“It was like God saying, ‘Hey, I got you. Just get your butt up and go to work tomorrow. I've got a purpose here.' And I felt that purpose.”
Welcome to "Fields Full of Grace: The Faith at Play," casting a spotlight on the devotional practices of college and professional athletes and coaches on and off the field.
By Jay Sorgi
Gary Kubiak’s farm near Texas A&M University in southeast Texas surrounds St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
“I can go to Mass in my golf cart,” says the now-retired head coach of the 2015 NFL Champion Denver Broncos. “It's just always been part of my life.”
He’ll be able to drive that golf cart to Mass before watching Super Bowl LX with more than a football fan’s interest. This year, it’s family. His son, Klint, is the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Sea Hawks, who face the New England Patriots for the national title.
His other son, Klay, is the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, beaten by the Sea Hawks in the playoffs.
Catholic upbringing
You could say the Super Bowl is in Kubiak’s blood. He has participated in seven of them: winning one as the Broncos head coach, winning three as an assistant coach with the 49ers and the Broncos, and losing three as a player with the Broncos.
Football has been on Kubiak’s mind for much of his life, but the Catholic faith has been closer to his center for much longer, growing up in a Polish, mostly-Catholic enclave of Houston called the Heights.
“I was an inner city kid. I grew up in a strong Catholic family background,” recalls the former altar boy at 5:30 a.m. Mass. “Me and my three sisters were raised within the faith and had a mom and dad who were great examples. As a child, going to Mass was part of your daily routine.”
Though not initially interested in football, the discovery of Kubiak’s God-given quarterbacking talent helped him recognize his path to a college education. He quarterbacked at St. Pius X High School in Houston, then the Texas A&M Aggies from 1979-82.
He considered leaving during his second year with the Aggies, at a time when football became his priority but success wasn’t coming.
“You're just going and going, and all of a sudden I'm in college and the only thing I was thinking about every day was how good I was doing in the football program, and could I be a pro football player someday” Kubiak recalls. “Next thing I know, nothing's going right. I realized that my priorities had drifted away from me.”
Roots and values
Kubiak had to reprioritize God and his relationships ahead of the otherwise all-consuming sport.
“When I was able to understand and get a grasp on that, and return to my roots and the values that I was brought up to have, it made it easy for me to go play the game or be on the team. It continued that way for me in my life's work.
“If I didn't have things in line at home as a father, a husband, and all those things, I couldn't go coach a game very well because I just didn't feel good about where I was. But when I kept those things in perspective and in line, I could chase those goals, chase those dreams, and I could handle when it was good and when it wasn't good.”
Trust in God
Kubiak needed that balance as he faced the regular conundrum of a backup quarterback in the NFL for nine seasons behind John Elway in Denver, always wondering if he would have a job in the game.
Retiring from playing after the 1991 campaign, he was an assistant coach at his alma mater for two years before the San Francisco 49ers came calling, leading to a test that further refined his trust in God.
“I wasn't there 24 hours and found myself staring in a mirror going, ‘What did I just do?’” he recalls. “I'm here by myself. I questioned where I was heading and why I did this. It was a very difficult time for me and my wife. I'm sitting there trusting that the good Lord has sent me there for a reason.”
God sure did. The Super Bowl ring on his finger from that 1994 season with the 49ers, and the job he got as an assistant coach with the Broncos from 1995-2005 which led to two more Super Bowl rings and a solid community with which to raise his three sons in the Catholic faith and Catholic education, made that reason apparent in time.
His coaching career brought him back to Denver for a third time, as head coach of the Broncos in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. That first season ended with his fourth Super Bowl ring as a coach, as his Broncos traveled to the city where he had his one-year detour — San Francisco — and defeated the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl in 2016.
He ended that night hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy with Peyton Manning standing beside him.
Showing the way
Now his son will compete for the same trophy, and Kubiak can sit at his ranch proudly knowing Klint stands one win from his own Super Bowl ring.
He also sits back and counts his many blessings, and the lesson he learned throughout his career to trust in God.
“When you're going through life, there's so many things that happen that you don't know,” he says. “As you get older, you sit back and you say, ‘Maybe I wasn't the one really making those decisions.’
“It was up to me to put forth the effort so that the good Lord could show me what He wanted for me, why He wanted me there, why He wanted me doing this.”
“It was like, ‘Hey, I got you. Just get your butt up and go to work tomorrow. I've got a purpose here,’” Kubiak concludes. “And I felt that purpose.”
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