In a recent episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, former NFL kicker and broadcaster Jay Feely opened up about his decision to leave the studio behind and pursue a seat in Congress. Feely, who spent years with the Arizona Cardinals and later in broadcasting, described how faith, family, and community service pushed him toward politics.

Feely shared that while he loved his broadcasting career, he felt called to something greater after years of charitable work — from building homes in Haiti after the devastating earthquake to supporting single mothers in Arizona through the Adopt-A-Home program. His commitment to Gilbert, Arizona, where his family has lived since his playing days, made the decision to run for Congress deeply personal.

He also revealed that he once applied to be U.S. ambassador to Haiti, a role he specifically sought because of his extensive humanitarian work there. But when Congressman Andy Biggs announced his run for governor, opening up a seat in Feely’s home district, national Republican leaders encouraged him to run for office instead.

For Feely, the transition from sports and media to politics isn’t about ambition, but service: “At my core, I’m a servant. I want to use the platforms I’ve been given to impact lives.” His candidacy, rooted in faith, community, and a track record of hands-on charity, underscores his belief that leadership begins at home.

Transcript

**Sam Stone: **Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with us, Chuck Warren and Sam Stone in the studio with us. And always a pleasure to have any of our guests in here where we get to have, I always, I always think the conversations are better when we get.

**Chuck Warren **Yeah, 100%, 100%.

**Sam Stone: **And this is a guy who’s, who’s got some experience being in studios, uh, former NFL kicker, Jay Feely, uh, trading in the grid iron for the halls of Congress. That is a downgrade, my friend. hate, I hate.

**Jay Feely: **Trust me. I know, my wife reminds me all the time about it too.

**Chuck Warren: **Like literally about ready to enter summer camp and do it 24/7, 365.

**Jay Feely: **Well, you know, and the thing is, like, we were at this phase in life where we’re going to be empty nesters. We’ve had a plan for 20 years. What we were going to do, we built a house 20 years ago that we only get to see, you know, for like a month in the summer. So we were going to go up to Michigan for all the hot months, for four months and spend that time up there. But, you know, my wife is the one who’s been pressing me for a few years. Like, is this God’s will for you?

To be in broadcasting? I kept saying, I love my job. Like stop saying that to me. This is fun. I only have to work five months of the year. I get seven months off to play golf and they pay me really well. But I just felt oppressed over the last year. And really when President Trump was shot, that was the moment that I seriously started thinking, I’m gonna do something different coming up. And the Trump administration asked me if I would be a US ambassador.

And lot of people don’t know that I put in an application for that. I specifically said Haiti because I’ve done a lot of work in Haiti after the earthquake. I’ve been down you know probably ten times and we we built a bunch of homes down there thousands of homes with your feeding program where we fed a hundred thousand a day uh... partner with a great group down there called mission of hope and and so I I specifically wanted to go there even though that is the last place everybody wants to go in that role.

And and then when Andy Biggs decided that he was going to run for Governor and that seat was going to be open in the district that we live where my wife was a teacher, where I was on the school board, where I was a coach. It was just natural to say, okay, I think I’m going to run for that seat. And I really, you know, talked to, you know, the White House and the Republicans and Congress, you know, and DC and say, which, which, which one do you want me to do? And they said, we want you to run for office.

**Sam Stone: **That’s really important. I hate to put this on some of the people on our side of the aisle also, but this game of musical chairs or musical districts where people are moving around and renting an apartment inside a district.

**Jay Feely: **I wouldn’t have done it anywhere else.

**Sam Stone: **You have, you raised a family in this district.

**Jay Feely: **Not just raised a family. You know, we came here in 2010 to play for the Cardinals, played for them for four years. Then my career was really over. I had a little cup of coffee with the Bears after that and, you know, just decided, hey, we’re going to move back to Florida where I grew up or to Michigan where my wife was from, but we loved Gilbert. We loved that area. We loved our school that my kids were in at Gilbert Christian and, you know, just decided, you know, this is where we’re going to finish raising our kids and our family.

And that’s where we’ve done all of our charity work, you know, and for me. Like that’s who I am at my core as a servant. I want to utilize the platforms that I’ve been given from the NFL to broadcast and have an impact on people’s lives and, you know, places like House of Refuge. It’s just this amazing organization that has 88 homes for single homeless mothers. It’s transitional housing. And under the Obama administration, they lost their federal funding.

They called my wife and I one day and said, hey, that $2 million that we get every year, we don’t have it. We’re going to have to kick all these women who 50 % or more come from domestic violence out onto the streets in the middle of the summer in Arizona. And my wife couldn’t sleep all night. And so we started doing all the private funding for them and created the Adopt-A-Home program.

And so many guys like Carson Palmer and Clayess Campbell and Patrick Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald, all these guys in the Cardinals adopted a home and then we got businesses to do it. And so we’ve done that ever since. And so it’s just natural because we poured into that community in particular so much to say, I want to represent them in Congress.

Listen to the full episode of Breaking Battlegrounds anywhere you stream your podcasts!