In some places, football is a type of religion; in many places, religion and football are combined into a single activity. All over the nation, football coaches combine religion and football to an unprecedented extent. It's arguable that playing football isn't always the secular activity that it once was.

The New York Times reports:

As in politics and culture in the United States, college football is increasingly becoming a more visible home for the Gospel. In the past year more than 2,000 college football coaches participated in events sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which said that more than 1.4 million athletes and coaches from youth to professional levels had attended in 2005, up from 500,000 in 1990.

Mr. Bowden believes that prayer and faith are part of the American way. “Most parents want their boys to go to church,” he said. “I’ve had atheists, Jews, Catholics and Muslims play for me, and I’ve never not started a boy because of his faith. I’m Christian, but all religions have some kind of commandments, and if kids would obey them, the world would be a better place.”

So, if someone doesn’t pray, are they unAmerican? Are kids who don’t revere the Ten Commandments helping make the world a worse place? When a coach says things like this, players would be justified in fearing that religion may become a factor in how they are treated — and not bring religion or religious disagreements up. People in Bowden’s position imagine that if they don’t get complaints, then everything must be OK. They fail to consider the possibility that their stature and power prevents people from feeling comfortable with complaining.

“The problem inherently is the hierarchal nature of the player-coach relationship, where the coach is all-powerful,” Mr. Lynn said. “Team members want face time and playing time. And if they don’t go along with what the coach offers, they fear that they will become second-stringers.” Peer pressure in a group dynamic, Mr. Lynn said, has prevented any college player from coming forward to mount a legal challenge. No one wants to alienate a coach, especially a popular one.

Particularly interesting is how people like Bowden protest that they don’t impose religious standards on players just before they turn around and do just that:

Center David Castillo, who is in his final season at Florida State, said that Mr. Bowden has been sensitive to the diversity of his players. The pregame and postgame prayers Mr. Bowden leads are nondenominational and directed at the safety of both teams and those traveling to see them, Mr. Castillo said. “He tells us that he doesn’t care if we don’t believe what he does, “Mr. Castillo, who is preparing for medical school, said. “But he wants us to believe in something.”

So Bowden does expect his players to adhere to certain religious ideas — not “denominational” ones, but still there are standards and beliefs which they cannot ignore. How can he claim to not truly care what his players believe, then?

Mr. Bowden, however, injected himself in the Air Force controversy when he told attendees of a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event in Colorado Springs, home of the academy, that Mr. DeBerry was in a “heck of a battle because he happens to be a Christian, and he wants his boys to be saved.”

“I want my boys to be saved,” Mr. Bowden added.

The question is, how much of this desire affects how he treats his players? Probably more than he acknowledges.

In fact, he said, when about 70 percent of his players come from single-parent homes, or are reared by an extended family, it is his right and responsibility to be candid about his faith.

Actually, as an employee of the state, Bowden has a responsibility and obligation not to abuse his position by promoting his religious beliefs. In thinking that being employed by the state gives him a right to proselytize to students entrusted to the state for education, he openly admits that he is unfit for his job. If he can’t perform his duties while following the law and respect the right of students not to believe as he does without the slightest pressure from him to change, then he needs to go find a job more suited to his religious beliefs.

 

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Religion in Public Schools