I’ve got no issues with players thanking God after great accomplishments, particularly wins. Happens all the time and the beautiful thing about our society is that everyone has the right to believe in what they want as well as the right to share those beliefs publicly.
I also have the right to shake my head in disbelief at those who suggest that the man upstairs spends his time micro-managing the planet by picking winners, losers and scenarios for sporting events.
As Peter King of the MMQB wrote Monday, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson didn’t just point to God as a reason why he and his team beat the Packers in the NFC championship game, but he also figured God made it so that Wilson would throw four interceptions to set up a thrilling finish.
I found Wilson afterward, and asked him about the four picks, and going from the worst game of his life to the most exhilarating in the span of eight minutes of game time.
“That’s God setting it up, to make it so dramatic, so rewarding, so special,” he said, alone for a moment in the locker room before heading out for the night. “I’ve been through a lot in life, and had some ups and downs. It’s what’s led me to this day.”
But it’s not wild to believe that members of the Packers have also been through a lot in life and had some ups and downs. Why was God on Seattle’s side…again?
I mean, if I were a Packers fan, that’d really piss me off. But if I were struggling with something even marginally more detrimental than a sports loss, I’d be outraged. If I were one of the 900 million people worldwide who go to bed hungry each night, I’d hear Wilson — although I probably wouldn’t because I likely wouldn’t possess a television set or the internet — and I’d wonder where God’s priorities lie.
The other quarterback from that game — the one who lost — has a different take on God’s potential involvement in sports results, and it’s one that makes a whole lot more sense to me.
“I don’t think God cares a whole lot about the outcome,” Aaron Rodgers told ESPN Wisconsin’s Jason Wilde earlier this week. “He cares about the people involved, but I don’t think he’s a big football fan.”
What we’re getting at is that sometimes good things happen and sometimes bad things happen. It’s your right to believe that when those things are happening to you personally, God is playing a role. But to believe that he’d devote time to helping your team beat another is probably taking it a little too far.
