CJS Press Box

by Dariya Kozhasbay

The New York Jets were the only winless team of this year’s NFL season, until they beat the Bengals last Sunday October 26 2025. It took a whole lot of guts, guile, grit, gains, and …God?
The hopelessness shared by Jets players and fans alike has pushed them to turn to none other than Jesus Christ in this time of need– “there are no atheists in foxholes,” as they say. Jets fans are using prayer and asking God for help– for the first time in the past seven weeks, it might have worked.
“I pray for the Jets everyday,” said lifelong Jets fan and lifelong Catholic Matt Alexander, one of two Jets fans at a “secular” sports bar in Manhattan, amidst a sea of orange Bengal jerseys. “If God came down from Heaven right now, and asked me, ‘my son– what do you want? World peace?’ I will say “Dear god, please let [The Jets] go to the Superbowl.”

Alexander is a third generation Jets fan – he was born into this team, and he will die with it –
““When I die, when I go to heaven, I’ll have my Jets Jersey on,” he proclaimed.
Alexander’s faith in his team is so strong, “undying” he calls it, that he makes sure to wear something green and/or white every time he goes to church; The Jets are a deciding factor for him, that dictates other aspects of his life – “I only like the Hulk because he’s the same color as my team,” he said.

Andrew Ramirez, a second-generation Jets fan, is a tad less devout than his only other comrade in the building. Despite this, there is a cross necklace hanging over his green Jets jersey, and he admitted to having prayed for the team multiple times before in a moment of desperation. “The Jets did something to piss God off,” said Ramirez, another fan that came out of the womb green and white. “I heard a rumour that Joe Namath sold his soul to the devil to win the Superbowl,” he said. He recalled a folktale which claimed that the Jets have been cursed as a result of this Faustian exchange.
The Jets are not new to The Jesus – the team has had their own chaplain since 2008. Adam Burt, former NHL player and current pastor at Every Nation Church in New Jersey, joined the team after former player Kenyon Coleman attended one of his church services and invited him to be the team chaplain.
Pastor Burt holds bible study for coaches on Tuesday, bible study for the team on Wednesday, and then a “chapel” the Saturday night before each game, which consists of teaching around the Bible, praying, and communion. Burt is available afterwards for additional prayers for whoever might need it, “for injuries, or just if they want to do good on the field or whatever.”

The more Christian of the Jets do a special, slightly more intimate pre-game ritual – the players gather in the communal locker room shower and pray together 1 . “One guy will pray it and then they go out and take the field after that,” Burt revealed, “it actually works out kind of cool because of the acoustics in there, so the guy who’s praying is amplified– it’s pretty neat.”
Burt uses Psalm 23 for the team’s recent prayer – “God takes us through valleys, and he takes us through green pastures and still waters,” he said, “I believe this is just a season where God’s brought in a new coaching staff, new people… We’re gonna walk through this valley.”
(Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities)

Burt expressed skepticism over the deification of the NFL – “The NFL is a religion for some people,” he said, “I don’t always know that it’s a good thing. I think we’re supposed to worship Jesus first.”

This phenomenon is not entirely new. A study published in the Journal of Religion and Health notes that Sport has been intertwined with religion for centuries, citing examples from Victorian England – “the coadjutor and the parish priest, inspired by their own upbringing, frequently went forth to save souls with the bible in one hand and soccer in the other.”
The study proposes that people who consider themselves non-religious still perform religious behavior, using sport spectatorship and participation as an example of this in modern society. The “emotional fervor” that possesses sports fans expresses itself in a way that mimics religious rituals– chanting, praying, singing. The study concludes that sport has become a “server” of religion – “religion is not created or destroyed – instead, it is transformed.” It ends on the idea that there is a correlation between the rise of sports culture and the decline of religion in modern societies – this is seen in practice every Sunday in this country. Groups of Christian Americans congregate to imbibe and watch football – what about church? Separation of religion and state is a longstanding American myth –
while the government fortifies Christianity with lenient tax laws, Big NFL is diluting the integrity of the religion by giving Americans something flashier, meatier, louder to do on a Sunday. Something easier to pray for. It appears that there’s more community and faith to be found at a sports bar, than at a church, on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps, that’s not necessarily a
bad thing.

God bless the Jets?