God and Football

God and Football

Few things can appear as egregiously preposterous than a professional football player all bubbly about God helping him or his team win a football game. What kind of God do they pray to Who would actually take sides in a football game and yet let some orphan in a refugee camp starve to death, or allow massive genocidal deaths, or let some innocent person be beheaded, or a ‘witch’ burned at the stake, or let some of the finest people have horrible medical conditions?  How vain must a person be to actually believe God interceded so he or his team could win a football game? Drew Brees talks like he has some intelligence, and certainly seems to play the game as if he has some intelligence, so what happens to his brain that would let him go on and on about how God has the kicker miss an easy last minute field gold so that he (Drew Brees) could throw a long pass to score an overtime touchdown which would be his 400th touchdown pass. What a nice gesture on the part of God. 

Let’s just assume Drew Brees is right, and that he is really tight with God, and God helps him have success when he plays. But where was God the last three games when they lost?  God must be extremely fickle from game to game and from season to season. And why would any of the rest of us root for any team to win a game? Who the hell wants to root for a game in which God decides the winner. Betting against God? Doesn’t sound like much fun to me. And what fun would it be for God? 

To top it off, before and/or after the game, some players form a circle and pray for what? How big must a person’s ego be for them to really envision God teaming up with them to win a game? If one of these  players in these highly televised prayer circles has a bad game, gets injured, or his team loses, what does he do the following week to get back in God’s good graces? Help some old lady across the street?  Toss some money into the Salvation Army pot? Suppose a player on the opposing team matches his kindnesses this next week? Now what does God do? I mean, if it is a tie here does God at least tell both that he flipped a coin to see who he was going to let have a good game? 

Does Drew only get God’s help in football games?  What happens when he scores sex with someone he is sexually attracted to? Is there some sort of individual prayer circle before and/or after the sex? Why isn’t this televised?  Is he ashamed of having good sex?  And why does God so dislike some people, right from birth, by making it nearly impossible for them to ever attract sexy partners for sex?

There are dozens of athletes on both teams. How does Drew know which player got God to ensure victory for them? And why does the prayer have to be in public? Does God only hear or see prayers if they are on TV?  I think Brees is nursing an injury. Huh? If God wants Brees or, at least his team to win, why would God let Brees get injured? 

And what religion is Brees? Do players of other religions ever get God to enable them to win games? Or doesn’t God care what religion someone has inherited?  And I wish Drew would be more specific about this God assisted accomplishment. What exactly does Drew Brees do with his life that at least some players on the other team do not do? Why has no one written any book on how to enlist God to help you win football games? Wouldn’t that be the best playbook? In fact why practice all week, just spend all day in prayer circles to impress God with your endless begging. 

If only I could live my life a tad better than Drew Brees, then I could be a star football player making millions of dollars. It would sure beat the many droll years I worked to gain some money. Why is it that when something good happens so many people credit God, and when disaster happens they get mentally discombobulated, shrug, and say “God acts in mysterious ways”. Finally they exhibit some reality. I don’t even attempt to define God or even create a God in my own image of how I would like Him to be. Wherever there is a gift, there is a gift giver. Thus, I let it go a that. The gifts are all around us. The gift giver is God. I also accept the definition of Empedocies “God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”

Why, I wonder, does Drew Brees and a cabal of other football players think winning football games is a priority of God? What other priorities do they think God has? Maybe arranging marriages which no man better put asunder. Whoops, that seems a tad insulting to God since half of American marriages fail. Maybe God is an infatuated ‘family values’ fanatic besides, or after, winning football games. Then again, God’s ‘family’ is all species, all natural resources, not to mention the whole universe. Why do we remotely think God wants us to be self centered around our own particular family? or religious group? Or nation? Or culture? or any other definable group? If God is such a big fan of Drew Brees or his whole team, does this extend to the players’ family members?  Probably Drew Brees would think letting his wife get run over by a car would be more of a catastrophe than losing a football game. Does he let God know this so God will prevent this from happening to his wife?  

On the other hand, it is no big deal either—this God winning football games nonsense. We all, in our own peculiar ways, act the fool. I”ve asked the little birdie who whispers advice in my ear to chirp into Drew Brees’s ear: “Don’t do this ‘God thing’ on television, if God determined the game results or any players performance, then let God go to the podium, don’t you go up there and act so talented. And certainly don’t offer up, in interview situations, an analysis of which players or teams are better than others. This is so disingenuous. Now you are claiming to know which players or teams God is going to make victorious. Just be consistent and say, “Except for me and my team, I have no idea who God favors in the other games.”