On November 22, 2024 the St. Ignatius Wildcats won the CCS Open Division football championship 10-7 over the Lancers of St. Francis. They did this in the pouring rain with family and friends in red ponchos cheering for them every step of the way. Congratulations to this talented team—a spirited squad—and all who helped them to get there.
I have gotten to know this group a little better as my colleague and I have led their prayer services this season. It has been an honor and privilege to offer these young men a sacred pause in their day—a time to reflect and listen to the Word of God. Each gathering offers students a moment to center and ground themselves in the gift and opportunity of playing football.
I am not their team chaplain. I hope in the future that a faculty member will officially take on that role and be an integrated presence on and off the field for these athletes. However, as a contributing voice in Sports and Spirituality, I have a skill set, the ability and desire to create and design what I hope has been meaningful pre-game gatherings.
Through this experience I have learned there aren't many resources for team chaplains or coaches to access, refine and replicate. I was motivated to write Pray and Practice with Purpose for this very reason. Were I to publish another edition, I will add what I have used throughout this season. A coach, chaplain, athletic director or sports and spirituality teacher has a much better sense of what will speak to their team, their athletes. I say that as a word of encouragement. Still an outline or framework is a great place to start. This role has not been easy. It may sound hard to believe, but a 15-20 minute service takes me about four hours to plan. You want to have student involvement and get outside voices contributing to the meeting. And so it is with great joy and thanks to George Kittle, that I share one example. Feel free to review and reuse, modify or mend. I have four others to pass along. This *might* be my favorite. Enjoy!
Theme: Hope and Intention: We are one Body My colleague and I have determine a theme for each prayer service. Most are tied to our Jesuit roots. Yes, we speak Ignatian. And yet, at St. Ignatius, a popular song among the student body is "One Body in Christ." I decided to capitalize upon this theme, knowing how it connects to a reading in scripture and an important pre-game ritual for Niners tight-end, George Kittle.
Context for the team: Long before text messages and emails, letters were an important form of communication. I still remember the day when the acceptance letter came in the mail for college decisions and the rejections. The very sight of the letter—Was it thick or thin? gave an answer.
Some of the great leaders in history have been known for their letter writing. Teddy Roosevelt was known to have written about 6.8 letters / day! Letters like these, whether professional or personal, have become artifacts and serve as primary sources Scripture includes letters, too. The Apostle Paul wrote to different Christian communities and churches to nurture, encourage, instruct, and correct their errors in theology and their lifestyle. His letter to the community in Corinth sets an important tone for us here today. This passage, "One Body, Many Parts" speaks to a theme we have here at St Ignatius. It is a song we sing: We are one Body, One body in Christ. As a team, you have learned you must work as one. Let us pray together for that grace.
Reading: A senior read from 1 Corinthians 12: 12-26 (for brevity and clarity, I took out a few lines)
Letters are important today. In fact, reading a letter is an important spiritual discipline for George Kittle. As noted in the hit Netflix series “Receiver," it's an important part of Kittle's pre-game ritual. I’d like to share that with you now.
Video: Episode 7 "Don't Have a Choice": 23:45-26:20
These prayer services have become part of your pregame rituals. And I’d like to integrate that practice of letter writing/reading that you saw between Bruce Kittle and his son, George to our time together today. I’ve asked your Coach to share a letter he has for you….
Coach reads the letter he wrote to the team out loud.
Following this sharing, I invite the team to take a moment to pray for Coach. Pray in gratitude for his tireless leadership and his vision. We pray for his family and this notion of family he has cultivated here.
That is just the first part of Kittle’s pregame routine. I’d like to share with you the other parts of it.
Resume the video: 26:20 to 27:40
Visualization Exercise: I'm not going to invite you into a similar meditation, right here, right now. You can do as Kittle does when you get to the stadium, but let's start the exercise here.
Close your eyes, put both feet flat on the floor.
Take in the Stadium
Appreciate the moment you’re living in
Center yourself
Take some deep breaths
SLOW DOWN
Look for your family…your friends in the stands
Talk to yourself
Offer a Positive Affirmation
What do you need to let go of…
Breathe In
Breathe out
Who do you want to remember? Who are you playing for?
Ask God to watch over you
Flip the Switch….GO
I love GKK because he is enthusiastic and energetic, he’s talented and hardworking and he’s incredibly intentional and grounded. The man is loyal and locked in. He has purpose. He lives with positivity. He is hopeful. And so I’ve asked a few people to offer a hope that they have for you today.
Hope/Intention: One coach, one alumni and one former from another Jesuit school had a hope/intention for the team that I had three different seniors read out loud. (this was awesome! I even had a senior who played the same position as the alum and former player read their words on their behalf).
With these hopes, these intentions, these prayers, let us offer the prayer that Jesus taught us…. Praying the Our Father brought us to a close.
In Conclusion: This prayer service tied so many important ideas and themes together: unity, hope and intention. I loved shared the personal story of a real time player who appears wild and zany but proves to be incredibly grounded. George Kittle draws great strength and support from his wife, parents and family. I do want these players to realize how their family, friends and the SI community does the same. Practically speaking, this story may not resonate with your team in the same way because, Kittle isn't a local hero. You may also take issue with a bit of foul language (you can easily work around this and shorten the clip). However, the rationale behind the letter writing is certainly relatable for a number of young men and his routine is so easy to replicate.
I look forward to sharing the others. This team play again in the Northern California playoffs. Future prayer service theme is yet to come...
photo credits BruceKittle George Reading George ESPN All SI Images from school
Perhaps you caught the Netflix series Receiver. From the creators of Quarterback, "the eight-episode series chronicles the high stakes of a good catch." If you're like me, you were excited to share select scenes with fellow football fans and / or discuss them with anyone willing to listen.
Though I didn't find many outstanding connections to the curriculum of Sports and Spirituality I did ruminate over a few ideas. Several stories have stay with me. I thought they were worth putting into the Blogosphere for the purpose of dialog. I would like to know what you discover, decide, and question for debate. I hope we will.
1. Why Receiver? The opening show features five of the highest profile receivers in the game: Davante Adams (Las Vegas Raiders), Justin Jefferson (Minnesota Vikings), George Kittle and Deebo Samuel (San Francisco Forty Niners) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (Detroit Lions). However, one of these players is not like the others.
Upon hearing the show's line-up, my friend John— who played college football—asked me a logical question: Why is the show called Receiver? George Kittle is considered one of the best tight ends in the game. "My guess," I said, "is because it's about players who receive the ball. Kittle eclipsed over 1,000 receiving yards during the seventeenth game of the season. This feat was celebrated on the show." Who knows, maybe the director just knew Kittle would also provide more than his fair share of lively content. Thoughts?
How we think about athletes, what we call them, the way they play the game in light of their position is worth on-going consideration. No doubt—the game has changed and will continue to do so. Names have too. Perhaps you have noticed that wide receivers are referred to more and more as wide outs. Players on the field receive the ball in many ways—short passes and longer ones, hand offs, some run the option, etc. Who receives the ball is worth learning more about. It's why I loved this series.
2. There's more to life—and to all of us— than what meets the eye. Not one of these receivers is to be underestimated; each one is multifaceted, multidimensional. Yes, each athlete moves the ball in his own unique way. Deebo is just explosive. Jefferson makes catches no one should land—the work looks effortless. They are fantastic on the field but the lives they live off of it are dynamic as well.
For now, Davante Adams is a "girl dad." Segments move from Adams breaking tackles and pulling down the pigskin to kissing, hugging and doting on his young daughters. In Episode 8, "Leaving Las Vegas" he says "Everybody's been teasing me about being a girl dad for the longest time." The camera turns to his beautiful wife who reveals that they are expecting a son. She adds, "the four of us had our own gender reveal party. Davante came dressed in blue. It good thing he was right." Adams shrugged his shoulders and responded, "I'll go from being a girl dad to just a dad." Blessings and congratulations to the Adams family.
Though one of the most elite in the game, Adams becomes relatable upon admitting that he too is a cheater. Meaning, he isn't ashamed of the fact that he will take a cheat day from his clean, healthy diet. Jefferson is no different—he eats candy morning, noon and night. He blames his mom. For Adams however, as noted The Most Relatable Moments in Receiver
His fast food restaurant of choice is Taco Bell. Adams, however, also enjoys the perks that come with being endorsed by the beloved Mexican-inspired chain.
In Episode 5, Adams takes a trip to Taco Bell’s headquarters in the middle of the Raiders’ bye week, where he’s treated to a meal full of new and unreleased concoctions.
“Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory is definitely a way to describe it,” Adams says.
One need not be a pro-athlete to understand a Wonka Scrumdiddlyumptious bar or a Chalupa Supreme make just one kind of cheating okay.
Other surprises include the fact that Amon-Ra St. Brown speaks German fluently. His mother, Miriam Steyer Brown, who hails from Leverkusen, Germany made a point of teaching her three sons the language. They had to study and read it and throughout the show she speaks to them in German. It's so inspiring to see St. Brown speaking German in many a post-game interview. Ja!
George Kittle presents himself as wild and wacky. The man wears crazy clothing, his hair styles are nothing short of eccentric. Even his behavior—Kittle is nothing short of hyper and yet, he is very traditional. "G" has been married to his wife Claire since 2019. They met during their freshman year at Iowa in 2013. I's obvious that she is his teammate for life. His parents, Bruce and Jan are in attendance at every game. More on this in point #4.
While each receiver is unique, they share a lot in common. And just one of those attributes is that they will surprise you both on and off the field in the best way possible.
3. More Drudge In my blog post, Embrace the Drudge, I defined drudgery and why it's important if one is to achieve excellence. Every sport asks its athlete to engage in challenging, highly repetitive tasks that are unavoidable or necessary for achieving a goal. Although it may be fun to work with a JUGS machine at first, my sense is that like anything you do daily, it can be monotonous.
The routine started when St. Brown was in middle school. While on the 7-on-7 circuits as a kid in Southern California, his father noticed another kid’s elite catching ability and approached the player’s father for pointers. He learned the other kid honed his skill by catching 200 passes on the Jugs machine, so St. Brown and his dad added two more catches to outwork him. He's done it ever since.
The pay off? Since entering the league in 2021, St. Brown has a 1% drop rate. His three dropped passes in 265 targets is the lowest among all players with 200-plus targets in that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information, and his 74% reception rate is the fourth-highest.
Embrace that pigskin...err drudgery.
4. Speak things into existence Football is an emotional game. Given the emotional nature of the game, it's no surprise football players respond, cope and manage it differently. George Kittle handles the stress, pressure and excitement with talking and more talking. Yelling. Screaming. Swearing. and more.
One of my favorite scenes is when he speaking to fellow "receiver," Christian McCaffrey about a special memory. He says "remember when we were at the Bruno Mars concert in Vegas? That was so much fun." His story has nothing to do with the game, but as Kittle starts dancing, it's hard not to appreciate this is another example of Kittle on Kittle.
In 2006, a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne was all the rage. "The Secret" informed readers to "ask, believe and receive." By speaking things into existence and believing in those desires anyone could make them happen. Get ready, for you will receive. Don't ask? Don't believe? You won't receive.
Given his age, it's unlikely that Kittle would have been aware of the popularity of this book. I don't know if he subscribes to Byrne's philosophy, but plenty of people do. Do you?
Time and again, George stands on the sidelines speaking out loud to himself. He will say mottos like Breathe in healing. Breathe out pain. He will tell himself it's time to score. Let's get some TDs. He will remind himself to that pain is temporary. Time to pancake someone! The director is no dummy. The next scene will often show was Kittle has just spoken into existence. I wish it were that easy. Still, I think it's an interesting point of discussion. What's your take on speaking things into existence?
FWIW: I tried this on hole #3 on Ocean and I did make birdie.
5. The importance of family No man is an island. No receiver is either. You may be watching the program to learn about the athlete on the field, but you'll end up learning a whole lot about the people that love them and ground them.
One of my favorite scenes is when Deebo Samuel, Mahogany Jones and their son Tyshun, Jr travel to Morgan Hill to visit a pumpkin patch. Deebo admits "I've never been to a pumpkin patch. It's different than I thought it was going to be." Seeing the WR take his two year old son on a miniature cow train as it rolls besides pumpkins and scarecrows feels a long way from the hash marks and turf of Levi's Stadium.
Jones admits that not much gets Deebo's attention except for football and his son. "It's his son, football and me. Even when he has an off day, he's busy so when we do things I'm like O my God, I had so much fun."
Deebo responds, "When I'm not around football, I don't want to be bothered by it. I know it's part of who I am but I feel like when I'm with my family, I think it's family time and I don't want to be bothered by nothing else."
I left the series thinking that without family, there is no football. You think you're watching a show about five athletes in the NFL. You end up learning about and appreciating their nuclear and extended families.
Their spouses, parents, siblings and family aren't just people wearing their jersey in the stands, truly they are sources of strength for five men who physically test and push the limits every weekend. Who is your favorite?
Touchdown I wrote about just five talking points from Receiver, but I could have listed at least 500. For example, I still laugh at Amon-Ra's father, John Brown who refers to girlfriends as "Dream killers." He said "and if I had a daughter who was an athlete, I would tell her the same thing about a boyfriend."
Those who watched Quarterback loved this series as well. It might be interesting to compare and contrast "take-aways" from each. I do wonder to what degree I enjoyed Receiver because it featured two 49ers. No matter, this program has me ready and excited for the 2025 NFL season and watching these players do what they do..
Maybe St. Francis had it right. it is in the giving that we receive. They give a lot to the game, their teammates and families. Their job? Receive all they can.
Photo Credits Deebo George and Claire Receiver GirlDad
