Super Bowl LVI: Sports Ministry Helps NFL Players Share Faith in Jesus
By Alex Murashko
Sometimes, the broadcast cameras at a National Football League game catch the action on the 50-yard-line after the game, sometimes they don’t. But every year, for the past 30 years, a group of players from opposing teams kneel and pray together in the middle of the field.
Two faithful NFL team chaplains, supported by the sports ministry, Athletes in Action, teamed up to help inspire the first NFL post-game prayer huddle at the 50 yard line, AIA’s Chief Marketing Officer Darrin Gray shared during an interview with Think Eternity recently.
The story of how chaplains Pat Ritchie, of the San Francisco 49ers, and Dave Bratton, of the New York Giants arranged for the first joint postgame prayer in the NFL, on Dec. 3, 1990, at the end of the most highly viewed game in Monday Night Football history, can be found at ESPN.com.
The game drew an estimated 41.6 million viewers. ESPN reported that a “postgame fracas'' between players stole the show afterward. ABC's cameras didn't capture the prayer circle. Only one known photo exists, taken right before two NY Giants players joined the six San Francisco 49ers players for prayer. (SEE PHOTO BELOW).
The prayer meetup nearly didn’t happen because of that scrum, which occurred near the 50 yard line. Players participating in the prayer decided to form the circle 15 yards away.
“Praise the Lord that this prayerful tradition lives on in NFL stadiums,” Gray stated in a LinkedIn post that includes the only photo known of the first prayer circle, which at that moment, was yet to be joined by two Giants players. “The NFL is one of the few sports where Christian prayer is consistently displayed on the field of play between competitors after each and every game.”
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” – II Timothy 1:7
Despite a league with its share of controversy, especially in the last couple of years, the NFL is home to athletes who consider themselves blessed to have a platform of this magnitude to share their witness as followers of Jesus Christ.
On Saturday, February 12, the day before Super Bowl LVI, which is being held in Los Angeles (February 13), Athletes in Action is hosting the NFL-sanctioned Super Bowl Breakfast. The event has taken place in the Super Bowl host city every year since 1988, drawing sellout crowds to hear from some of sport’s biggest names, organizers stated on the event website.
The Bart Starr Award, presented at the breakfast, honors Starr’s lifelong commitment to serving as a positive role model to his family, teammates and community. The winner of the Bart Starr Award is determined by NFL-player balloting at the end of the regular season, making it one of only two individual honors selected by the players themselves.
Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson, an outspoken-for-his-faith Christian, is the winner of the 2022 Bart Starr Award for outstanding character, integrity and leadership on and off the field.
“Each year at the Super Bowl Breakfast a player or coach shares the Gospel on the ‘mainstage’ because Super Bowl Breakfast is a NFL-sanctioned event,” Gray said. In other events and outreach programs offered by AIA as well, one of the key goals is to “make sure we bring the name of Christ into the mainstream through the public outreach and traditional media outlets,” he said.
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” – John 7:38
“The idea is that Athletes in Action is bringing these metaphorical rivers of living water into these high visibility places in and around the Super Bowl, for instance, to help encourage people and guide them closer to knowing that Jesus is real,” Gray told Think Eternity.
“There are other leagues where some of what we see in the NFL is present, but the NFL continues to be a place where men can be authentically themselves in Christ,” he said. “We’re seeing players be themselves as great men of character and honor. Those values translate to biblical values very easily and that’s what the chaplains are doing, being sort of translators.”
Gray said that in addition to AIA, there are Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Professional Athletes Outreach who are “all working synergistically to help ensure that men are surrounded with love and care and support” in the NFL.
Why We’re Here
“At Athletes in Action, we dream of a day when there are Christ-followers on every team, in every sport, in every nation,'' the organization states on its website.
“Since 1966, we have been helping athletes experience the hope and purpose that comes from following Jesus, and equipping them to use their platform to be part of God’s mission in the world to make disciples of all nations.
By serving, training, and sending athletes as influencers into the world, we are building spiritual movements everywhere through the platform of sport so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.”
The only known photo of the first ‘Meet Me at the 50’ in the NFL on Dec. 3, 1990 was taken right before two NY Giants players joined the six San Francisco 49ers players for prayer. (PHOTO SHARED BY DARRIN GRAY/LINKEDIN)
For more information on 2022 Super Bowl Breakfast, go to SuperBowlBreakfast.com.
Alex Murashko is the founder and editor of Media on Mission, which highlights the work of media and journalists, working in all platforms, whose Editor in Chief is above all others. Murashko is a contributing writer for Thinke.