Colby Parkinson’s 2025 season delivered career highs, a Los Angeles Rams franchise record and a game-winning playoff touchdown, but the tight end says his most important work starts at home.
“How I raise my sons, how I lead my wife is far more important than any touchdown I could catch,” Parkinson said.
The Rams’ No. 84 joined Dial In Ministries founder and Stonebridge Bible Church Lead Teaching Pastor Jonny Ardavanis for an Aug. 25 conversation about faith, football and Christian witness at work. Parkinson introduced himself first as Melanie Parkinson’s husband and the father of their sons, Brooks and Forest, before noting his NFL job.
That ordering was no throwaway line. Parkinson said the clearest lesson of his first Rams season came when dwindling playing time exposed how much of his identity rested on football.
“I wouldn’t have said beforehand that I was putting my value in my work, but it became very clear that I was when my work changed,” he said.
Parkinson signed with Los Angeles in 2024 after four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks and expected to become the Rams’ primary tight end while Tyler Higbee recovered from injury. When Parkinson lost playing time midway through the year, he feared he might have only six weeks left with the team, although he acknowledged that fear was something he had built up in his own mind.
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Prayer, honest conversations with his wife and James 1 helped him reset. Instead of waiting for a touchdown to give God credit, Parkinson tried to practice with joy, work hard and let his response to disappointment become part of his testimony to teammates and coaches.
“I felt like I could actually just play for the Lord,” Parkinson said.
His playing time did not suddenly surge, and Parkinson carefully rejected a prosperity-gospel reading of what happened next. He said his later success was not a reward for surrendering his career to God, though he viewed the opportunity as a gift he could handle with more gratitude after the lean season.
The numbers did jump in 2025. Parkinson’s official Rams biography lists 43 receptions for 408 yards and eight touchdowns, all career highs, while his eight scores set the franchise’s single-season receiving-touchdown record for a tight end.
Parkinson’s biggest catch came against the Carolina Panthers in the Wild Card Round, when he grabbed the winning touchdown. He looked into the stands, saw his family and cried, later telling the Rams that “every good and perfect gift is from the Lord”.
“Every time I scored it truly felt like a gift from the Lord,” he told Ardavanis.
Parkinson said football offers clear measurements: a player can lift more weight, improve a block or catch a pass. Fatherhood rarely supplies such an instant scoreboard, but that only makes the work at home more important; before entering the house, he now reminds himself that he is “going back to work.”
The conversation returned repeatedly to Jesus’ call in Matthew 5 for believers to be salt and light. Parkinson described “salt” as distinct Christian character and “light” as a willingness to speak openly about Christ rather than expecting good conduct to explain itself.
“I think there’s a way to do it with grace, and there’s a time and a place to have those hard conversations,” he said.
Parkinson’s story carries beyond the locker room. Success can become a measuring stick for identity in any job, but quiet faithfulness during an unwanted season may say more than a victory ever could — and the most important calling could still be waiting on the other side of the front door.
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