As a three sport athlete back in high school, I remember one of the local pastors or one of my teammates leading us in the Lords prayer or having a prayer said before every varsity football game I ever played in. What I don’t remember is ever saying a prayer before a basketball game or a track meet. Praying before a baseball game in the summer? Never did it. Football is different. The potential for injury is real. You cannot play the game of football without blood and bruises. That is the nature of the game, it is tough to play. That is why the game is not for everyone to play.

The pregame prayer was never about winning it was always about safety for the players on the field of play. Young men think they are invincible and it (the it being the big injury) is never going to happen to them. But sure as the sun comes up in the east, someone will never get to play the game again because of something that will happen during practice or in a game situation each and every year the game of football is played.

Old guys like coaches, parents and pastors know the big injury will happen to someone this year. That is why we should pray before each and every game. We should pray that our young men play the game as hard as they possibly can, but that they go major injury free.

Several years ago I was broadcasting a local high school football game on the radio and my radio partner could not be there until about half-time, so I asked the pastor who had married my wife and me if he would come and talk on the radio for the first half of the game. This pastor was a great fan of sports and especially of football. Early in our time during the broadcast he mentioned he had a grandson that had been playing football that year in another town, but had been injured during the first game of the year and was no longer able to play.

So I asked the pastor what happened to his grandson. The pastor said his grandson was returning the kickoff at the start of the game and severely broke a leg in several places and since this was his senior year he would never play the game of football again.

I asked the pastor if this injury to his grandson had changed his mind about the game of football and would he advise young men to no longer play the game anymore. The pastor said no he would still advise young men to play the game and injuries are part of the game, it was just unfortunate that his grandson was a senior and would never again get to play the game he loved.

There is much we can learn during our time playing football. Discipline, how to become a teammate, learning about how to work hard, sacrifice, honor, to lose, to win, to love, to be focused and on and on and on. We can also learn to pray and why to pray.

So let us celebrate our faith during the game of football. Send me your pictures where you capture your team or individuals praying. There will also be other pictures where great respect will be shown during other times of the game, send those also.

If you know where other great sermons about sports and or football are on the world wide web send me the link to the sermon and we can share the link with all the other football fans of Kansas and the other states that come to this website.

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