Since the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, Derek Carr has been the Raiders’ starting quarterback. Over his career, Derek has accumulated nearly 35,000 yards and a couple hundred touchdowns. This incredible athlete has also had a life-long love for God.
Derek Carr is one NFL Quarterback who’s never been shy about expressing his faith.
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“What they call work I call worship! Never ashamed of who’s [sic] I am and who brought me here. Yahweh is faithful to those who walk WITH Him! He has given me so many blessings my cup overflows starting with my beautiful family and friends. Then way down the list I get to play football for my job. I just pray I remain faithful with this platform to do His work! Love and appreciate every single one of you. There is a treasure inside all of you! God bless and Go Raiders!”
When he signed the largest NFL contract in history (back in 2017), Derek Carr Committed to Tithing
The Oakland Raiders star quarterback spoke up about his faith once again after signing the richest contract in NFL history (in 2017). The contract, which was $125 million over five years, was unheard of at the time in the National Football League.
After committing to the Raiders for the next half-decade at an annual salary of $25 million, reporters bombarded Carr at a press conference with inquiries about what he plans to do with the money—to which he humbly responded:
“The first thing I’ll do is pay my tithe like I have since I was in college,” Carr told CBS Sports. “Giving $700 on a scholarship check. That won’t change. I’ll do that.”
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Today, he’s using his NFL platform as star Oakland Raiders Quarterback to live out his faith. But it hasn’t always been that way.
“I think Christ really became real to me when my wife [who was just a friend at the time]…wrote me a letter, and it said, ‘You’re not the person that I thought you were,’” Carr said in a video released by The Increase Stories in 2014.
The letter from his now-wife was a wake-up call that prompted Carr to radically change his lifestyle, and ask others around him—his teammates—to hold him accountable.
“You guys know what I’ve been doing. I’m a Christian, and I haven’t been living it…I’m a Christian now, and I’ve asked God for his forgiveness. Now, watch how I live my lifestyle.”
Years later, his historical contract parallels the Lord’s command for us in the Bible—that we give the first 10 percent of our earnings to God, and test Him in His faithfulness that we will be blessed beyond measure.
“’Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’” Malachi 3:10