NFL leap of faith? Indy Colts coach is an ordained minister; his QB is a strong believer

Here is a trivia question for (the few) GetReligion readers who follow sports, and professional football in particular.

Name the only head coach in the National Football League who is a (a) former pro quarterback, (b) an ordained minister and (c) the former head of a seminary?

Yes, I am not making up that last detail. The answer? That would be (the Rev.) Frank Reich of the Indianapolis Colts.

Now, there is another reason that I brought up Reich and his unique resume (see this Baptist Press piece by Tim Ellsworth, one of my former students in Washington, D.C.), including his service as president of Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, N.C.

The big NFL story, these days, is the unusually high number of big name quarterbacks who are either on the move or asking (or hinting) that they would like to move to other teams. The first big domino to fall in this story was Carson Wentz moving from the Philadelphia Eagles to the Colts.

Wentz should be in the prime of his career, but had an epic slump in 2020, a collapse that was clearly mental and emotional, as well as physical. As many pundits and journalists noted, Wentz hadn’t really been at the top of his game since he lost the quarterback coach — that would be Reich — who helped him become a potential superstar.

ESPN noted that the Colts are:

… banking on their present -- and future -- with Wentz to solve what has unfortunately been a revolving door at quarterback in Indianapolis over the past few years. …
The person responsible for ensuring Wentz is the answer for the Colts?
Reich.
The coach is putting his reputation on the line by believing he can get Wentz, who was his quarterback when he was the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia, back to the level when he was considered an MVP contender before a season-ending knee injury in 2017. …

Sports journalists had to work hard to avoid the religion ghosts in Super Bowl LII.

Nevertheless, most of them seem to have succeeded in doing so. That's strange, since it's easy to make a case that religious faith was a key factor in the chemistry behind the amazing Eagles victory. We are not talking about evangelism here, we're talking about football facts.

Let it be noted that here was a substantial wave of Godtalk coverage just before this high holy day on the American cultural calendar. Click here for a GetReligion summary of that -- including the Bob Smietana Acts of Faith piece in The Washington Post, which had lots of details on the Bible study and baptism culture in the Philadelphia Eagles locker room.

There was even a solid religion-angle in the annual battle of the Super Bowl ads, as in that bizarre spot featuring some very religious and very famous words from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here's the top of the solid USA Today piece on that:

When Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a sermon imploring hearers to imitate the servanthood of Jesus, he probably didn't envision them buying Ram trucks to do so. And yet there was King's voice Sunday night, booming through millions of TV speakers during Ram's latest Super Bowl ad:

"If you want to be important -- wonderful. If you want to be recognized -- wonderful. If you want to be great -- wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness."

What was the precise meaning of "servant" in this context?

Anyway, back to strong role that Christian faith and community service played in holding this Eagles squad together in a year in which many key players were lost with injuries, including its young superstar quarterback.

Now, I would assume that sports-beat pros covering this kind of event pay careful attention to the hometown papers for both participating teams. That would mean that lots of folks saw the pregame piece by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes talking about the faith-bond between the Eagles QBs -- all of them. The overture is long, but the detail matters on several levels.