This article appears in the Spring 2024 issue of the FCA Donor Publication. The FCA publication is a gift from our FCA staff to all donors giving $50 or more annually. For more information about giving, visit here.
Brock Purdy’s rise to stardom has been dizzying.
Not long ago, the young quarterback from Queen Creek, Ariz., was merely a “Who?” by NFL standards. Now, just two-plus years into his career, he’s squarely on the list of “Who’s Who” in America’s most popular professional sport.
In his first two seasons, Purdy led the San Francisco 49ers to the NFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl appearance, giving the storied franchise plenty of bang for its buck on his relatively inexpensive rookie contract. But the big prize is still out there. So close, yet elusive. Slippery. Shifty. Evasive. Like vintage Barry Sanders. Will this be the year that Purdy takes the final step and bathes in confetti after a Super Bowl victory? Is this the year for a happy ending in the Bay Area?
Pause. Breathe. Let’s take a step back—for perspective. Frankly, all this attention on the 24-year-old Purdy is remarkable. After all, wasn’t it only two-and-a-half years ago that he received the Mr. Irrelevant label as the last pick of the 2022 draft—unsure if he’d ever take a single NFL snap, let alone make the team out of training camp?
Yet here he is. For two years, coaches, players, pundits and fans have all theorized about Purdy’s impressive early success. But Purdy points heavenward.
“It’s bigger than me and my story,” he said. “It’s all God. That’s how I’ve seen it.”
The Seeds of Faith
“You can marry my daughter—as long as you raise my grandkids in a Christian household and lead them to the Lord.”
These were the words—actually, more like terms and conditions—spoken decades ago by Rick Hanson to Shawn Purdy, outlining the expectations Hanson had for his daughter Carrie’s suitor. Shawn gladly accepted, thus continuing a strong legacy of faith that began with Brock’s maternal grandfather.
“Growing up,” Purdy recalled, “whether we were riding to flag football games or Little League baseball games, or [when] he’d pick us up from school when he was in town, he was always talking about something different with the Bible and walking with Jesus and staying away from the ways of the world. … All those conversations got me thinking. He definitely played a huge role in my walk with Jesus.”
During Purdy’s early years, life felt idyllic. Shawn and Carrie laid a strong spiritual foundation for their three kids—Whittney, Brock and Preston (aka “Chubba”)—in the suburbs of Phoenix. As part of a vibrant Christian community, the Purdy kids went to church on Sundays, participated in family Bible studies and read devotionals as their parents drove them to school.
“My dad and my mom definitely made it a priority in terms of going to church and understanding the Gospel, that Jesus died for my sins,” Purdy said.
Then disaster struck. When the stock market crashed in 2008, Shawn’s small hot tub business was significantly impacted. The Purdys lost their house, and the family was forced to move multiple times. Carrie picked up a job to help make ends meet, and both parents made great personal sacrifices for their kids.
Brock, age 8 at the time, and his siblings didn’t always understand why they couldn’t have the latest clothes, games or toys. But as he matured, he began to appreciate how his parents persevered through a severe trial.
“Just seeing my dad’s faith and his walk—his faithfulness to Jesus throughout all that”—was profound, Purdy said, as he continued: “I saw that man on his knees all the time, and leading us as a family to continue to go to Jesus. My dad always says, ‘God will provide even if it’s [down] to the last second.’ And sure enough, He did. … As I got older, I was like, ‘That’s what putting your faith in Jesus looks like.’”
By his senior year at Perry High School in Gilbert, Purdy had committed his life to the Lord. He also became an FCA Huddle leader, which played “a huge part in my walk,” he said.
As Purdy was growing spiritually, he was also displaying his strong athletic bloodlines. His father was a standout baseball player at the University of Miami and played eight seasons of minor league baseball (1991-98). Whittney played college softball at Spartanburg Methodist (S.C.) and Southeastern (Fla.), and Chubba is currently a redshirt senior quarterback at the University of Nevada after also playing at Nebraska and Florida State.
In Brock’s final high school season, he won the 2017 Gatorade Arizona Player of the Year Award and set state class 6A records for single-season passing yards (4,405) and touchdowns (57).
Next stop: Iowa State.
The Maturation of Faith
Before menacing NFL defensive ends began trying to send Purdy to the turf, a metal folding chair did the trick.
Prior to the start of his freshman year in 2018, Purdy attended an FCA meeting in the backyard of Lori Adams, FCA’s Campus Coordinator at Iowa State, where a few dozen student-athletes had gathered around a fire pit for a lighthearted mixer. Purdy, the Cyclones’ promising quarterback of the future, sat down in a chair that collapsed underneath him so awkwardly, a few other athletes had to help pry him loose.
Ames, Iowa … meet Brock Purdy.
“It was humbling,” he said, “but we all look back at it and laugh.”
Six years later, Adams still has that notorious, four-legged snare. “I haven’t had the heart to get rid of it,” she said. “That’s my Brock Purdy chair.”
RJ Sumrall’s first encounter with Purdy was equally memorable, coming when Purdy and his family were in Ames on a recruiting visit. As soon as the Purdys learned that Sumrall, FCA’s Mid-Iowa Development Director, was Iowa State’s football chaplain, “they just lit up,” Sumrall said. “They were like, ‘We love Jesus. We love sports. It’s all about Jesus.’ And it wasn’t his parents [speaking]; this was him. He was sharing and his parents were chiming in.”
Five games into his true freshman season, Purdy was thrust into a starting role. To say he capitalized on the opportunity would be an understatement. He left Iowa State as the greatest quarterback in school history, winning 30 games, becoming the first quarterback to lead the Cyclones to four straight bowl appearances and setting almost every major school passing record.
Purdy made his mark at Iowa State in even greater ways. Despite a hectic schedule, he remained involved in FCA Huddles and another campus ministry called The Salt Company. He hosted a Bible study for football players in his apartment, and in August 2021, he helped Adams organize Iowa State FCA’s first post-COVID-19 event—an outdoor get-together with a live worship band, food and games at a local Christian school.
“I want to see my teammates know and love the Lord Jesus Christ,” he told Sumrall. “That’s my mission. That’s why I’m here. I want to advance the Kingdom on the football team.”
In March 2022, after Purdy had graduated, he returned to Ames and rode 75 minutes with Adams to speak at BCLUW High School in her hometown of Conrad, Iowa. What was meant to be a brief testimony turned into an hour-long session where Purdy talked with the students about his favorite Christian musical groups, taught them how to journal with a Bible and answered their questions.
Even after he finished college, Purdy’s positive influence remained. On Oct. 1, 2022, Jace Gilbert, Iowa State’s freshman kicker that season, missed three field goals in a 14-11 loss to then-unbeaten Kansas, including a 37-yarder with under 30 seconds to play that could have tied the game. Soon, he received a long, encouraging text message from someone with whom he had never played. Purdy, then in his rookie NFL season, reminded Gilbert that his identity was in Christ, not football.
Later that month, Gilbert read Purdy’s text to the crowd at a local Fields of Faith event, and a video of the moment circulated on social media.
“He’s probably one of the best leaders I’ve ever been around,” Sumrall said of Purdy. “He’s just a great guy, and I can’t say enough about him.”
Making a Splash
On April 30, 2022, Purdy was at home in Arizona waiting … and waiting … and waiting. Two hundred sixty-one picks and nearly seven full rounds of the NFL Draft had come and gone. Suddenly, the phone rang. The 49ers had selected him with the final overall pick. In a draft that was light on quarterback selections (nine), Purdy was officially Mr. Irrelevant, the tongue-in-cheek name given each year to the last overall draftee.
That kicked off a series of events in Newport Beach, Calif., known as Irrelevant Week, an annual celebration of that year’s Mr. Irrelevant started in 1976 by former NFL player Paul Salata. The week included a baseball game, surfing, a visit to Knott’s Berry Farm theme park and more, all of which raised money for charity.
“They celebrate you as if you’re the first overall pick where, in reality, you’re the last pick doing all these events and stuff, and everybody’s like, ‘Wait, what’s your name?’ or ‘Who are you?’” Purdy said. “So it’s fun but also humbling.”
The festive week temporarily obscured a harsh reality: Being chosen last in the draft is a precarious blueprint for NFL job security. With training camp only eight weeks away, Purdy knew he’d have to wow the 49ers into giving him a roster spot. It was a faith-building period for the rookie.
“All of it was just pure reliance on Jesus and giving it all up to Him, casting all my anxieties and burdens up to Jesus and trusting that He was going to take care of me and provide,” he said. “And I can truly say that He was my Rock throughout that whole stressful moment in my life of not knowing what I was going to do for my job or my career. I kept it simple. I really did believe that He was working in my life. It made me realize that it’s not about me. Everything that I do is not about me.”
After impressing the 49ers’ coaching staff in training camp, Purdy entered the 2022 season as the team’s No. 3 quarterback behind Jimmy Garoppolo, the entrenched starter coming off a strong 2021 season, and Trey Lance, the third overall draft pick in 2021. Purdy saw spot duty throughout the season, and in Week 14, with Garoppolo and Lance both injured, he got his first start—against future Hall of Famer Tom Brady and Tampa Bay—and led the 49ers to a resounding 35-7 win. It was the third-largest loss of Brady’s career and the first time a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start had ever beaten Brady.
From there, Purdy led the 49ers to four consecutive victories to end the regular season with a 13-4 record and an NFC West Division title. Purdy was sharp in the playoffs, passing for 546 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions combined in wins over Seattle and Dallas. But in the NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia, Purdy tore his ulnar collateral ligament in his right (throwing) elbow midway through the first quarter, and the Eagles romped to a 31-7 win.
Despite Purdy’s immediate success, he struggled to understand his injury. He felt “frustrated and a little blindsided,” like he was watching a feel-good movie that abruptly stopped with no happy ending.
“I’m like, ‘All right, back to square one,’” he recalled thinking at the time. “I’ve trusted in God my whole life, and I had to look back on my life and [remember] where God had been faithful to me and be reminded that He got me to this moment. Why would I ever question or doubt Him?”
“God took what didn’t look the greatest—being drafted last—and turned it into something pretty cool for Him and His glory."
-Brock Purdy
Avoiding ligament replacement (“Tommy John”) surgery, which often requires at least a year to recover, Purdy attacked his rehab program that offseason as he does opposing secondaries and returned as San Francisco’s opening-game starter last season. He was nothing short of fantastic. In leading the 49ers to a 12-5 regular-season record and another NFC West title, he completed 69 percent of his passes for 4,280 yards and 31 touchdowns (both ranking in the top five among all NFL quarterbacks in those categories) with only 11 interceptions.
With wins over Green Bay and Detroit in the playoffs, the second-year player took San Francisco to Super Bowl LVIII, the franchise’s first championship appearance since the 2019 season, for a showdown against the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. Purdy played well (23 for 38 passing, 255 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions), but the 49ers couldn’t overcome late-game magic from Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes in a 25-22 overtime loss.
And yet …
Entering this season, Purdy has easily outperformed all of the eight quarterbacks chosen before him in the 2022 draft. Mr. Irrelevant, indeed. What’s more, he is starting his career at a historic level. Joe Montana, Steve Young and Y.A. Tittle—the 49ers’ vaunted trio of Hall of Fame signal-callers with five Super Bowl championships, 22 Pro Bowl selections and nine All-Pro awards between them—never enjoyed such individual or team success by age 24. Not even close.
But hush now. We must only talk about such things in whispers.
Purdy, for his part, takes a wider view of his early achievements.
“God took what didn’t look the greatest—being drafted last—and turned it into something pretty cool for Him and His glory,” he said.
Introducing … Mrs. Purdy
Twenty-seven days after losing in the Super Bowl, Purdy won big at the altar, marrying Jenna Brandt in Des Moines, Iowa. Brock and Jenna met when … well, that’s a matter of some debate.
“We talk about it all the time,” he said, laughing. “We can’t really remember. It was all a blur.”
Jenna, a volleyball player, and Brock arrived at Iowa State at the same time, and their on-campus residences were near each other. They also began attending FCA events that first semester, and at one point, they got ice cream together in Ames. Somehow, somewhere in that blurry freshman milieu, they met.
Jenna does, however, vividly remember the incident in Lori Adams’ backyard involving Brock and that meddlesome metal chair.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this weirdo,’” Jenna said. “But I think the first time we interacted, Brock was trying to build a fire and take over. He thought he was a stellar camper and he was like, ‘I got it.’ And he tried to get this fire going because Lori always had s’mores there.”
Of course, now the, ahem, burning question is: Did Brock actually get a fire going?
“I don’t think so,” Jenna said, chuckling.
In other words, given the choice between NFL quarterback and U.S. Park Ranger, Purdy shouldn’t quit his day job.
When Jenna transferred to the University of Northern Iowa, a 90-minut trek from Ames, for her senior year, the couple kept in touch but decided not to attempt a long-distance relationship. Brock, though, couldn’t stop thinking about her. When she graduated, the emotional wheels started turning: Man, she’s in Bible studies. She loves the Lord … I want to be with this girl.
So he texted her.
“I probably was actually over him by the time I got to UNI with my good friends again,” Jenna said. “But then he reached back out and I was like, ‘Ahh, Brock.’ I definitely quizzed him hard on where he was at and what was going on with his life and his faith and what he expected from this relationship.”
Apparently, Brock aced the quiz. On the first day they reconnected in person after a couple years, he invited Jenna on a family vacation. Call it the hurry-up offense.
“He jumped right in,” she said.
Since then, life has drastically changed for the Purdys. Suddenly, Brock is the face of a pillar NFL franchise. The couple is learning how to deal with strangers taking their pictures in public, interrupting date nights for an autograph and approaching them in grocery store aisles.
Jenna’s mom averages several requests a week for Brock to support this cause or that one. Sumrall gets inundated, too. By his estimate, he received 30 to 40 requests last school year for Purdy to do podcasts, articles, speaking engagements—you name it. The Purdys’ close circle feeds all the requests to Jenna, who filters what she presents to Brock.
“We try our best” to accommodate as many requests as possible, she said, adding, “but there’s a little boundary we have to set, too, to keep it simple.”
That’s one of the couple’s mantras in life: Keep it simple. Jenna doesn’t read any articles about Brock or watch any sports shows on TV. “I just stay completely out of it,” she said. “My number one job is to be his wife. So I’ll support his career.”
It’s a lot, but it’s all part of being an NFL star in a celebrity-worshipping, sports-crazed nation. Within the four walls of their rental home in the Bay Area, though, the Purdys can breathe and enjoy each other. They love to fish, hike and go to the beach together—anything in the outdoors. Brock picked up golf over the offseason, and off-camera, he’s a cut-up. He’s good at impersonations, he’s known to prank-call friends and he’s smooth on the dance floor.
“He’s all serious in business,” Jenna said, “but behind closed doors, he can make you laugh. He’s just a goofball.”
And for His Next Act …
Having set the bar high in his first two NFL seasons, what will Purdy do in year three? Will he reach the golden standards of 5,000 passing yards and a 70 percent completion rate? Will he throw for 40 touchdowns? Will he lower his interceptions to single digits? Will he lead the 49ers to their sixth Super Bowl victory, tying New England and Pittsburgh for the most ever in NFL history?
“It’s definitely a goal to win a championship for this team,” Purdy said. “So I’m doing everything I can to do that. All the while, I know that God is sovereign in all things in my life. So I just want to be where He has me, not try to think too far in the future, not dwell on the past. Learn from things in the past, but be where He has me and actually be transformed and have the Holy Spirit be everything I need—the joy, the contentment, all the steadfastness that comes from Him. I just want to be with Him.”
That spiritual contentment will be crucial this season—and not just in those hair-raising moments when defensive freight trains like Micah Parsons, Myles Garrett or T.J. Watt are barreling toward him at 100 miles per hour. The chatter surrounding his future payday is heating up.
Considering Purdy’s accomplishments so far, his rookie contract—a four-year deal worth $3.7 million—is one of the best bargains in American professional sports. He’s set to earn a base salary of $985,000 this season—a relative pittance for a 24-year-old quarterback who is coming off a Pro Bowl selection and a Super Bowl appearance. More than ever, NFL teams are willing to shell out massive contracts to franchise quarterbacks in an attempt to secure long-term stability and success.
But Purdy’s mind is elsewhere. He’s focusing on this season and “not being greedy for more status or money or fame,” he said. “I already have everything I need in Jesus, so [I’m] just trying to live out where He has me.”
That includes lots of time in prayer and Scripture, which isn’t easy in the crucible of an NFL season. So Purdy takes every chance he gets to pray—while driving to practice, walking between meetings or gazing at the scenic mountain ranges that surround the 49ers’ practice facility in Santa Clara, “just being grateful for God’s creation and where He has us,” Purdy said.
Before every game, he joins a group call with his family to pray—something his dad has been organizing for years. In a glitzy but grueling profession, those moments serve as helpful pauses to ground Purdy in spiritual truth.
He knows he’s not guaranteed a happy ending in the NFL this year—or any year. Instead, he’s resting in the assurance of an eternally happy ending in Christ.
“I know who I am and what I’ve been called to do, and I can have joy knowing that I already have the victory in Jesus,” Purdy said. “For me, all I have to do is trust in Him, live it out, tell people about Jesus and that keeps me calm in every moment whether I’m on the field or off the field. So it’s pretty special.”
And, one might add, quite relevant.
-FCA-
Photos courtesy of San Francisco 49ers and Brock Purdy