Did you see the 98-yard fumble return by Sam Hubbard, a 265-pound defensive lineman with the Cincinnati Bengals? I wasn’t going to write about this play, mainly because I was hoping the Ravens would upset the Bengals, however, Jason Gay’s Wall Street Journal editorial of January 19 captured something worth thinking about.

Defensive linemen aren’t supposed to be able to run the ball, and certainly not that far or that fast. He was reported doing 17.43mph or, in units that make more sense, I think, 25.5 feet/second. Pretty fast. Not as fast as the guy chasing him: 30.3 feet/second, but fast enough.

How? How does a guy that big run that fast? Jason tells us:

The Amazon “Next Gen” statistics people clock Hubbard running at 17.43 mph. That’s not Hubbard’s fastest; he says he hits 18 mph doing sprints in Bengals’ practices. But it’s definitely fourth quarter, defensive-end-recovering-a-fumble-fast. 

It makes Hubbard thankful for hot summer workouts with local trainer Pat Coyne, running 110-yard sprints, 15 of them a week, when nobody’s watching.

“I’ve been doing those since high school,” he says. “Endurance is the thing in football—you’ve got to be able to play when you’re tired, because everyone’s always exhausted.” – Jason Gay, emphasis mine

15 110-yard sprints per week…when nobody’s watching…and he’s been doing those since high school.

It’s the behind-the-scenes work, work that no one sees, that makes the difference.

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” (Mark 9.28, 29, NIV)

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5.16, NIV)