LOOK: Brady Quinn offers guided meditation, prayer to Notre Dame fans
Former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn understands the power of meditation and prayer. On Monday, Quinn tweeted an invitation for Fighting Irish fans to join Hallow, a Catholic meditation, prayer and sleep app created by Notre Dame alumni.
Those who download Hallow will find a guided meditation led by Quinn, along with other Notre Dame legends such as former coach Lou Holtz. Other athletes with guided meditations on the app include NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday and US Olympic gymnast Grace McCallum.
“Hallow is an incredible resource for anyone, but particularly for Millennials and young adults searching for deeper spirituality in their lives,” the app’s founder Alex Jones explains. “It’s working. We get thankful notes everyday from people who have struggled with faith or depression who say Hallow is helping them. It shows in our near perfect rating on Apple; but this is the real reason we’re building Hallow. People are growing closer to God.”
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Quinn played four seasons at Notre Dame from 2003-06, and is still the program’s all-time leader in both passing yards and touchdowns. He knows there are many people who still look up to him because of what he accomplished, and is hoping to make a small difference in their lives with this gesture.
Brady Quinn explains why he chose to play at Notre Dame
The son of an Ohio State state graduate, Quinn grew up going to Ohio State games around 20 minutes away from home and frequented Buckeyes football camps. When it came time to seriously consider playing college football, Ohio State was firmly in the mix for the quarterback. So were Michigan and Notre Dame.
Quinn was the class of 2003, and it was the 2002 Buckeyes that topped seemingly unstoppable Miami 31-24 in double overtime to win the BCS National Championship. Ohio State had the Notre Dame commit’s attention once again, if only for a minute.
“That was probably the only point in time when I second guessed the decision to go to Notre Dame,” Quinn said. “I loved Coach (Jim) Tressel. He was the best. Obviously, there were some guys on the team ahead of me that I had played against or the guys that were going there from around the area, around the state, that I had met. Great guys, and you could feel that they were going to be successful.
“But it didn’t feel like it was the right fit for me.”
Quinn stuck with his commitment, and the rest is Notre Dame history. The signal-caller played for the Irish from 2003-06. He went on to be one of the greatest to ever don a gold helmet in South Bend, to shatter numerous quarterback records, to finish as high as third in the voting for the Heisman Trophy, and to lead a struggling football program back to national relevance.
Like almost all Irish players, academics were a factor for Quinn. But it was another characteristic of the university that separated Notre Dame from Ohio State and Michigan
“It’s hard to explain to people unless you’ve been to Notre Dame, unless you went there,” Quinn said. “You go ‘Oh, OK. It’s very different.’ There’s a different feel from it. …I don’t open up and say that a bunch, but I felt more of a pulling to be there, to develop as a man spiritually, too. I thought that was the biggest differentiator.”
On3’s Ashton Pollard contributed to this report.