Athletic events seems to be a part of who we are as humans

A column originally written for The Shelbyville News

By Sean Gallagher

Excitement about Super Bowl XLI in central Indiana is reaching a fever pitch.  Some folks around here were excited about this wintertime football ritual in 1982 and in 1989 when the Cincinnati Bengals played in it and fell, both times, to the San Francisco 49ers.

But we’ve never had a team from Indiana in the Super Bowl until now.  So, naturally enough, more and more people are jumping enthusiastically upon the Colts’ bandwagon.

I may have a bit more interest in the game than many because my cousin, Father Peter Gallagher, is the Colts’ chaplain.  In this volunteer ministry, he celebrates Mass for the Catholic members of the team, offers prayers before and after games, stands with the team on the sideline during both home games and those on the road, including the one tomorrow in Miami.

That connection has made me perk up my ears a bit at the coverage of the religious angle on this year’s Super Bowl.  And it doesn’t surprise me that there has been a good bit of it.

After all, one of the first times when Colts head coach Tony Dungy was asked about the fact that he and Bears head coach Lovie Smith were the first African-American coaches to take teams to the Super Bowl, he responded that this fact was, indeed, significant but that it was also important that both of them were Christians who treated their players with respect.

Many media analysts have delved into the faith life of these two men and some players as well.  Peyton Manning himself acknowledged shortly after his AFC Championship victory that he said some prayers before taking the field to lead his offense to the game-winning touchdown.

Many believers and unbelievers alike question why football should be the subject of a prayer.  After all, shouldn’t we spend our time instead praying for peace in our war-torn world?

My answer to that is that, yes, we should pray for harmony not only between nations but in our streets and homes as well.  Yet I’d say that praying for peace or any other worthy cause doesn’t mean that we can’t also pray for the safety of the players in Super Bowl XLI or that they might be humble and grateful for their athletic talents or that they might be upright and virtuous before a public that seems to watch their every move.

This last prayer intention seems to be a goal for Tony Dungy, a very public man right now, who takes his Christian faith to heart, whose faith this time last year served as a bedrock for him when his life seemed to be one large whirlwind following the suicide of his teenage son.

In the end, competition between people in athletic events seems to be a part of who we are as humans.  It admittedly isn’t a crucial part of our human nature.  As to that, I’d say striving for reconciliation with our Creator, with ourselves, and with each other is at the heart of the human project.

But perhaps God created our yearning to achieve and compete as a kind of tool to draw us closer to himself.  Maybe St. Paul had this in mind when he wrote, “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one” (1 Corinthians 9:25).

So as I watch the game on Sunday and try to catch a glimpse of my cousin roaming the sidelines, I might just ask God to bless him and the Colts, not only in their competition against the Bears, but also in their striving, with the aid of God’s grace, for the unfading crown of glory.