COLUMN: Shatley shares words of wisdom during men’s conference at FAM Church

Tyler Shatley is among the greatest athletes in Burke County history.

A 2009 East Burke High School graduate who was chosen as the North Carolina High School Athletic Association male athlete of the year as a senior thanks to his accomplishments in football, wrestling, and track and field, Shatley continued his gridiron career at Clemson University, where he redshirted as a fullback in 2009 before spending two years on the defensive line and two years on the offensive line. All told, Shatley saw action in 51 games (27 starts) for the Tigers.

The Valdese native then played 11 years in the NFL, all with the Jacksonville Jaguars, after signing as an undrafted free agent following the 2014 NFL draft. During that time, Shatley appeared in 145 total games, set a franchise record by playing in 140 consecutive contests from 2015-2023, and made 51 starts on the offensive line.

But the thing that has always stood out to me the most about Shatley is his Christian faith. And after previously chatting with him for a few minutes prior to East Burke retiring his No. 43 jersey at halftime of its varsity football season opener last month, I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a local men’s conference I attended on Sept. 6.

Here are some of my biggest takeaways from Shatley’s message, which was delivered to approximately 180 men at FAM Church in Morganton …

‘I was always looking for that next challenge’

Shatley played organized football from the time he was in elementary school until he retired from the NFL at the end of the 2024 season, so the sport has been a major part of his life for almost three decades.

“I believe that every man has a mountain that they’re trying to climb,” said Shatley. “Everybody’s climbing in search of something. We’re all looking for some kind of meaning in our life, some kind of thought that there is some significance to my life, that we’re not just on earth taking up space and wasting air.

“My mountain was football. For a long time, that was the mountain that I was climbing.”

Nevertheless, Shatley eventually learned that success on the gridiron wouldn’t fulfill him.

“During all that time, every step I took, every time I moved up, especially when I got to college and into the NFL, I felt like I was that one step closer to contentment, to satisfaction, to having everything I could want in life,” said Shatley. “I felt like I was just getting closer and closer. But in reality what was happening was every time I kept climbing that mountain and then I started looking up, I thought, ‘Oh, that got bigger.’ And I’d get to where I thought was the top and I’d be like, ‘Well, I don’t know, there’s something taller. I think I’m gonna climb that one now.’

“I was always looking for that next challenge. Every time I thought I was gonna be satisfied with something, I was looking for that next mountain to climb, always seeking the next thing.”

As a rookie, Shatley found himself just wanting to make it to his fourth year in the NFL. But once he reached that benchmark, it wasn’t enough. He constantly strived to play another year, then another, and even late in his career, he still felt like he was “trying to prove something.”

“A little more money in my bank account, then I’d be happy,” he said. “If I could just start a few more games, play a few more games, whatever it is. I was always thinking, ‘What’s that next thing? I’ve got to find it. I’m not satisfied yet, but I know I’ll get there. Football can do it. I can do it.’

“I’m ashamed to say it, but it took me about nine years to figure out that I had been telling myself a lie.”

‘Somehow, in the middle of all my fear, I felt peace’

Primarily a backup prior to 2022, most of Shatley’s NFL starts to that point had come at center. But after the Jaguars’ longtime starter at the position retired at the end of the 2021 season, it appeared that his time had finally arrived.

“I’d been a backup for about eight years, I’d been constantly trying to prove myself, and I was waiting for my next shot,” said Shatley. “My shot finally came. … Everything that I had been working for was finally right there, just in the palm of my hand. I knew it. This was my year.”

Jacksonville had other plans, though, as it drafted a center in the third round of that year’s draft and later decided to make him the starter instead. That’s also when Shatley was informed that the team planned to move him to left guard.

“I was angry,” said Shatley. “I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. I felt like I had earned this spot and here they were taking it from me.”

Shatley soon lost his starting spot at left guard as well after the backup outperformed him in training camp, with Shatley describing his mood in the aftermath of that decision as “almost unbearable.”

“I was so close,” said Shatley. “I had it right there in my hands, and yet here we are again going into year nine and I’m back in that same role. I’m a backup, I’m kind of sitting on the sidelines. That hurt. But what I didn’t realize at that time was that God had a better plan for me that year.”

In Week 5 of the regular season during a home loss to the Houston Texans, the Jaguars’ starting left guard suffered a season-ending injury, which forced Shatley into action. However, instead of being excited about the opportunity to take over, Shatley “was struck with fear” to play a position that he hadn’t played since 2019, stating that he “was so stressed” and “didn’t think I was ready.”

“What I didn’t realize at the moment was God was revealing to me that I had been depending on myself for the last eight years,” said Shatley, who prayed wholeheartedly to God in the days following the aforementioned game.

“I had been thinking, ‘Man, if I work hard enough, if I put in the hours, I’ve earned it,’” he said. “That’s what I kept thinking: ‘I’ve earned this.’ … What was happening right there in that moment was God was taking away every single shred of belief that I could do this on my own. He was taking away any thought that I have earned this thing and I could keep doing it like that.”

According to Shatley, “I needed God to show up, and he did. Somehow, in the middle of all my fear, I felt peace. In the middle of my doubt, I had the most confidence I’ve ever had. God’s presence was more real that year than it had ever been. And not only was it that, but it was one of the best years of my career.”

Shatley ended up making a career-high 12 starts during the 2022 regular season, and he also started both of Jacksonville’s playoff games, the first of which saw the Jaguars rally from a 27-0 deficit for a 31-30 home victory over the Los Angeles Chargers as they completed the largest comeback in franchise history and the third largest in postseason history.

Shatley was also Jacksonville’s 2022 Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee due to his work with such nonprofits as Feeding Northeast Florida, Ronald McDonald House, Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Sponsored by Grace, and Seamark Ranch, which afforded him the chance to attend the Super Bowl alongside the NFL’s other 31 nominees.

“It was just unreal the things that were going on that year, and I was getting to be a part of it,” said Shatley. “... God was just saying, ‘Hey, trust me. I’ve got you.’ And he just kept showing up and kept showing up. … And what I thought was going to be an absolute trainwreck of a year turned out to be just far beyond anything I could have imagined. He had taken what I thought was going to be a setback and turned it into a dream. What I looked at as an unscalable mountain, God walked with me and carried me up to the top.”

‘I had been chasing the wind’

The next season brought about new challenges, beginning when Shatley was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation – which is defined by the Mayo Clinic’s website as “an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm” – just 10 days before the Jaguars’ first preseason contest.

Although the problem was corrected thanks to a medical procedure shortly thereafter, Shatley was only able to participate in individual drills for a while. And while he ultimately played in every regular-season game for the eighth year in a row, he lost his starting spot again during the season after Jacksonville traded for another left guard.

But late in the season, a team Bible study opened Shatley’s eyes to what really mattered.

“I wasn’t feeling real close to the Lord, and my prayer time wasn’t as fruitful as it had been,” said Shatley. “I remember sitting in that Bible study, and one of my teammates was talking about Ecclesiastes. He read Ecclesiastes 1, which says, ‘Meaningless! Meaningless! … Everything is meaningless. … A chasing after the wind.’

“As I heard that, it hit me just like a brick. See, that was my problem. I had been chasing the wind. These things that I was chasing, these things that I thought were gonna make me content and they were gonna satisfy me, the reason that I thought it was right in my hands and it slipped through is because it was the wind, it was something that I couldn’t grasp. I’d been saying all the right things … but my heart wasn’t there.”

Shatley admitted that he “loved walking around town being the guy that played in the NFL,” but that wasn’t what was truly important.

“Jesus doesn’t always give us what we want, but he does give us what we need,” he explained. “And what we need most is forgiveness. … It would have been unloving for Jesus to give us these temporary comforts that we seek in life – money, success, fame – while leaving us separated from him in eternity.

“... I spent a lot of years chasing the wind, thinking that football and success would fulfill me. … But there’s no trophies, there’s no contracts, there’s no money, there’s no house, no approval that can give us only what Christ can give us.”