OSU football players share their faith

It was one part pep rally, one part pious rally. It was one part football and one part faith.

Former Ohio State football player Joel Penton and current Buckeyes James Laurinaitis, Marcus Freeman and Todd Denlinger drew a crowd of more than 1,000 people to a religious outreach gathering called The Main Event on Sunday night at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center.

Penton, a Van Wert High School graduate, is the community director for the Central Ohio Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He describes The Main Event, which he has also led in Columbus and Van Wert, as a "faith-based event."

Before the Buckeyes football players and OSU All-American wrestler J.D Bergman took the stage, the crowd was warmed up by a highlights video of the 2007 season. There were many chants of OH-IO during the evening.

There were the always-popular verbal jabs at Michigan. Audience members were selected to play a trivia contest against Laurinaitis, Freeman and Denlinger, which the players won. Laurinaitis talked about how he still gets "really nervous" before every game.

But the main theme of the evening was much more about the players' personal religious conversions to a Christianity that they said is based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Denlinger talked about how he and other players pray before and after games. Laurinaitis said he listens to gospel music before games. Freeman recalled a time when Laurinaitis was knocking on his hotel room door at 7 a.m. before a night game, asking to read Bible verses.

"It's important because you shouldn't be shy about your faith. You shouldn't be afraid to share it," Laurinaitis said. "Things like this are a chance for Marcus, Todd and me to impact some young lives. People look up to us. If they hear us speaking about this, hopefully they will follow in our footsteps.

"I think it's important to show you're well-rounded. People kind of stereotype you as a certain individual and there are other ways you can show who you are, through these kinds of things and through your school work. It's nice to kind of show them the whole thing," he said.

Freeman didn't show any nervousness on Sunday night, but he compared the first time he spoke at this type of gathering to his first OSU football game.

"Oh man, you're equally nervous, especially doing something you've never done before. Sharing your faith is not something easy to do. It's something we're excited to do and the more and more we do it, the better we get at it, I think," he said.