The Greatest Comeback
Frank Reich Relives an NFL Classic and Shares His Journey from QB to Seminary President to NFL Coach
Today’s guest has one of the most fascinating stats you may ever hear. He was a part of the largest single-game comeback in NCAA history AND the largest single-game comeback in NFL history.
Frank Reich took us inside both of these historical games, and then he shared with us the story of his personal comeback—his journey from the NFL to seminary, and back again to the NFL as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
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From Seminary President to NFL Head Coach
Episode Transcript
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Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Athlete podcast. I say a lot of times that I'm really looking forward to the episode where we're about to produce. And actually, that's always true. But today is extra special. I'll tell you why. Every sports fan has these formative times in their life where some event happens that's really transformative for them. And so I've got a couple of them. One was 1980. I was 11 years old. And the miracle on ice is a big deal. I'm also a cycling fan. And so Greg Lamon coming from behind to beat finish on the Tour de France was another big deal. But 1984 was a very big deal for me. I was a freshman in high school. Growing up in Timonium, Maryland. And that was just a really big year to be a Maryland sports fan. It was the best of times. Is the worst of times. The worst of times is that my beloved Colts left in the middle of the night early in 1984. My parents, the grace of God, are together and happy. And that was really this divorce in my life as an incredible Colts fan. But I was also a huge Maryland Terrapins fan. So the year starts off with The Colts leave middle of the night, Robert Ersay of Mayflower vans ends up leaving. I end up finding out, by the way, that the CEO of Mayflower is a great follower of Christ. It makes me feel just a little bit better about the situation, but only a little bit.
But I'm doing yard work for my dad outside and we're listening to the Maryland Miami game in Miami is crushing the terps and it's halftime and you probably know how this ends up. Most people remember the bill's miracle comeback, and we're going to talk about that. But for me, the big deal was Maryland coming back from 35-3. Frank will tell us the details. But I remember looking at my dad as we're doing work out on the lawn and we were going bananas as we listened to the play by Play of Maryland football. And in a time where, again, I had just been crushed because the Colts had left and my beloved terps had come from behind to beat Miami, and I'll never forget it. And now I'm talking to the guy who led that. So, Frank, I've been looking for this for a lifetime. Thank you for making the time for sharing with me. Forget about our audience. Thank you for the time to share with me. And just grateful that you've been able to join us now.
Frank Reich: Now it's my pleasure. And I know I love hearing little stories like that. Little personal connections. It's a small world. I'm always reminded of that. Sports and stories like that are really, I think, fun to share over the years. You hear those and they make me smile. You know, it's just fun to all be connected in different ways.
Henry Kaestner: Good. Well, thank you. Surely makes me smile. No doubt about it. So thank you for joining us. And you're a guest that really does need no introduction. I want to start, though, by taking us back to that second moment, the moment that more people will be familiar with. And it's the 1992 AFC wildcard game starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. Jim Kelly just gets hurt. You're called in. What's going through your mind then, walk us through what happened. You went down 35 to three and where some of the things that were said in the locker room, what happened?
Frank Reich: You know, I do remember Coach Lavie, Hall of Fame coach at halftime in the locker room, really just the message was we don't know what's going to happen, but let's go out fighting like men. We can play better football than what we just did. Let's go out and just play hard and fight like mad and don't quit. But then when you dove down deeper into the side conversation between the players and I know what I was talking about with the offense and the team at the time was one play at a time, one touchdown at a time. I don't think any of us were thinking we were gonna come back and have the greatest comeback in NFL history. And when we even know what that would have taken. But it was just a mentality and it was really a mentality that I had learned when I was 10 years old. As you said, what you were doing yard work for your dad. When I was 10 years old, my dad had me doing yard work on the back and there was a mound of dirt that a dump truck had put and it was a massive mound of dirt. And as a 10 year old boy or 11, I don't remember exactly how old I was. He told me that my job that Saturday morning was to move that mountain. He gave me a wheelbarrow and a shovel. And I said, I want you to move that across the way. And I won't tell you the whole story for the sake of time. But the moral of the story was one shovel for a time, one wheelbarrow for at a time. You can move mountains. And to me, as a 10 year old boy, that was a lesson that stuck with me. And later in that Maryland Miami come back and was literally part of I think God had used my parents in situations like that to drive that lesson home. And how that plays out on the football field and in other ways, as well as a parent, as a husband in any vocation. So that was my mindset and I think that was the mindset of a lot of our players.
Henry Kaestner: So at some point in time, though, in the second half of both these games you have to look at the pile that you're moving from. It's starting to get pretty small. The new pile is coming out. And in other words, maybe there's actually a chance he probably come out of the locker rooms in either case, thinking you're going to win. And yet there's a point in time all of. asudden like, oh, my goodness, this could happen. What are the emotions like during that?
Frank Reich: Well, no, you're right. And that's a key moment. In fact, like you said, you don't come out of the locker room thinking that you're going to win. In fact, in the NFL game, the Buffalo Houston game came out and start the second half. I threw a pick six the other way.
Henry Kaestner: To make that clear, though, there is a ball that was dropped.
Frank Reich: Well, it was dropped, but nonetheless, it was a pick six. Yeah. So it made an already big mountain even bigger, you know. And so, yeah. No, it's just you just got to start digging. And when I go back to that story, when I get a chance to tell that story occasionally, I do say exactly what you're saying, There was the first couple hours I'm doing it. It seems like I'm going one shovel for the time and I'm not making any progress. And I keep going in to complain to my dad that I'm never gonna get this done in a day. And he keeps telling me one shovelful at a time when we about full time. It wasn't until after lunch when you come back out. And now you're looking at you think. I think I can do it. I think they can do it. And both of those games had those moments in them.
Henry Kaestner: So take us specifically to the Buffalo game. You're in the fourth quarter was the first touchdown to Don Beebe?
Frank Reich: No, the first touchdown was a running touchdown to Kenny Davis through through a pass down about the three yard line. He ran a sweep round the left side for a touchdown.
Henry Kaestner: OK, some point in time Andre Reed, he's got like three in a row.
Frank Reich: Yeah. And the second one, I think was that Don Beeb where his foot actually stepped out of bounds and that shouldn't have been allowed. But they didn't see it by the grace of God. Then that was the second one, I believe. And then the third one, I believe, was to Andre. And then, like you said, he had he ends up with three in a row.
Henry Kaestner: So at some point, the feeling on the sidelines gonna be like, this is possible. Are you high five in or you just like, you know, guys, we just got chill and doesn't sink until after the game. At what point in time did it just change in your just the tenor on the sideline? And was there's this groundswell and presumably there's the reverse of this harping on the Oilers sideline. But tell us about the exuberance on your sideline.
Frank Reich: Well, you know, I was in Buffalo. And as everybody knows, crowds in Buffalo are great crowds and a lot of people and, you know, 80000 people in those stands at that time. Well, no, actually, some of them left at halftime. Everybody likes to kid about that.
Henry Kaestner: I don't want to be that guy. That guy who left at halftime.
Frank Reich: Yeah. The fans that were there were gone crazy. So there was a little bit feeding of that. I think on the sideline for me personally, my mode, the glaze in my eyes, the stare, the walk never changed. I literally never change until the game was over. I was not going to let up, you know, lose focus. You know, I think as the game goes on and you get in the fourth quarter, there is a little bit more exuberance on the sideline because that's just certain player's personality. That's not my personality. So my personality was. Keep your focus one play a time. Don't take your foot off the gas. This thing isn't over. We've got to keep going. Yeah. So that was more my focus.
Henry Kaestner: That's probably the focus that delivered. What was your NFL career like after that famous playoff comeback?
Frank Reich: Yeah, I'm glad you asked that, because a lot of people like to talk about these comeback games that I was blessed to be a part of. But three weeks after that game, I was playing in the Super Bowl and Jim Kelly had come back for that game and he gets hurt early in the second quarter. And so I'm in that game and we're playing the Cowboys and it ends up in the second worst defeat in Super Bowl history. And I tied the Super Bowl record for the most fumbles in a Super Bowl. And so I like to talk about as a team, we had this great moment just come from behind victory. And at one month I went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, occasionally understanding that there's a lot of things more important than football. But when that's your vocation, it means a lot. And it really helped me mature in ways I didn't understand at all. I didn't understand the mountaintop experience fully when we had it, and I did fully understand the valley experience while I was in it. But over the years, as I had a chance to reflect on that, I think it helped my football career and life in general handle the highs and lows that come to you.
Justin Forman: So, Coach, take us a little bit further into that. Take us beyond even those highs and the lows in that journey. I mean, there's certainly those moments from the swing of one game to another in a season to another. But take us to life after the NFL. You know, we do a podcast for entrepreneurs and investors, and most people know faith driven athlete. From that, I understand you pursued a few business interests coming out of football. What were those and how did those end up?
Frank Reich: Yeah, I was always kind of still to this day, very entrepreneurial, and I'm just wired that way. So started a Western boot shop, Jim and Chuck's boot shop. Did that successfully for a while, started a children's toy manufacturing business, had a good friend of mine who was an expert craftsman with wood. And that's a whole other long story. But if you remember Thomas the Tank engine and the train set stuff, for Thomas the Tank, we were actually manufacturing a lot of wooden toys and accessories that went with that stuff. And then I got into the and still doing this today. Architect, sports, and physical therapy. When I hurt my shoulder and I went to a party in Charlotte, we became very good friends. He wanted to go out into private practice. Ask me if I would come alongside and be a small partner in this business. And that business has done very well, along with several other things. Yeah. So entrepreneurial wise. Those are highlights of a few of the things that I've done.
Justin Forman: That's great to peel back for a little bit. We jumped into the career. We jumped in the vocational side of things. We talked to Nick Foles a couple weeks ago and he was talking about how he was taking seminary classes in the offseason and fun to hear a little bit about your journey of maybe doing that during your career, but pullback for us. Where did your faith journey start and take us through your career?
Frank Reich: Well, it really goes back to what Henry was saying early on when I was at Maryland. I mean, I was raised by really God-Fearing Christian parents who taught me a lot of the right things, but like a lot of kids, was just doing my own thing. And sports was the primary thing. I was a pretty good student as well. But sports was really what I was most interested in. And then I got to my senior year, Marylyn and I backed up Boomer Esiason for three years. So now I have my chance to be the starting quarterback.
I got one year to prove what I can do to get a chance to maybe play in the NFL and a couple games into the season. I hurt my shoulder. And so I lose my job. It's a long story, but in there is really where I hit a low, where I really give him my life to Christ. And what I began to realize was that in some ways, you know, the Lord was giving me a moment to take an inventory of what was most important in my life. At the time I had started attending a Bible study for the players was always kind of somewhat open to spiritual things, but never a Christian, never really sold out. So I was always kind of dabbling in it a little bit. And it was really during that time that I got hurt and it appeared like all was lost for a college kid anyway. And that I really just came to the point where I realized that the priorities in my life have gotten messed up and that I really needed to commit my life to Christ first and foremost. And so I did that my senior year in college as a result of that game. Prior to that game, the week before that game. And I'm not a prosperity gospel kind of God at all. But it was interesting to me that in those moments in that deepest, darkest valley, commit my life to Christ. And then in the ensuing weeks, a week or two later, to have that Maryland versus Miami game that we were talking about earlier.
Justin Forman: So somewhere along the way, your faith becomes real to you. You start taking it more serious. You start taking seminary classes. When you're in the league.
Frank Reich: Yeah. So, you know, I end up going to the Buffalo Bills and I end up playing 14 years in the NFL. Ten years in Buffalo and then a couple of years with few other teams. And during those years in Buffalo, as I started to grow as a Christian and I know the Lord draws a lot of people in a lot of different ways. But one of the ways the Lord drew me was just had a real love for the word of God.
And like, I would come home from practice and study whatever I need to study football wise and then rather than turn the TV on, I went through a couple year period where I would just read the Bible for an hour, two hours a night. I mean, this was the norm. And then I started asking the chaplain on the team, Fred Raines, who I'm still very close with. Started taking me out and giving me opportunities to speak and give my testimony. And that was great. But then somewhere along the line, I realized that I wanted to be able to do more than just give my testimony. I wanted to be able to teach the word of God. And it was so much transforming my life in so many ways. I love going out and giving my testimony. But I wanted to be able to share with people the daily impact that the word of God was having on my life and how it can impact their life. So, you know, I didn't think seminary was the only answer for that. But just was drawn to that and experimented with it and had a great experience at Reform Theological Seminary and just continued to go and eventually got my master of divinity from a reformed theological seminary.
Justin Forman: So we talked to a lot of guys about their identity, their transition after playing the league, moving from quarterback to president of a seminary is not one we hear of often. Take us through that transition.
Frank Reich: Yeah. So I'm at the seminary as a student and I develop a really close relationship with the guy who was the president of the seminary, Rick Canada. So, you know, the MDiv program, if you're going full time as a three year program for the first number of years, I was going part time. So it ultimately took me seven years to get the master of divinity. After a few years, I started accelerating a little bit. But during those seven years, I would occasionally go out with Rick Canada. We'd go into different churches and he would be trying to raise awareness for the seminary. And he would take me along with him as here's one of our students. And then I would give a brief testimony. He would talk about the seminary. But it was really during those drives to all these little churches all over the Southeast that we would do this because I'm very entrepreneurial driven.
I'd be asking him behind the scenes, how has the seminary run? What's the budget? How many people? How do you determine this, this and this? And so when I was close to finishing my degree, I developed this close relationship with Rick. The seminary had multiple campuses. They asked him to be the chancellor over the whole system. And then six months after he left, he called me into his office one day and said that he had been praying about it since he left and felt led to ask me to be the next president of that campus. And I literally laughed and I said, well, two things, you know, I'm not qualified for that. And two, I hadn't even finished my degree at that point. And so we had a good laugh about that. And I originally said, I don't think I'm the right guy for this job. But then two months later, after a lot of prayer and going down and meeting with the board and getting to know the whole situation closer than I agreed to do that.
Henry Kaestner: So I've get tremendous respect for RTS and the work that they do. And so many people went through the program. How rigorous it is and what a calling coming out of that. And you went to be a pastor, but you don't feel like it is a good fit. How do you define the term calling? And how did your seminary education help you understand what you could do with your life? And when I you about RTS, these are big guys like Richard Pratt, right? I mean, there's some of the most amazing professors of all time. And they gave you a sense about calling, I would presume. How do you process that in your life? You go going to become a pastor. Maybe your pastor of sorts now. But talk to us about how you think about vocation.
Frank Reich: Yeah, well, I mean, I could talk about that for the rest of the day, but I'm really glad you asked me that question. And you're right. My first seminary class was with Richard Pratt, if that's happened. And then the other one I had right alongside it was Dr. Doug Kelley, a renowned systematic theologian in the world. I mean, was one of the best in the world. And these were my professors. And I'm still very close to. I talked to Richard Pratt probably once a month, even to this day. He may be the smartest guy I know. He's just been a spiritual mentor to me. And anytime I'm going through anything hard, especially he's one of my first calls, or if I'm getting an opportunity to speak somewhere and I'm working through something and I'm thinking about this vocation thing, hey, help me. You know, here's what I think. But I want to make sure I'm right. You know, this is a big responsibility as a head coach in the NFL. It's a big platform. So I take that responsibility seriously. And so the way I've learned to come to think about vocation is a lot of times people tend to have this false dichotomy of what's sacred and what's secular. Means and, you know, I just think vocationally. All work done to the glory of God is sacred work.
Whether you're a football coach, whether you're a plumber, whether you're a school teacher, whatever it is, everything we do is an act of worship and is we're stewarding before God. So I came to a very critical point in my life where, as you said, I went to seminary and then when I came out of seminary, I didn't go in there to be a pastor. I went in there to grow to understand the word of God more so I could share that with other people. I didn't know what that would look like. But then towards the end of my seminary, my appreciation and love for the local church grew more, more.
And so at the end of that, I had an opportunity, more or less be an interim pastor. The pastor of a small church. And I realized after a two year deal of doing that, that that really wasn't the calling on my life. And in many ways, I thought I failed. You know, like when I stopped doing that, I thought, do I not love God enough? Am I not certain, you know? And of course, I had to keep teaching myself the very thing I was trying to share with other people. Now, you don't have to be a pastor, you know, to share the love of Christ with people and how to change your life. So I thought about what I was gonna do next. And I remember going to counsel with Richard Pratt's of the world. And then another pastor friend of mine and him just drilling into me over and over things. Same thing with Richard Pratt and all the other professors that I had that I had good relationships with. Frank. Don't beat yourself up over this. You don't have to be in full time ministry to be in ministry. That's not what it's all about. Yes, it is a special calling to be a pastor. But the whole reformation was based on really the primary fact of we're all called into ministry to work for the glory of God in whatever we're doing. So that would be an introduction to how I look at vocation.
Henry Kaestner: That's a great lesson for those of us who are listening on this as entrepreneurs and investors and understand that their ministries is indeed their workplace. And that's how you've applied it.
Frank Reich: Well, what's interesting, Henry, is when I was in, quote unquote, full time ministry for a few years, I counsel a lot of really successful entrepreneurs. I mean, really successful entrepreneurs. Because I been an NFL player. You know, I just felt like some of these guys, we felt like we related very easily and multiple guys who sold their businesses for millions and millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, whatever, billions of dollars who had a heart for God and are saying, OK, I'm going to leave the business world and now I'm going to sell everything I have and go into the business world and be sold out for Christ. And I'm not saying this happened every time, but seems like four out of five of those cases, those guys ended up back in the business world. Five or 10 years later, because that's what God created them to do. They're really good in the entrepreneurial business world and not did. The Lord didn't use their time when they sold their business and then went full time in the ministry. But they always just felt most times that there was a void and the void was no. You had special talents at creating a business that gives all these people jobs, gives you a platform to set up a culture in the way of doing things. And so I just think that that can free us all up to serve wherever it is that we're called.
Justin Forman: Coach, thanks for sharing that. It's not often that we get that kind of framework that people understand that work is worship and in that transition is fun to see the journey that God took you on through that. So you first step after leaving seminary, pastor, there is to become an intern coach at the Colts age forty five. What's that transition like as you start applying that framework to those first steps in your coaching career?
Frank Reich: I mean, it was exciting, but it was hard. I mean, I had stepped away. You know, I retired from when I retire from football and I was about seven or eight year period where I did some of these other things. And now here I am. I realize that being a pastor is not the calling that God has on my life. And so what am I going to do? Well, whatever I do want to do with excellence. Well, what do I feel like? I have some level of excellence, incompetence. Know football. And so I always had this desire to want to be involved in the game.
I love the game of football and I love the camaraderie and I love the competition of football and all that stuff. And I love doing it at the highest level. So I sought to go into the NFL and thankfully, Tony Dungy and Bill and really Jim Caldwell were the three guys who really helped me get my foot in the door. And then it was a grind. I mean, not because I had taken basically eight years off to go into full time ministry. If I would have went into football right after plan, I could've went in at a much higher level. But now I had to go back in as an intern and a couple of years of doing that and work my way back into it. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. It was a great opportunity.
Justin Forman: What did Coach Dungy and others there that you mentioned teach you about integrating your faith into coaching and on the sidelines?
Frank Reich: Yeah, I mean, for me, it was just watching Coach Dungy. I mean, it was just it just used out of him. You know, it just he didn't force anything. You never felt like he was pushing his faith on anyone else. But if you talk to him, he's like you talk to if you talk about somebody and they love sports and you get into a conversation and sports is going to eventually come out in the conversation, if they really are into their family, you're going to talk to them and they're going to talk about their family. And with Tony, it was really natural for him to talk about the Lord and his relationships and what he was learning there.
And he would sometimes do that in front of the team. But I was amazed at how he would do that in front of the team. He would do it. It wasn't even in a pushy way. He would occasionally quoted Bible verse. But then two days later, he would quote something else that wasn't out of the Bible. It was just good wisdom. And I just think Tony used all the resources that he had. But you knew where Tony stood. And I've really tried to learn from that, that as a football coach, I'm not called to be the player's pastor. I'm not their guardian parent. I'm the coach. The Colts hired me to be the football coach. So I primarily talk football. But, you know, our personalities are involved in the way we do our job and what we love and am passionate about. So it's going to come out. They're going to lose out of us that we don't have to force it. And I learned that by watching Tony and Jim Caldwell. Just keep your intimacy with Christ. Keep your walking with the Lord in your relationship and just let that let the light of Christ shine in you and then do the job at your call to do. And then strategically take your moments to vocalize key points that you have the opportunity to say.
Justin Forman: So those guys have had a tremendous impact in your life. When you look around the league today, before we started recording, you mentioned some of them. But who are some young leaders out there that you see in the league that are integrating the faith, seen their work as worship on the sidelines?
Frank Reich: I mean, there's a lot you know, when I was in Philadelphia for the couple of years I was there, you know, Carson Wentz and Nick Foles, the two quarterbacks. And then I was with their both are incredible in the way they're living out their faith and the impact that they're making. Kirk Cousins is making a huge impact. Case Keenum, you know, these guys are the real deal. I mean, they're living it through the ups and the downs and I'm always really encouraged to see this and these young men who are fearless and they're bold in their faith for Christ. It inspires me. I mean, I don't ever want to lose that. And I think it's always a reminder. It reminds me of my early days as a Christian, even when I was playing football and would stand up at the podium after a game and proclaim, you know, we'd talk about the Lord and be fearless and bold in that way. And I love it when I see these young guys, these young men who are fearless and bold in their faith in Christ.
Justin Forman: Coach, is there something that maybe that God is telling you in his word recently that you think is particularly applicable for what you're going through in this season that you might share is an encouragement to those who are listening?
Frank Reich: I mean, you ask me a Bible verse. I do tend to be a big Bible verse, memory guy and really try to discipline myself to memorize a lot of different verses. So I could give any number of ones, but one that I always like to think about and meditate on is in Hebrews twelve to let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and finish out of our faith. This first part of that verse just I want to be Christ centered and what I do, and I don't ever want to lose sight of that. And you know, we're going to agree and disagree upon a lot of things theology wise on this or that. But I think really at the center of it, it always comes down for me to at the end of the day, if you said, what do you want to be remembered by as far as you had a legacy of your Christian faith as an athlete? And I would want it to be that he was really Christ centered and word of God centered. And so that verse for me really draws me that first Corinthians 15, 10 says I am what I am by the grace of God. This grace was not without his fact. No, I worked hard in the mall yet not I. But the grace of God that was with me, you know.
And I think what does the love of Christ do for me? Well, I am what I am by the grace of God. But this grace was not without effect. What effect did it have on me? Well, Paul tells us that. No, I worked hard. I worked hard at my job. I worked hard at being a husband. I worked hard at being a good neighbor. But yet not I. But the grace of God that was with me. And Second Corinthians, Second Corinthians five, 14, I think, is where the love of Christ constrains me. It constrains me because I'm compelled, because one day for all that, those of us who live don't live for ourselves, but we live for him and died and was raised again.
So. I just think it's important. And as you said, that sometimes you remember every part of it. But for me, it's remembering the gist of these verses and putting them to memory and how many times throughout the day they come to mind. I just think that's an important part. It's always been an important part. And my wife has been a huge blessing and encouragement to me. You know, she is always sending me scripture verses throughout the day, always talking about it, coming home at night, talking about it. What you read today, what hit you? Those really have a big impact on me.
Justin Forman: Coach, we talk about football and how it's so much about getting back to the fundamentals and the basics blocking and tackling. And you let us right there. When it comes to our faith, it's about memorizing God's word and truth and making that natural and that we might quote chapter and verse in our answers. So thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing just how God has you on his journey. And thank you for just giving us a frame of how we can see our work is worship, whether that's a player, a coach and wherever he has us. So thanks for being with us.
Frank Reich: My pleasure, guys.