Observations from the Edge: GOD…and the NFL

Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers players gather at mid-field for a prayer following an NFL pre-season football game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. The Panthers won 10-0. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers players gather at mid-field for a prayer following an NFL pre-season football game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. The Panthers won 10-0. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Someone once said that if Jesus were alive today (in the physical sense anyway), he would be at the Super Bowl. The annual American and global extravaganza is so revered that even Christ consciousness couldn’t stay away. Maybe it was some NFL PR man who said it… or an ad exec spending $4,000,000 on a 30-second TV spot last year. Maybe it was the Rev. Jesse Jackson…or maybe the late great defensive end, Reggie White…an ordained minister who was known as the Green Bay Packer’s Minister of Defense. From what we hear, God is already in the press box watching over everyone from owners down to ball boys. (I’ve yet to hear anyone credit God with defeat).
I may sound skeptical about this God thing but when it comes to this life, I rule out nothing. We hear it over and over.
Past Baltimore Raven Ray Lewis spouted the following after winning the Super Bowl a few years ago. “God is with me on this magnificent ride. God is good, God is great, all the time.”
Former Seattle Seahawk Shaun Alexander once spurted “I chase after God. I play football for the sole purpose to give God’s glory.”
After QB Kurt Warner won Super Bowl XXXIV with the St. Louis Rams, he chortled this in an after-the-big-moment interview, “Well, first things first, I’ve got to thank my Lord and Savior up above. Thank you Jesus.”
Perhaps the most glaring faith-on-his-sleeve player in the league might have been Denver’s Tim Tebow, starting a craze and genuflecting his way into stardom…only to crash and burn, and be out of football at 23.
Maybe God can only do so much.
Graces to God have become so commonplace in the NFL, its almost blasphemous. No one seems to want to take responsibility for winning…God has done it for them, or through them, or because God used them. In interviews, the field reporter never ever touches the subject.
When the Steelers’ Big Ben Roethlisberger strayed from the flock and had troubles with alleged sexual misconduct, he credited his faith, or a return to it, as the key to his salvation. However, God was not responsible for Ben’s slide into the ego that brought about the troubles to begin with.
I suspect Ben, or others, might say to the effect that without God in ones life, these are the very things that will happen. And yet, the league is rife with God fearing players afoul of the law.
Some suggest that all the praying and praising done in the league is inauthentic….it just looks good. (There is little doubt that Pete Rozelle established a protocol for the league’s image decades ago).
Well maybe it does look good, and it looks authentic to me. Group prayer is everywhere in the National Football League. One of the most memorable prayer moments came during the closing seconds of Super Bowl XXV in Tampa. The Buffalo Bills, playing the Giants of New York, were making their first of four consecutive Super Bowl appearances under the stewardship of coach Marv Levy and QB Jim Kelly.
Bills place-kicker Scott Norwood lined up to kick the winning (or losing) field goal as time expired. TV cameras panned both sides of the field. Giant players were in mass huddles, holding hands, kneeling in prayer. I assume the Giants prayed for a miss, and their prayers were apparently answered. Norwood’s kick sailed wide right.
Clearly, God was not on his side.
Why did God not favor the Bills? Did they not pray? Was it because Mary Levy is Jewish? The Bills had now entered infamy, losing four championships straight.
Why did God favor New York? (please don’t ask New Yorkers this question). Was it their prayers? Did God have anything to do with it?
Frequently, NFL Films show locker room prayers led by coaches and players alike, dramatizing NFL football (as if it needs it). But what I’m certain you haven’t seen in the locker room is, according to back up QB Landry Jones of the Pittsburgh Steelers (who is just one of many players who expound demonstratively of their faith), is offensive lineman Kelvin Beachum leading his teammates in prayer in the showers. “After the game while bathing” I queried? “No, pre-game, fully dressed with pads on” Jones replied. “So, they’re not naked” I asked redundantly. “No, no.. that would be weird” chuckled Jones. I chuckled too, then failed to ask him if two dozen men in a shower dressed in football garb, holding hands, was …you know….somehow not weird.
You may be thinking…has the NFL always been godly?
In the early days of professional football, which actually got its start in Pittsburgh in 1892, the average player was a hard working, uneducated, rowdy, often drunken hooligan. In most cases, football came after the day job, if he had one, with practice at night or not at all, and games on Saturdays, as Sunday games were outlawed. Fans were too pious to attend a game on the Sabbath. There were edicts… legal and religious. Football and religion didn’t mix.
Somewhere along the way, football found God….or maybe the other way around.
According to Pat Richie, former chaplain for the San Fran 49ers, it happened Monday night, December 3, 1990. After the Giants lost to the 49ers at Candlestick Park, 30 or so players from each team gathered at mid-field to pray, invited by Richie and Giants’ chaplain Dave Bratton. It turned into a brawl. When it ended, 49er players gathered at the 30-yard line in a prayer huddle, eventually joined by some Giants.
The now common occurrence of post-game field prayer was born. The Giants would then take that practice through the playoffs to Super Bowl XXV, where they post-game huddled with that same Scott Norwood and the Buffalo Bills.
Makes you wonder.
Maybe you’re wondering if devout faith is just an NFL football thing.
While golfers, stock car racers, soccer and basketball players have all spouted godly praises at major moments, its not pontificated on like in the NFL. I don’t see it in hockey except when Sidney Crosby crosses himself at the end of the national anthem. No one seems to praise God for the winning goal in overtime. Maybe because the NHL is filled with global players and God is an American thing? The NFL is 96% American.
How about major league baseball? It’s mostly American with an abundance of self-crossing Latin players too, yet little or no touting of faith there.
Even in the movies, God and faith, football and victory, go hand in hand. Warren Beatty’s Joe Pendelton won the Super Bowl in “Heaven Can Wait” due largely to the handy work of James Mason’s saintly character.
The recently released film “Woodlawn” starring Jon Voight and (coincidentally or not) Sean Astin, (who played the title character in “Rudy”…of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish…a football team of devout faith), tells the tale of (always based on a true story) a football outsider by the name of Hank, (Astin) who brings an entire high school football team to Jesus.
I sometimes wonder…is the NFL a Christian league? Overwhelmingly it appears. My God, even Raiders safety Taylor Mays…who is Jewish… crosses himself in the end zone.
Jerry Olsavsky, former Steelers lineman and now assistant coach says training camp (now in its 48th year) at the Catholic St. Vincent’s College east of Pittsburgh “has a calming effect. You can feel the spirit overwhelm you.”
Roethlisberger says he prays on the sidelines throughout the game, thankful for “God’s graces and the ability God has given me”
The Saintly QB Drew Brees says he accepted Jesus at 17. One day in church, a light bulb went off in his head. “God needs a few good men,” he heard. “Why not me?“ he asked of himself. “You trust that God will not put anything too hard in front of you or he wouldn’t put it in front of you.”
Apparently, as hard as it is to rise to the level of Super Bowl winning quarterback (we should all give that a shot some day) it wasn’t too hard for Brees in 2010.
Clearly, God was on his side.
Yet in 1980, the Polish pope John Paul, blessed Philadelphia Eagles’ Polish quarterback Ron Jaworski with a papal medal during the by-week in the playoffs.
Wow! Is that not clearly having God on your side?
The Eagles lost Super Bowl XV to Al Davis (of all people) and the Raiders.
Still, it would appear that faith can and does bring men together for a common cause. Current Buffalo Bills chaplain Fred Raines puts it this way…”These players have just used every ounce of strength. For a lot of these guys, prayer puts the game in perspective.”
“I play without fear” says Landry Jones. “I can go out there….read, react, play without fear and cut it loose.”
Obviously, these players are moved by some experience they have of themselves. Some are so self aware to be playing at this level of life….wealthy, famous, talented, adored… and executing at such a high level… only God could have taken them there.
It seems players are out to build a better man, to be a better player. You can see it when they stand in the winners’ circle, and hear it too. “I never get tired of saying it” says Warner. “I’m on this stage today because of my Lord above.”
William Shakespeare said “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
So when there are moments of skepticism or “Doubt” that divine intervention impacts the game, just remember that the NFL’s greatest play ever is …The Immaculate Reception.
And what does one do when desperate in the final waning seconds? You throw the “Hail Mary” of course.
Lee Kann is a film and radio producer and writer.
Contact: shooting16bl@gmail.com.

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