A Real Life Hail Mary

Religion and sports. Some say they go hand in hand, especially in the sport of football. Players from both teams gather in the middle of the football field before and after games for a quick prayer. Players thank God for allowing them to score the winning touchdown or kick the winning field goal in their post game press conferences. The Detroit Lions even have their own team chaplain. But recent comments from a Detroit quarterback has brought the always touchy subject of religion to the forefront of not just football, but America.

During the second quarter of a game against the Minnesota Vikings in week 2 of the NFL season, Detroit Lion's quarterback John Kitna was hit hard, and diagnosed with a concussion. He was taken out of the game in the middle of the second quarter. Then, as if he had defied the odds, Kitna jogged back out onto the field in the fourth quarter, and played the rest of the game with no lingering affects of that concussion. When asked afterwards how he was able to return to the field after suffering a concussion, Kitna, a well known devout Christian who has even been fined for wearing a hat with a cross on it during a post game press conference last year, gave a controversial response.
"It was a miracle," Kitna said. "I've never felt anything like that, and for it to clear up and go right back to as normal as I can be, is nothing short of a miracle," Kitna went on to say. "I just definitely feel the hand of God. That's all it was. You can't explain it."

Wading into troulesome waters with those comments, Kitna was met with immediate backlash from the American public. As I was browsing ESPN.com the other day, I found a columnist brave enough to take on the subject of religion in sports, or just religion anywhere. LZ Granderson is that columnist, and he looks at America's criticism of Kitna with a skeptical eye. LZ does not understand why Americans took such offense to Kitna's comments when, accoridng to him, 91 percent of American adults believe in God and 82 percent those adults are Christians just like Kitna. LZ goes on to defend Kitna's comments and he continues to express his confusion with America, not understanding why Kitna is being criticized.
"That's why I am a bit floored about the cynical reaction surrounding Kitna's statement. If the vast majority of the country believes in God, and the NFL supports spiritual growth, why the raised eyebrow when a player says something overtly spiritual?" The full link to Granderson's article is here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=granderson/070921

I do not know whether or not Granderson is religious or not, he does not go into his personal religious beliefs in the article. While I understand this is an opinion piece, Granderson fails to look at this issue with an unbiased eye in my opinion. At no time does he really try to look at Kitna's comments from someone who does not believe in religion, and for that matter miracles. Granderson uses quotes from people only on one side of the arguement, those who believe in God. Not once does he ask the opinion of a non-believer, which I think would have made his article much more well rounded and given it a higher level of respectability. I am not a religious person myself, and I did not agree with Kitna coming out publicly and stating that the only reason he could have been cured from his concussion so quickly was by the hand of God. Granderson's article does not do much to address people like myself, it only speaks to why people like me should be silenced without giving much solid evidence. Granderson was brave enough to take on the subject of religion, but he came off looking like a coward with this article.