Pastor Joby Martin and Denny Thompson sit down with Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Boselli on this week’s episode of Built 4 More. Tony was one of the most dominant left tackles to ever play the game. The first draft pick in Jacksonville Jaguars history, the best in the world at what he did. Then, at thirty years old and at the top of his game, a shoulder injury ended all of it. In an instant, the one thing he was great at was gone, and Tony was left away from everyone he knew, depressed, angry at God, and asking the question that leveled him: who am I without football?

Tony shares what those years actually did to him. Being told his shoulder would never work again at the peak of his career. Lying in bed as a grown man wondering where God’s protection went. The morning he realized four little kids and a wife were watching to see what kind of man he would be. And the thought that finally broke it open, if God had told him at eighteen that he would get USC, the NFL, a Hall of Fame career, and then have it all taken at thirty, would he still have said yes?

Joby, Denny, and Tony talk about identity, the battle with control, why success never actually tells you who you are, learning to count it all joy in the middle of suffering, and the Bible study that started with a handful of Jaguars players in 1996 and grew into a church. Tony also opens up about his role as Executive Vice President of Football Operations, why his entire job comes down to one sentence, making other people successful, and what it really looks like to finally stop trying to be God.

If you have ever built your whole identity on the thing you are best at, this conversation is for you.

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Chapters:

00:00 – Meet Tony Boselli

02:22 – Three Strangers, One Standard

04:15 – You Can Be Talented and Still Get Cut

07:10 – Why Shad Khan Hired Us

08:18 – The Executive Assistant Who Became a GM

11:32 – “My Only Job Is to Make Them Successful”

12:16 – Humility Is a Posture, Not a Personality

14:29 – One Ego Can Burn the Whole Thing Down

15:53 – The Houston Game and the Ghost of “Old Jacksonville”

21:09 – The Meeting That Turned the Season

21:57 – Eight Straight Wins and a New Offense

26:24 – The Offensive Line Is a Picture of the Gospel

31:33 – What Tom Coughlin Taught Him

39:32 – “We Get Paid More Than We Deserve”

41:53 – The Injury That Ended His Career

43:19 – His Wife Became His Rock

46:08 – The Thing You’re Stressed About Was Once Your Prayer

48:16 – Trying to Be God Will Wreck You

50:18 – Consider It Pure Joy

52:07 – Learning to Enjoy the Suffering

59:53 – “I’d Be Lying If I Said I Don’t Like Being a Hall of Famer”

1:00:17 – What He Values More Than the Gold Jacket

1:03:05 – The Bible Study That Became a Church

1:13:34 – “Dad, I Got Saved”

1:20:00 – Why Broadcasting Left Him Empty

1:25:44 – David in the Pasture: Preparation, Not Punishment

1:31:47 – “The More My Guys Are With You, the Less Likely They Are to Go to Jail”

1:35:29 – Crisis Is a Terrible Calendar

1:37:36 – We’ve Never Been Their Age in This Age

1:44:32 – Why the Draft Is the Most Misunderstood Event in Sports

1:54:30 – The Man Behind the Hall of Famer