Fish and Chipps: On Football, Religion and Being “Different”

Looking over the city of Jerusalem this past December, I couldn’t help but think of Husain Abdullah and the persecution of his faith.

I was on a Jewish organized trip in one of the holiest cities in the world, but as I watched the sun fall into the night sky over Jerusalem, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Abdullah’s faith is intertwined with an institution that fears what it doesn’t know and feeds a product to millions of Americans who also feel threatened by a religion they simply don’t understand.

Abdullah is a Muslim who plays professional football, and on Sept. 29, 2014, his faith and the NFL collided as he went to the ground to pray to Allah after he scored on an interception return for a touchdown.

He had just picked off Tom Brady, which capped off an incredible night for the Kansas City Chiefs in their whopping 41-14 win over the Patriots. Like so many football players before him, Abdullah wanted to express his faith as he crossed the end zone — I mean, he just picked-off golden boy Tom Brady and made him look silly.

But Abdullah is no Tim Tebow, who openly expressed his Christian faith on the field for years at the University of Florida and in the NFL, especially in the end zone. When the defensive back went to the ground to pray, Abdullah was penalized 15 yards by the referees for “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

Why Abdullah was penalized for doing the exact same thing as so many other football players before him, I have no clue. Oh, wait. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he’s a Muslim and not an outspoken Christian who publicly expresses his faith on national television every week like Tebow did so often throughout his football career.

The NFL admitted its mistake but didn’t exactly give a glowing apology to Abdullah and the millions of Muslim NFL fans.

It may have just been an honest mistake by a group of officials in the heat of a game, but it perfectly exemplifies the hypocritical nature of religion and football.

If you’re not a Christian in the NFL or in football, then you’re “different.” And not the good kind of “different.” Just “different.” The kind of “different” that has come to represent so much of the dangerous rhetoric being spread across the campaign trail and on social media.

Americans fear what they don’t know. “Different” is unknown, so when politicians speak out against a “different” faith that they simply don’t understand and have no interest in trying to understand, practicing Muslims like Hussain and Detroit Lions players Ameer Abdullah and Isa Abdul-Quddus must continue to live in a world where they’re judged unfairly and looked upon “differently” if they choose to express their faith like their Christian peers.

Houston Texans running back Arian Foster knows this all too well.

This past August, the Pro Bowl running back publicly admitted that he’s an atheist in a fascinating story that detailed how Christianity is so tightly woven into the fabric of American football and the NFL.

At the University of Tennessee, Foster said he was forced to attend predominantly white churches even though he doesn’t believe in God.

“So I went, probably five times,” Foster told ESPN The Magazine. “I don’t want to bring race into it, but we never went to any predominantly black churches. We went to a lot of those upper-middle-class white churches, which I always found interesting because the majority of the team was black, so I thought the majority of the team would relate to a black church … If the majority of your team is black, why wouldn’t they try to make them as comfortable as possible?”

As Foster details, faith and football go hand in hand — especially in the Bible Belt — and you don’t have to look very hard to find a coach or player talking about the intersection of church and state.

The sport is guarded by the Christian faith and it hovers over many college programs and teams — some would even say too closely.

Clemson University head coach Dabo Swinney has been criticized for inserting a culture of Christianity into the football program.

In 2014, the Freedom From Religious Foundation filed a lawsuit against Swinney and the school for promoting “a culture in the program that promotes Christianity and violates constitutional guidelines of the separation of church and state as stipulated in the Establishment Clause of the first amendment.”
Football is “America’s game.” Well over 100 million people will watch on Feb. 7 when two teams battle it out in the 2016 Super Bowl. Christians, Muslims, Jews and those of all beliefs will watch the game because we all love football.

Yet every time I tune on a game or watch one of 10 million NFL shows, I never hear any stories about Muslim or agnostic players. I’ve heard plenty about Tebow’s Christian faith and how it “guides him,” but what about the guy at the other end of the locker room who maybe just isn’t a believer?

Will there ever be a day when players like Abdullah and Foster can outwardly express their beliefs without worrying about the repercussions of religious or non-religious persecution?

According to the Pew Research Center, 3.3 million Muslims live in America and that number is expected to grow. By 2040, it is estimated that Islam will be the second largest religion in America after Christianity. And although some presidential candidates can’t seem to think of any famous Muslim athletes — like Kareem Abdul Jabbar or Muhammad Ali — Muslims play sports, including football.

As I stood at the Western Wall, I thought about all of this. I made a promise to myself: I will no longer shy away from “different.”

This will be the year I cultivate an understanding of Islam, because it’s “different” in all of the best ways, like any other religion. This will be the year I seek to find the intersection of Islam and football, because amid all of the hate speech being spread across this country, good people play football and practice Islam too.

So whether you like it or not, there will come a time in the near future when another Muslim football player goes to the ground to express his faith after scoring a touchdown.

Will he be penalized for doing the same thing as Christians? I remain hopeful that the answer to that question is no.

I’m a believer. Are you?