Falcons punter uses football to make a difference: ‘My purpose is to use that platform to serve Christ’

Atlanta Falcons punter Bradley Pinion is making a quality some connected and disconnected the shot tract this season. 

The veteran NFL player is locked successful arsenic the Falcons look to support archetypal spot successful the NFC South and triumph the team’s archetypal part rubric successful astir a decennary arsenic the play winds down to the last fewer weeks of the regular season. 

Atlanta Falcons punter Bradley Pinion (13) during an NFL shot crippled betwixt the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers connected October 13, 2024, astatine Bank of America Stadium successful Charlotte, N.C.  (John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

But Pinion is hoping that his shot talents tin assistance execute different important goal. 

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Pinion, 30, and his woman Kaeleigh created the "Punts for Purpose" inaugural past play aimed astatine making a quality successful the lives of mothers and babies surviving successful utmost poorness successful the processing world. 

They’ve partnered with Compassion International connected a task called "The Fight for First," with the extremity of launching 500 endurance centers and raising $7.5 cardinal by the extremity of the year. For his part, Pinion and his woman volition donate $1,000 for each punt that lands wrong the 20-yard enactment this season. 

"The concern with Compassion is 1 that is truly adjacent and beloved to maine and my wife's heart," helium told Fox News Digital successful an interrogation this week. "It's a concern that started astir apt 2 oregon 3 years ago. And what we loved astir compassion, 1 is that successful their slogan close determination it says 'In Jesus Name.' And maine and my woman are large believers, and we unrecorded our beingness done faith. And successful uncovering an enactment that besides lives their beingness and their ngo done religion was truly important to us." 

Bradley Pinion and his woman connected the reddish carpet during the 13th Annual NFL Honors astatine Resorts World Theater connected February 8, 2024, successful Las Vegas, Nevada.  (Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images)

Pinion launched the programme past season, admitting that helium hadn’t expected overmuch of a effect from different punters successful the league due to the fact that it was "last minute." To his surprise, astir fractional the punters successful the league participated and they collectively raised astir $150,000. 

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"It was benignant of past minute, and we had 14 guys, fundamentally astir fractional the NFL punters, bash it for astatine slightest 1 week of their season, and it was super, ace rewarding and ace humbling to spot guys going alongside of a origin truthful adjacent and beloved to us." 

Pinion was recognized by his squad for his enactment and was nominated arsenic the Falcons 2023 Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee. Humbled by the recognition, Pinion told Fox News Digital that helium believes his talents arsenic a shot subordinate were a acquisition to him that afforded him the accidental to marque a difference. 

"It's conscionable thing that happens to beryllium a byproduct of what I'm honestly, genuinely passionate about. I emotion football, and shot pays the bills and pays precise good and gives maine a blessed life. But the level that shot has fixed my family, you can't truly comparison that to thing else. I consciousness similar my intent is to usage that platform to service Christ and to service Jesus and to service a radical that are successful request -- radical successful poverty, whether that beryllium animals, whether that beryllium people, whether that beryllium children, immoderate it mightiness be. I decidedly judge that that's wherefore I was fixed these talents that I've been fixed and the level that I've been fixed is to bash that."

Atlanta Falcons punter Bradley Pinion (13) punts against the Kansas City Chiefs during the 2nd fractional astatine Mercedes-Benz Stadium connected Sept. 22, 2024. (Dale Zanine-Imagn Images)

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"The Fight for First" run has already raised implicit $6.8 cardinal and funded 455 centers. These centers supply prenatal care, nutritious nutrient and cleanable water, assistance during childbirth, aesculapian treatment, entree to medicine and more. 

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