardinal chaplain featuring a message and a few worship songs. It is a pretty cool chapel service as the Cardinal’s chaplain is an awesome speaker!

After the chapel service, all of the participating athletes have a catered breakfast and then it’s time to gear up! The event gives each participant tons of gear, free dri-fit shirts, nike shorts, jerseys, sandals… basically the works!

Each athlete can also be taped up by the Cardinals’ trainer!

That’s me, getting the ol’ ankles taped before the tournament

Once all of the athletes are dressed and taped up, we take it to the field! First the strength and conditioning coach for the Cardinals runs everyone through some stretching and light warm ups and then it’s GAME TIME!

In the morning session, each team plays 3 games for seeding placement of the single-elimination tournament to be played that afternoon. Things get pretty intense in the games and oftentimes there is a need for some quick-thinking and field strategizing…

Kurt letting me know that I should try-out for Arizona this summer…

I could probably write so much more about the actual tournament itself, but that would take waaay too long! Instead, let me just say that this past year was pretty intense… but once again, for the 3rd year in a row, we came out tourney champions!

The Champs!

It is hard to accurately describe what an amazing experience that this event is and I have had the privilege of attending and participating in it the past three years! I am extremely grateful that I was able to participate in something like this! All of the pro athletes are out there having just as much fun as all of us average joes playing in the games.

I just recently received the photos from this past years event, so I just wanted to share my experience!