Joe Kennedy Prays On Field After Supreme Court Win: ‘Thank You’
By Movieguide® Contributor
High school football coach Joe Kennedy returned to the sidelines over Labor Day weekend after the Supreme Court ruled he could pray on the field.
Ahead of Friday night’s football game, Kennedy told AP News, “Knowing that everybody’s expecting me to go do this kind of gives me a lot of angst in my stomach. People are going to freak out that I’m bringing God back into public schools.”
“After enduring an 8-year fight to publicly pray after games, a Supreme Court decision put Bremerton Assistant Football Coach Joe Kennedy back on the sidelines. That ruling meant that he could exercise his First Amendment right to pray,” David Brody with CBN News reported.
After the game, Kennedy prayed at the 50-yard line.
“I said ‘Thank you’ probably 30 times,” he expressed, according to CBN. “I had no other words. What do you say to the One who got me here to begin with?”
“What we asked for from the Supreme Court and all the courts was just to be able to be a coach, and to be able to pray after a football game,” Kennedy added. “What an awesome way to come back after an eight-year battle.”
The last eight years have not been easy for Kennedy or his family. The coach shared that the lawsuit almost cost his marriage.
“We’re about to get a divorce over all of this because I’m putting my wife through hell, and she’s crying every day,” he admitted.
Kennedy’s wife, Denise, was the Head of Human Resources for the school district.
“I was so angry at him. I spent a lot of time being angry because I didn’t understand his intention. I questioned his intention,” she expressed. “I lost friends over this. And those people I worked with for 15 years, and I loved them.”
However, after a year into the lawsuit, Denise saw God working.
“I realized that God is in this,” she said. “It’s not my husband. It’s not my husband’s desire for the center of attention for this situation. It is God. God called him for such a time as this.”
“And to walk on that same narrow path together. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. And that is what’s gotten us through this,” she added.
Kennedy revealed that he isn’t sure how long he will coach for.
“I don’t know how long God’s going to have me here,” he stated. “I have to talk this over with God, I’ve got to talk it over with my wife, my family. There’s so many variables with this.”
He shared with Fox News Digital that he and his wife are considering ministry.
“It’s been weighing on our hearts quite a bit,” he said. “And it seems like people are really hungry to rally behind something…People need just a little inspiration.”
“There’s just something about going out there and being the light,” he told Fox News Digital. “And I think it’s a great way of putting it — being the light out in the world like we’re supposed to be.”
While his future is uncertain, Kennedy knows his purpose.
“I finished the race,” Kennedy expressed, “and I hope that God is kind of looking and smiling. And He’s proud that I did what He’s called me to do.”
Movieguide® recently reported on a prayer event held by Joe Kennedy ahead of his comeback:
Kennedy expressed his goal for the national night of prayer.
“This is the way it was designed from the beginning,” Kennedy began. “We’re resetting the clock. You’re going to be able to go and have an evening out, go enjoy football, thank your players, your coaches, you educators, just go out there and have a moment of silence or have a moment of prayer or whatever you want to call it…just be thankful for being an American. And let’s exercise those rights. It’s going to feel really good when you do it.”
“I just think it’d be really cool if people across the whole entire nation—everybody in America— have a national night of prayer and have everybody on the football field doing it,” he continued. “I think that would just send a loud, resounding message that, ‘Hey, we’re not being pushed around anymore. We’re going to be able to stand up on our own.’”
