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Is Jesus a Fan of Your Favorite Football Team?

Making a spectacle of personal faith

Andy Spears
Backyard Church
3 min readJan 14, 2025

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Photo by Joshua Allwood on Unsplash

I’m a sports fan. My dad was a high school football coach. I grew up on practice fields with him or watching games on Saturday and Sunday.

We liked basketball, too. I remember nights spent at the basketball arena of our local college team.

This year, college football has a new, expanded playoff format. It’s been exciting to watch the games, knowing that more than just a bowl trophy, these games lead to something — a national title.

And, while watching the games has been fun, there’s something about them I find . . . disturbing.

It’s the tendency for players in post-game interviews to start their interview by thanking God (or God and Jesus, or Jesus Christ, their lord and savior) for their success.

One interviewer asked a quarterback about the success of a very specific, pivotal play.

The response: I believe God puts me in places to win, God made that happen.

My response: I’m pretty sure those two 350-pound offensive linemen were the ones who opened up the hole for your running back to run through and score.

Jesus isn’t on the roster.

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Backyard Church
Backyard Church

Published in Backyard Church

Thoughts on applying a 2000 year old religion to 21st Century life

Andy Spears
Andy Spears

Written by Andy Spears

Writer and policy advocate living in Nashville, TN —Public Policy Ph.D. — writes on education policy, consumer affairs, and more . . .

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