9 minute read
Feeling the Father’s Love
Fueled by the memory of his late father, Brandin Cooks has become one of the NFL’s top receivers and most outspoken followers of Christ. He recently became a father himself, which has only deepened his understanding of our Heavenly Father’s love for us.
BY JOSHUA PEASE
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< Brandin Cooks filming for Football Sunday 2021
randin Cooks vividly remembers the day.b Bowl LII. In April 2020, Cooks was traded yet again, this time
He was 6 years old, and had just been called out of his to the Houston Texans. classroom to the school office. He’d always been a good kid, After seven years in the NFL, it’s safe to say Cooks has so he knew he wasn’t in trouble. But his brother Andre was succeeded. Along the way, he’s thanked his mother more called to the office too. Whatever was about to happen, he times than she can count. knew it would be bad. “We had some hard times,” Andrea told ESPN in 2017,
“I remember my two older brothers, Junior and Fred, “but having faith in God, in the end this is what comes out.” picked me and Andre up and we got into the van, and the two of them are crying,” Brandin recalled during his interview for Football Sunday 2021. “I’m like, ‘What’s wrong? What’s going on?’ … They told me my dad died.”
Worth Sr., a former Marine, suffered a heart attack at 48 years old. He had recently agreed to surgery for some heart problems doctors had discovered, as he yearned n addition to being one of the league’s top receivers, to see his four boys grow up. But before he could make Cooks is also one of the NFL’s most outspoken followers of it in, Worth died in his wife’s arms in the family’s home in Jesus, a path he’s been on since early in college when he Stockton, California. gave his life to Christ.
“I remember, even as a little boy, thinking, ‘OK, now “I remember my sophomore year at Oregon State. Our what?’ Because we already didn’t have a lot and my mom chaplain at the time was Tom Ramsey,” Cooks recalled, (Andrea) is having to raise four boys,” Cooks said. thinking back to team chapels. “… And I remember we
Cooks had always been close to his dad — often literally, would have private one-on-ones after every Saturday night as Dad would lay on top of Brandin, the youngest, to hide meeting. My sophomore year was when I was saved, and him during family games of hide-and-seek. But now, without from that moment on, life was different.” a male role model and with a mom working multiple jobs to In his second year with the Saints, veterans Benjamin Watson provide for the family, Brandin’s life could easily follow the and Luke McCown were in the training room’s whirlpool one path often taken by young men in such a situation: drugs, day. “And that’s when I got baptized,” Cooks said. crime, jail, becoming a statistic. It wasn’t easy being outspoken about his faith early
Andrea was determined to keep him out of trouble, so in his journey. Cooks was fully aware of the eye-rolling Brandin played numerous sports — baseball, basketball, attitude older players tended to have toward enthusiastic even some soccer. But track and football were where Brandin younger players. excelled. Especially football. “I remember Ben [Watson] telling me one day … ‘I don’t
Each of the brothers dealt with the death of their father know what it is, but I feel called to tell you this: Continue to in different ways, some healthy and some unhealthy. walk that path, don’t get distracted and don’t get influenced Brandin became determined to succeed. He was the first by things in this world,’” Cooks said. “And he left it at that! of his brothers to attend college, starring as a wide receiver But whatever told him to say that, it stuck with me.” at Oregon State. As a junior, he set PAC-12 records with Cooks decided he needed a public way to display his faith 128 catches for 1,730 yards and 16 touchdowns. He then on the field, and so he came up with a way to celebrate big declared for the NFL draft, and recorded the fastest 40-yard plays: by pantomiming holstering and shooting an arrow dash time at the 2014 NFL Combine (4.33 seconds). from a bow. The celebration is a reference to Psalm 144:5-6,
The New Orleans Saints traded up to select him with the which says, “Part your heavens, Lord, and come down; touch 20th overall pick in 2014. After two 1,000-yard seasons in the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and three years, the Saints traded him to New England in 2017. scatter the enemy; shoot your arrows and rout them.” Following another 1,000-yard season as a Patriot, Cooks was “What’s funny is the NFL, after my third season, wanted to traded to the Rams, with whom he tallied a career-high 1,204 start [fining me] for it, and I remember writing to the league, yards in 2018, when the Rams lost to New England in Super and Coach [Sean] Payton [helped] at the time, saying ‘Listen,
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this guy is doing it because, for him, that is his faith, his form of being able to glorify God.’ But they end up making it where if I do it, I get fined.
“So I’m like, ‘OK, how do I come up with another way?’ So then I started taking [arrows] out and just stuffing them in the ground. So I kept with that, and then now this season I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna bring it back and let’s see what happens.’” Six TDs in 15 games this season and no word from the NFL.
irmly established in the league, Cooks began a new adventure in 2018 when he married his longtime girlfriend, Briannon. Soon thereafter, they attempted to start a family. However, after some testing, they discovered Briannon would need in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have a chance at pregnancy. So she started the long, grueling process, which includes dozens of shots.
“I’m sitting here as her husband and I mean, what can I do? I can’t do anything. But the power that I got from her, and the strength that I got from her — I say we were both going through it, but from a physical standpoint, she was taking the beating from the shots that she had to do … over 100 shots,” Cooks said. “I remember us traveling, we went to New Zealand last year in January, right after the season, and she had all her syringes, even on the plane. If she missed a day or two it could mess up the process.
“But we love to travel, so she’s getting shots on the plane. And all I can do is just comfort her, really, in the process. Women who go through that to do IVF, they are warriors, without a doubt. ... The mindset that she had to be able to start this family, I give her all the credit. The courage that she had, I don’t think I could do that. I play this tough sport, but there’s nothing like that.”
On May 10, Brandin posted a video on Instagram announcing that Briannon was pregnant. The video shows a baby onesie surrounded in a circle by dozens of the needles Briannon had to use along the way. On September 28, Maverik Archer Cooks was born.
“I mean, words can’t even explain the joy that little man has brought us,” Cooks said. “I knew God was working because he was born on [Briannon’s] birthday, and there was no gift that can be better than that. To be born on her birthday was, I think, a gift from God, after everything that she went through. It was worth it. Just to see the joy on her face was priceless.”
Now Brandin, who lost his father at a young age, is getting his own chance to be a father. In the process, his own understanding of God is being transformed.
“The love that Christ has for us and God has for us ... now I understand. You think about the story of the prodigal son and why the dad was just so excited for his son to come back … why God loves us so much now, it’s a no-brainer. The fact that God gave me this blessing with a child of my own” is amazing, Cooks said.
But being a father has not just transformed his faith, it’s increased his urgency to talk about race and justice in America. Although Briannon is White, their son will be identified in most circles as Black. While Brandin has always known the conversation around race is vitally important, raising a Black son has made him more inclined to speak up, even when his Christian circles stay silent.
“I think the Church … has been kind of discouraging throughout these times [following George Floyd’s death]. And just being honest, I think the Church, there’s some out there [who have] but overall has not stepped in enough when it comes to racial justice. … We need you. We need a shoulder to lean on, we need someone to love us consistently and to be there for us, because when it’s just us saying it, the world acts like we’re just complaining.
“But when we have our White brothers and sisters at our back in this, then there’s no more excuses of people saying, ‘Oh [Black people] are just complaining.’ And the more that we can do from a Church standpoint … how about we get outside the building?”
Cooks’ outspokenness on racism, much like his arrow celebration or talking about faith in the locker room, is all part of his commitment to following Jesus wherever he is at.
“He’s the greatest champion of all time,” Cooks says. “You talk about when He died on a cross for our sins, the courage that He had to have and the assurance that He knew His Father would raise Him. No matter what, Jesus will always have a hold over us through the good and bad, and it’s not easy to follow. But that’s OK, ‘cause He gives us the strength to keep on going.”
