My first season on the staff of the Oakland Raiders, 1973, we played the Miami Dolphins in the American Football Conference Championship Game. I knew we would need every edge available to challenge the defending Super Bowl Champions on their home field so I went to church with John Madden and Pete Banaszak the morning of the game.
You know what I was praying for that day, and when I looked across the aisle at a pew not far from where John, Pete and I sat was Don Shula, head coach of the Dolphins. I figured he was praying to God for a different result that afternoon.
Who would God choose?
Turned out he picked the better team, and Miami won the game, 27-10, enroute to their third straight Super Bowl appearance and second consecutive Vince Lombardi Trophy triumph.
Whether you believe in God or not, it seems like the college kids that are winning bowl games this week are thanking Him first in their postgame interviews before even their coaches or teammates. So, maybe there is something to this belief system.
I wonder if the losing college players have a different message for God. I recall once agonizing to my mom before I had even reached an age that had double-figures that the man upstairs didn’t answer my prayers and she replied, “Oh he answered, he just said no.”