In professional sports, it has become routine: athletes cross themselves before stepping on the field, point to the sky after scoring, or huddle with teammates in prayer asking G-d to help them win. Some do it as a ritual, others as a performance. Either way, it reduces the Almighty to a good-luck charm.
Let’s be blunt: if both teams pray, one still loses. Does that mean the Creator rejected one side? Does it mean the losing team wasn’t worthy of divine favor? The very suggestion is offensive. It turns faith into theater and cheapens the meaning of belief.
Just the other night, I watched a star player, Lionel Messi, score twice. In both instances, he made the sign of the cross across his chest, kissed his thumb knuckle, and pointed skyward—as if the Almighty Himself had guided the ball into the net.
Are we really to believe that Heaven paused its watch over hungry children and war-torn streets just to make sure a goal was scored? That divine power was summoned for a sports match while tragedies continue unchecked across the globe? The message this sends is not one of faith, but of misplaced priorities.
Meanwhile, the world suffers. Children are dying in schools from bullets. Wars rage, civilians are slaughtered, families go hungry. And yet in stadiums across America—and across the world—athletes act as if the Creator has the time or the will to make sure a ball goes through a hoop or a puck finds the back of the net. It is an insult to faith to suggest that the Almighty’s attention has been diverted from saving lives to refereeing a game.
This obsession with invoking G-d in sports is not devotion—it is trivialization. It demeans prayer, turning it into a sideshow. Prayer should be about the things that matter: protecting children, stopping wars, feeding the hungry, healing the sick. Not padding a stat sheet or securing a playoff berth.
Americans know all too well the consequences of misplaced focus. We’ve seen schools turned into battlegrounds. We’ve watched communities torn apart by gun violence. If prayer has power, then it should be directed toward saving lives, not chasing trophies.
If you truly believe in the Almighty, then honor that belief with substance. Pray for lives, not for wins. Pray for peace, not for points. Stop using the Creator’s name for entertainment, because every time an athlete does it, faith is cheapened and Heaven is reduced to a mascot.
Faith deserves more respect than this. The Almighty is not keeping score at your game—He is watching what we do in the world that actually matters.
And maybe, instead of pointing upward after a goal or a touchdown, athletes could bow their heads and use that moment to pray for the children of the world who are being murdered, abused, or starving to death. That would be faith with purpose.
by Howard Melamed, Coralsprings.com August 28, 2025
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