Prayer, sports come together
The intersection of prayer and sports has been prominent in the aftermath of Damar Hamlin’s frightening collapse during an NFL game.
All 32 NFL teams have included “Pray for Damar” on their Twitter avatars. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky prayed for the Bills’ safety on live TV. Countless fans and other concerned observers said on social media they were praying, and dozens linked arms outside his hospital.
“In commemorating life or death in sport, people say pray, pray, pray a lot,” said Julie Byrne, chair of the Religion Department at Hofstra University. “I don’t think it reaches the pitch that you have here because of the incredibly dramatic circumstances.”
It was amplified in Hamlin’s case partly because people now can offer instant expressions of prayer or any other reaction on social media. Plus, it was a high-profile “Monday Night Football” game between Hamlin’s Bills and the Bengals with millions watching.
Hamlin’s heart stopped after making what appeared to be a routine tackle in the first quarter. The second-year pro went into cardiac arrest and was resuscitated on the field.
On Friday, the 24-yearold Hamlin was breathing on his own and able to talk after having his breathing tube removed, his agent said. Players from both teams knelt on the field in prayer, not an uncommon scene in a sport that has seen plenty of scary injuries. Each week after every game, many players from both teams join together in a prayer circle, holding hands and kneeling; 63% of adults in the United States identify as Christians with 45% saying they pray daily, according to the Pew Research Center.
The expression of faith has been carried out very publicly in Hamlin’s case.
“It is new in terms of the scale and the scope,” said Paul Putz, assistant director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University. “It’s not common to see someone on a national television network who opens in prayer or just issues a prayer during the broadcast. That certainly is something that’s new, but it also does reflect this broader Christian subculture in the NFL.”
Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, prayed for Hamlin during Tuesday’s NFL Live broadcast as his two co-hosts bowed their heads and said “Amen” when he was done.
Bills coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane both thanked God in separate news conferences.
Chuck Hughes is the only NFL player to die on the field. The 28-year-old Lions receiver suffered a fatal heart attack late in a game against the Bears on Oct. 24, 1971. Putz said later newspaper accounts wrote of the players praying in their locker rooms.
“We didn’t have the public processing of (Hughes) in real time,” the Baylor professor said. “It wasn’t something millions of people were engaged with at the same time.”
Time will tell if it’s a new normal.
“I think over time then we’ll come to realize what this signified, what it highlighted about the ongoing connection between religion and sports, which have been going on for a long time,” Putz said.