California pastor Justin Buzzard stunned the sports world as he became the oldest college football player at 47-years-old.
Buzzard first played college football when he was a teenager, but an injury cut his career short. Now, three decades later, he’s putting on his pads again to prove to himself he’s got what it takes.
“It is SO FUN to be playing COLLEGE FOOTBALL,” he wrote on Instagram in July. “I made the team, and got my own locker, pads, and jersey number! A big thank you to my teammates and coaches who have welcomed me warmly and keep making me a better football player.”
“No one’s going easy on me…and I’m not going easy on them,” Buzzard said in an interview on FOX & FRIENDS FIRST. “I’m giving them everything I’ve got, too.”
Buzzard plays for the San Jose City College Jaguars as a defensive end, not far from where he pastors a local church. Despite being old enough to be his teammates’ dad, they’ve all embraced him with open arms.
“I was really wondering, ‘How are they going to handle…a 47-year-old guy showing up?’ Are they going to receive me? Are they going to accept me? Will they try to go easy on me? Will they try to attack me? And they’ve been incredible,” he said.
Buzzard has got a “risk or rust” mindset.
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“You’re either risking, or you’re rusting as a man. Take risks. Don’t rust,” he emphasized.
The 47-year-old wanted to chase his dreams and prove that age is really just a number, leaning on Joshua 14:10-12 for strength, guidance and perseverance.
The verses read:
Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.
Buzzard and his team face off against Monterey Peninsula on Sept. 5 as he continues to lean on the Lord through this exciting new opportunity.
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