PITTSBURGH (BRN) – Football was on the mind of every person heading to Pittsburgh, April 23-25, for the NFL Draft, except for a handful of evangelists from Sports Fan Outreach International (SFOI) and two Baptist Resource Network (BRN) churches, who were eager to reach the thousands of fans flocking to Steel City with the Gospel.
Returning to the industrial rich Pennsylvania city for the first time since 1948, the 2026 NFL Draft welcomed a record attendance of 805,000 fans over the course of three days.
Streets were closed and cars redirected for the influx of foot traffic heading across the Roberto Clemente Bridge to North Shore and Point State Park, the Draft’s two central locations.
The well-connected route quickly proved to be an ideal destination for Matthew Cochran and his team of evangelists from Sports Fan Outreach International, who traveled from Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Colorado and Western Pennsylvania to share the Gospel with football fans spanning the streets of Pittsburgh.
“The main goal of SFOI is preaching on the streets. What that looks like is expounding, ideally on a text with the hopes that people would hear the Word, because Scripture talks about how faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of God,” explained Cochran, who serves as a partnering evangelist for SFOI.
Based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sports Fan Outreach International has existed since 2009 to send trained teams of preachers and evangelists to proclaim the Good News of Jesus at large sporting events in the United States. These events include the Super Bowl, World Cup, Olympics, Kentucky Derby and Final Four as well as large concerts and festivals.
“We also have the vision that we’ll be encouraging Christians that are walking by to either be more bold in their faith or just encouraged as they’re walking. We do get people coming up and talking to us and asking for prayers, different things along those lines,” said Cochran.
Living near the Pittsburgh area, Cochran was selected to lead the SFOI team for the Draft. Through a mutual friend, he was connected to Pastor Phil Huggins, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Rochester in Rochester, Pennsylvania.
“Matthew Cochran gave me a call and we got talking. He explained that they were going to have evangelists from all over America come and do evangelism at the Draft, and just kind of wanted to know how we could partner,” explained Huggins.
After hanging up with Cochran, Huggins quickly dialed “1-800-Harrisburg” to see if the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) could help him serve this incoming team of evangelists.
The BRN was able to provide housing for the 12 SFOI evangelists at the Pittsburgh-Warren Mission House, while FBC Rochester was able to contribute a van for transportation.
Every morning and evening, Huggins faithfully put on his chauffeur hat, loaded up the church van and made sure the team made it safely into and out of the city.
“Every night, when the guys got on the bus, they were stoked…they were not discouraged. They were excited, and they couldn’t wait to go back out the following day,” said Huggins.
Huggins was encouraged by the stories his passengers would tell, sharing about Gospel conversations they had with known unbelievers or prayers they prayed with fellow believers.
“The highlight was so many different groups and individuals all came together to make this work, simply so God’s Word went out powerfully and effectively,” described Huggins.
“What I saw in this [was] truly God’s children were one, trying to impact the darkness of Pittsburgh and the darkness of the NFL Draft.”
During their time in Pittsburgh, Cochran and his team of evangelists spent an average of seven hours per day street preaching and handing out Gospel tracts along the Clemente Bridge and outside the front entrance of Point State Park.
Just a few blocks away, along Pioneer Avenue, sat another BRN church and local evangelist eager to help the SFOI crew.
On the first day of the Draft, Pittsburgh Baptist Church provided lunch for the team and Pastor Ed Neimann joined their street evangelism efforts.
“I did a little public preaching, and the police officer came over and gave me a high five,” said Neimann enthusiastically.
Reminiscing on his days of street evangelism, Neimann shared how he used to go door-to-door to share the Gospel with people, which became increasingly challenging through the years.
“One thing I like about being out there in the public is that if people want to stop and talk, they talk…or they keep walking on by, [but] you can see the Spirit of God working on people and bringing the ones over that are more open to the Gospel,” said Neimann.
Neimann and Huggins both expressed gratitude for the opportunity to partner with SFOI for the Draft and the organization’s efforts to make Jesus famous in Pittsburgh.
“It was a beautiful picture of churches playing together for the glory of God and organizations playing together for the glory of God,” concluded Huggins.
