Shall we gather in the end zone? - prayer at college football games

Christian Century, Sept 27, 1995

The National Collegiate Athletic Association first called for a rule change: no praying in the end zone. The defense countered with a lawsuit: on August 31 Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell, accused the NCAA of trying to take away football players, First Amendment rights to religious expression. Then the NCAA resorted to the quick-kick: on September 1 it "clarified" its rule. Public piety in the end zone is permitted after all. Liberty signaled a fair catch and dropped its suit, which was pending in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

The original NCAA policy was aimed at bringing consistency of enforcement to rules against "any delayed, excessive or prolonged act by which a player attempts to focus attention upon himself"--better known as "showboating." A first infraction would result in a 15-yard penalty; a second infraction could lead to ejection of a player from the game. Plaintiffs in the suit were Liberty's football coach, Sam Rutigliano, who once coached the Cleveland Browns, and four members of the Liberty team. They claimed the policy would prohibit them from carrying out 1 heir religious obligations on the playing field. "A college football player whose religious beliefs and practices form an integral part of his life has a right not to be penalized . . . on grounds of his religion," the suit maintained.

Vincent Dooley, University of Georgia athletic director and chairman of the NCAA's rules committee, and Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association and a former president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, defended the new procedures. Dooley and Teaff said the unsportsmanlike-conduct rule has been on the books for some time but has not been uniformly or consistently enforced. After a two-day "summit meeting" of NCAA officials, coaches, athletic directors and others, the rules committee produced and distributed a video to all member schools demonstrating how the rule is to be enforced. One segment of the video deals with the endzone prayer.

"There was quite a bit of discussion about that," Dooley said of the endzone prayer practice. "We decided that in the final analysis it would fall into the `delayed, excessive, category. But in no way was the rules committee against prayer" in no way were we restricting prayer." Teaff, who coached at Southern Baptist-related Baylor University for 21 years, noted that prayer is permitted before and after games, on the sidelines and in any position--standing, kneeling or sitting. "In my 21 years at Baylor, I spent a lot time in prayer, and I didn't have to kneel to do it," he said.

"Praying has always been and remains permissible under the rules," Dooley said in a memorandum, which the NCAA said would be mailed to all athletic directors and coaches at the colleges and universities whose football programs it supervises.

The clarification came one day after representatives of the NCAA rules committee and the American Football Coaches Association told a news conference that there would be no changes in the policy barring end-zone prayer. According to the new memorandum, players "may pray or cross themselves without drawing attention to themselves. It is also permissible for them to kneel momentarily at the conclusion of a play, if in the judgment of the official the act is spontaneous and not in the nature of a pose."

The memo went on to say: "So, too, several members of a team could engage in a brief act of prayer at the conclusion of a play." The policy also allows players to "engage in prolonged acts of prayer" after returning to the bench area. The new policy, however, continues to bar "overt acts which many associate with prayer, such as kneeling," that are done "in a way that is delayed, excessive or prolonged in an attempt to draw attention to oneself."

"We have said all along that this rule allows for religious expression," Dooley said. "Once people understand what the rule is about, they realize it is about drawing attention to yourself to the exclusion of your teammates. I am sure that we will be able to proceed with enforcing a rule that will return good sportsmanship to college football."

The question remains, however, whether a referee can be sued for the abridgment of free exercise should he judge prayer on the field to be excessive or premeditated. Rule book please?