“It’s an act of worship”

By Rob McCartney

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    Nebraska (KETV) — In Nebraska, as in many states with major Division 1 teams, football is a religion.

I asked several fans if they think football in Nebraska is basically a religion.

The responses were unanimous.

“Um, yeah I do.”

“Yeah, I think it is a religion.”

“It’s kind of such a big thing and everyone kind of knows a lot about it so, seems I’d say yeah.”

For years sociologists have studied why sports are treated like a religion. One of the commonalities, is worship.

In religions, it’s the worship of a higher being, in sports it’s the worship of the players.

Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule recently talked about how his team is made up of young men from all walks of life.

“We have players that are Christian. We have players that are Muslim. We have players that don’t maybe believe in anything, whatever their worldview is, we’re there to walk them through that,” Rhule continued, “We’re there to be there for them because who they are as people is way more important than who they are as players.”

At least two Husker star players couldn’t agree more.

I recently talked with standout linebackers Luke Reimer and Nick Henrich about their faith and football.

Henrich can point to a play at Purdue, October 15, 2022, when he made a tackle and went down hard.

Then, talking about his recovery this spring, Henrich said “I’d say one of the things that really helped me was getting baptized Luke Reimer actually baptized me.”

That’s right.

His teammate baptized Henrich in a University pool.

The cellphone video is pretty blurry, but it’s pretty clear to what it meant to Henrich.

“Yeah, it was pretty, pretty cool to have a bunch of my teammates and, you know, people come to support me and celebrate it. So, it’s great,” said Henrich.

What wasn’t great for Henrich, having to be helped off the field during the Purdue game.

He’d torn an A-C-L.

Sometimes that injury ends a career, not just a season, and Henrich knew it.

“When that happened, I kind of thought that that might be it for me. Like, that might have been my last play and just, yeah, kind of went to a dark place,” Henrich remembered, “And like I said, sometimes that’s when, you know, your brightest moments can happen, and I’m so blessed and thankful that it did.”

That brightest moment was a literal ‘come to Jesus’ moment when Reimer asked him to come to church with him.

“It just kind of led to conversations about faith and just what, what Christ meant, what Christ meant to me. And that kind of sparked an interest in Nick and so he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and he just wanted to show that through baptism,” said Reimer.

The two friends are not the only spiritually driven Huskers, those who when they’re not practicing their football, they’re practicing their faith.

For years, a number of them have been led in post-game prayer by Coach Ron Brown. He also leads them in a weekly Bible study.

I asked Henrich and Reimer how they balance their faith with their football when the two can seem so totally different.

“If I was remembered as a good Christian man and someone who treated everyone with respect and was kind to of everyone, that would mean more to me than any sort of opinion on the football field,” answered Henrich.

Reimer followed with “It’s like God gave us his gifts to play football. So, I’m going to go out there and play as hard as I can for His glory. So that’s how I play with faith and football. It’s not separate. It’s the same thing. It’s an act of worship.”

The two are brothers in faith and brothers on the field.

Meanwhile, in these stands are those fans who come to Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium on Saturdays in the fall, to worship at the altar of major college football.

Fans who know football really isn’t a religion, or is it?

“Growing up with it I feel like everyone’d been told to just enjoy the football here and I think it’s just a tradition.”

“People get so serious, there’s fights about it, there’s lots of arguments.”

“You’ve got a huge group of people who all believe in something, it’s embedded as a religion, yeah sure.”

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