Hail Mary: College football and religion mix uncomfortably in Florida
College football fans in Florida think of the game as a religion. They wear special vestments that reflect the colors of their devotion. On game day, they imbibe in ceremonial hops-based drink, intone chants of adulation for their congregation of players and invoke the heavens for multiple conversions. They think of winning coaches and quarterbacks as saviors.
This is how many people in this football-addled state have a good time.
But somewhere in all this fuss, Florida's college football coaches have mistaken the religion-like fervor that surrounds the game with faith itself. They notoriously serve up religious indoctrination with Xs and Os, as if you can’t play a decent game of football without Jesus as your receiver.
When the University of South Florida was roundly whupped by Rutgers, 31-0, earlier this month, coach Jim Leavitt told his team in the locker room, “Let’s say the Lord’s Prayer and move on. It wasn’t the Lord’s fault.”
(As a nonbeliever, I’ve never understood why the Lord is thanked for his role in a victory but is not responsible for a loss. Wasn’t God obviously for the other team? And do believers really think football outcomes are the human trivia God concerns himself with?)
But Leavitt’s intrusion into his players’ personal religious beliefs is nothing compared with what is inflicted at other Florida schools.
At Florida A&M, coach Joe Taylor takes his players to church. Last season he took his entire team to services on the first three Sundays of preseason practice. He told the New York Times that his philosophy is “you can’t be a champion on game day. … It starts with church on Sunday and classes on Monday and the weight room on Tuesday.”
Really? To be a champion starts with church on Sunday? And what about the Muslim player or the Jewish player or the guy who just doesn’t believe? Not champion material?
Then there’s preacher Bobby Bowden, the evangelist coach of Florida State University. He makes no bones about proselytizing his players. Bowden, a Baptist originally from Birmingham, Ala., says he always intended to use his position as a coach to expose his recruits to his personal religious views.
Bowden told the Tallahassee Democrat in September that one of his most significant roles is “being a witness. I don’t want any of my players to go away from here not knowing about it.”
He says there is no animus toward players who choose not to hear his message. Still, wouldn’t most parents feel they’d be putting their son’s football dreams in jeopardy by telling Bowden to stop indoctrinating their kid?
All this is patently illegal, of course. These are state schools funded with taxpayer dollars, and the students who attend are constitutionally guaranteed not to have their coaches lead them in prayer or harangue them with good-news testimonials. But the athletic directors and university presidents wouldn’t dream of treading on their coaches’ sanctified turf, afraid of a backlash from devout and devoted boosters as wrathful as any Old Testament plague.
Those who are not offended by Christian proselytizing probably think it’s just fine if coaches use religion to build character and cohesion. More than likely, a majority of players don’t mind their football mixed with Christian ritual. But that’s not the point.
These coaches are sending the message that the Christian faith is key to being a great athlete and an upstanding person, a notion that is not only demonstrably false, it is highly intolerant. What if the coach were a Muslim and Islam was being ingrained? I’m guessing that church-state separation guarantees would have renewed meaning.
Florida’s college football coaches have turned religion by the sword to religion by the scored. Either get with the program or you may be deemed not a team player.
This is not a game that college football athletes should be forced to play.
Robyn Blumner is a civil liberties and labor law expert who writes about individual freedom, trade, globalization and workers’ rights. She is a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times in St. Petersburg, Fla., and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. E-mail her at blumner@sptimes.com.
Nov 29, 2009 at 1:53 p.m.
Suggest removal
C'mon Christians, answer the question: Why does God get the credit for a win, but not the blame for a loss?
I grew up in Texas, where high school football IS a religion. A player who was not willing to go along with the Christian prayers, etc, would never have made it to college football. Most coaches are so fundamentalist, they wouldn't let a non-Christian player get that far.
Nov 25, 2009 at 9:16 a.m.
Suggest removal
carcazz,
"At Florida A&M, coach Joe Taylor takes his players to church. Last season he took his entire team to services on the first three Sundays of preseason practice. He told the New York Times that his philosophy is “you can’t be a champion on game day. … It starts with church on Sunday and classes on Monday and the weight room on Tuesday.”"
.
I take that part of the story and the QUOTE from the coach of, "you can't be a champion on game day. ...It starts with church on Sunday and classes on Monday and the weight room on Tuesday." as a sign of force. If that is his PHILOSOPHY I am guessing those players that don't buy in, DO NOT PLAY.
.
The coach mentioned 3 things, church, classes and weight room. I would confidently predict that he expects all 3 to be completed by all players...thus force is my conclusion.
.
whythink is a question for people like you that can't think beyond your own point of view. You read what you wanted to read because you believe you are a victim. You aren't a victim and please, RE READ THE ARTICLE.
.
I am a Christian but I do not believe schools should be forcing kids to attend church. That is my issue. If the players, led by a team selected captain say the Lord's Prayer that is different in my opinion.
.
Also different is expecting a college football player to lift weights vs. attend class vs. attend church. I don't believe a Public college football coach should be equating weights, with class with church.
.
Nov 24, 2009 at 11:05 p.m.
Suggest removal
ROBYN - since you are a self-proclaimed non-believer, you should not expect to ever understand "why the Lord is thanked for his role..." You're probably best off leaving that understanding to those who believe. Your boss obviously made a terrible miss-match when YOU were assigned to a religious story.
Nov 24, 2009 at 9:31 p.m.
Suggest removal
Did I once state in my post whether or not I was a Christian? I didn't. I never once said that Christians were perfect. That would be YOU judging them. Wouldn’t that mean you are just as at fault for bringing them down as they do you? I think it does.
*
Most people who have issues with Christians have had them with the "Christians". Going back to my first point, not everyone is perfect. Just because a Christian can be hypocritical doesn’t mean that God doesn’t see it and they will not be judge for it.
*
When people have issues with Christians, it’s usually with most Jehovah Witness' who, change and add to the Bible, Mormons who also add and change the Bible and the Catholic Church who, has given Christianity a bad name because of all the hypocrisy coming from the Pope. Catholicism and Protestant Christianity are two completely different things.
*
Wouldn’t you say everyone is hypocritical? Everyone says one thing and does differently. Take those who have led our Nation. Almost all of them have said one thing and then acted differently than those words. Everyone is just as hypocritical as the next.
*
It’s sad when so many people fight for equal rights, but want to leave out Christians, but heaven forbid a Muslim, homosexual, deaf, blind, bald, obese, or Jewish person is left out.
*
If you have encountered someone who truly badgers you about Christianity, they aren’t portraying the picture of Christ as the Bible.
Nov 24, 2009 at 4:37 p.m.
Suggest removal
whythink- your name obviously fits. If a player really doesn't want to participate in saying the Lords Prayer, do you think he's going to? Probably not. I'm sure the team WILLINGLY participated in going.
This writer is only taking quotes from newspapers. It’s a biased article.
If there was a Jewish player on the team and he felt that convicted about going to a church that differs in practice, he wouldn't have gone. That AND does this article say anywhere that this coach MADE the team go? No!
Why are people so concerned about homosexual rights when Christians aren't getting the same rights?
When there was a lot of controversy around the Gay/Straight Alliance issue at the Janesville high schools, the groups were trying to proselytize students who were closed off to the idea of homosexuality. Same thing, right?
When is the Gazette going to start posting articles that defend both sides of Christianity and anti-Christianity?
Nov 24, 2009 at 12:28 p.m.
Suggest removal
WOW!
I can't believe in 2009 coaches still believe they can do this. What is funny is look at the bad apples that have exited from the Florida programs where religion is preached.
.
Keep the two separate...let the players choose to attend church. Forcing them isn't the right message. You can force a kid to attend but you can't force someone to believe.
.
Prediction: The coaches do this to ease their gulity conscious because of all the rules they break and because they recruit the best athletic student instead of student athlete.
.
Lastly, if these coaches are so religious tell them to apply at Notre Dame.
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.