thefinishline 03/25/10
Should More Christian Athletes Openly Share Their Faith?
By Shawn Brown
With the Final Four just around the corner, I will spend the next week studying each team (Currently 16) still trying to stake their claim to play in Indianapolis. Like every other sports reporter around the country the week before a major event, I’ll be pouring over stats, interviews, and watching the remaining games leading to the Final Four. However, unlike most other media outlets, it is also my job to identify the Christians on each team.
So how do I identify the Christian players? I probe through media guides, call team chaplains (if one exists), and scan the internet for information that possibly identifies a player as a Christian. It’s a task I’m used to, and it’s different for each sport. But what’s interesting is the response I get from other media outlets when I blurt out a question at media day that has nothing (at least to them) to do with the sport and everything to do with the athlete’s faith. Sometimes they make faces. Sometimes they ask, “What does that have to do with anything?” Sometimes they even turn their camera lights off to indicate their disapproval.
While prepping for next week, I began to wonder why some people can’t understand the relevance of faith in sports. Then I began to wonder, if more athletes began to share their faith openly, would it become more acceptable? So here is the question: If more Christian athletes openly share their faith at sports events, would it make it acceptable for media outlets to cover it...or at the very least, acknowledge it?
With the Final Four just around the corner, I will spend the next week studying each team (Currently 16) still trying to stake their claim to play in Indianapolis. Like every other sports reporter around the country the week before a major event, I’ll be pouring over stats, interviews, and watching the remaining games leading to the Final Four. However, unlike most other media outlets, it is also my job to identify the Christians on each team.
So how do I identify the Christian players? I probe through media guides, call team chaplains (if one exists), and scan the internet for information that possibly identifies a player as a Christian. It’s a task I’m used to, and it’s different for each sport. But what’s interesting is the response I get from other media outlets when I blurt out a question at media day that has nothing (at least to them) to do with the sport and everything to do with the athlete’s faith. Sometimes they make faces. Sometimes they ask, “What does that have to do with anything?” Sometimes they even turn their camera lights off to indicate their disapproval.
While prepping for next week, I began to wonder why some people can’t understand the relevance of faith in sports. Then I began to wonder, if more athletes began to share their faith openly, would it become more acceptable? So here is the question: If more Christian athletes openly share their faith at sports events, would it make it acceptable for media outlets to cover it...or at the very least, acknowledge it?