JENNINGS — Former New Orleans Saints player Chris Reis stressed the importance of good communication and collaboration both on and off of the football field while addressing local business leaders Tuesday.

“We want to do something to change people’s lives,” Reis said. “The greatest and biggest change comes when individuals’ lives are changed. If we are not affecting lives, then what are we doing? At the end of the day are you making money or are you changing lives?”

Reis, the keynote speaker at the Jeff Davis Chamber of Commerce Soiree at the Grand Marais, shared his story of faith and how winning the Super Bowl led him to help others.

Reis, 32, played for the New Orleans Saints from 2007 to 2010. He is most remembered for his roles in the Saints’ 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts in the 2010 Super Bowl. He recovered the onside kick, which coach Sean Peyton dubbed “Ambush,” to start the second half of the game after the Saints were losing 10-6 at halftime.

“It’s amazing how one play can change your life forever and give you a platform that you could have never imagined,” Reis said. “Hanging on to the ball and winning that Super Bowl changed my life.”

As a youth pastor and director of athletic ministry at Our Savior’s Church in Lafayette, Reis now talks to young athletes, students and coaches about his faith and relationship with God.

“I tell them your worth is not in your success; it’s in who God made you,” Reis said.

Reis said he used to be “all about myself,” but that he realized if you are not affecting lives through how you speak and how you live, you are not making a difference.

“It’s what we do,” he said. “They say 90 percent of communications is nonverbal communications.”

Through his journey as both an NFL player and pastor, Reis said, God has shown him how to help others and make a difference. “There are three things needed to bring people together,” he said. “Without them everything would be null and void.”

The first key to communicate and collaborate is to know your audience, how to motivate them and to speak to them effectively. “You got to know who you are talking to and why,” he said.

Second, the goal of communication is understanding, not agreeing, he said. “You don’t have to agree on everything,” he said. “Effective communication does not come from when just one person is ready to talk, … communications is a two-way street.”

Lastly, he said, you have to know your heart to communicate. “Change doesn’t happen when we enter into it with a servant’s heart,” he said. “Martin Luther King Jr. knew how to communicate. He knew his heart and knew the nation’s heart and it was ready for change.”

Former New Orleans Saints player Chris Reis visits with Gracie Cassidy