Cunningham started the second game his sophomore year and never looked back. The first quarterback selected in the 1985 draft, Cunningham played 11 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and won two NFL Most Valuable Player awards, in 1988 and 1990. After being benched in favor of younger blood in 1995, Cunningham hung up his cleats. “Being on the bench broke my pride,” he says. “I needed to get rid of my pride.”

Cunningham moved home to Vegas and started a marble, tile and granite company. “I did the work myself,” he says proudly. While the venture proved successful, he could not ignore the constant phone calls from NFL coaches wanting him back. Cunningham accepted, “less money and more humility,” he says, and signed with the Minnesota Vikings for the 1997 season. “My role was clearly defined: I was the backup.” The following year, Cunningham was promoted to starter and enjoyed a renaissance, leading the Vikings to the playoffs and winning a third MVP award. The big prize—a Super Bowl championship—eluded Cunningham, who called it a career in 2002 following brief stints in Dallas and Baltimore. “I have no regrets,” he says. “I am content knowing we had the opportunity.”

Today, Cunningham is still scrambling—not from opposing tacklers, but between home, church, and school. As if building a church from the ground up and being a hands-on daddy to three young children, were not enough, Cunningham is also completing his B.A. degree at UNLV in Hotel Administration.

He still follows football, notably his Rebels and Eagles, but his favorite team is the Jets. Not the NFL’s New York Jets, but the peewee Jets for which his son Randall stars. “Football was a platform to reach people,” says Cunningham as he greets parishioners with a hug. “But, this is my true calling.”