What....pray tell...are you doing coach?!

Group asks UT Rockets to end pregame prayers

Toledo coach Matt Campbell took a knee and led The Lord's Prayer before a game against rival Bowling Green from a few years ago.
A antitheist group sends a letter sent to new UT prez saying that the prayer violates 1st Amendment.

 

As an atheist, I'd like to tell Sharon Gaber to shut the fuck up and find a real problem to solve.

 

Suppose a player felt uncomfortable about it, and chose not to participate?

If anything, with college athletes possibly now being considered employees, it could be a problem.

 

If I were this coach, I would open the 2015 season by asking my team to gather round and would hold a special prayer which ended with me telling this group to go f**k itself.
But I'm an asshole so, you know, take that into consideration.

 

If religion is so important that it must be practiced in a locker room, then I'm sure practitioners would have no problem if someone started punting footballs around in church.

 

This has been going on for ages. Based on the college basketball I covered during my career, I would say most teams do it on some level. Granted, the two schools I covered the most had super religious head coaches.

I think it should be allowed. I also think if someone doesn't want to participate, they should be able to do so without recourse from the coach. One of the coaches I covered would berate players if they chose not to participate and that became a mini-scandal.

 

Hence, the reason why it shouldn't be allowed.

 

I see your point, Baron. If the coach really feels strongly about the team saying the Lord's prayer, she should quietly suggest one of the players lead it and he stay out of the picture.

 

I've always been fascinated by this topic.

At my first job, I wrote this story when I watched a player walk away from the prayer circle after practice and the coach barked something at him about it. I talked to the player, wrote the story and then the next day at practice the coach tells the SID to throw me out. The SID, who is one of the best ever, says, "You throw him out, you throw everyone out." The coach doesn't answer a single question of mine for the remainder of the season.

Several months later, I'm starting a new job and I'm meeting with the basketball coach and he said, "I ran into (coach I used to cover) at a camp, and asked him about you."

I laugh very nervously.

"He doesn't like you too much."

I explained the situation to the new coach and he said, "Yeah, we pray after every practice, but you don't ever do that to a player who doesn't participate. That's wrong on so many different levels."

I was never able to find out if that was true since his practices were closed, but this guy wasn't the type to berate a player for something like that.

 

And how the hell do you ensure there's "no recourse from the coach?" There's so many ways a bible thumping coach can screw with the player who chooses not to participate that can be easily explained away by any number of pretextual excuses ("not a team player", attitude issues, etc.) that may be bullshit but can't be proven as such. If it comes down to a borderline decision between that kid and one who participated over something like playing time or scholarship renewal, which one do you think is gonna get the benefit of the doubt?

And why should the kid be the one forced to make the decision that would alienate him from the rest of his team and the coach who controls his scholarship and playing time? Not many kids would have the stones to make that call regardless of their actual beliefs. To the players the prayers are de facto mandatory, when the coach who controls your life tells you to pray, you pray.

I realize these team prayers have become somewhat of a tradition in U.S. sports, but they really are entirely unnecessary and of dubious constitutionality. Might be time to get rid of them.

 

I knew of one team that after every game they would come together in a prayer circle, but no words were allowed to be spoken. I kind of thought that was a cool way to do it.

But you're right, there's no way to really tell if there's no recourse. The amazing thing about the first one I saw is that the coach was stupid enough to do it in front of the media more than once.

 

Everyone thinks this is ok now, but what happens when it's a Muslim coach, and he asks his team to pray? Then people are going to freak out!

And, if a player refuses to participate, he has to worry that the coach might behead him.